• Log In | Sign Up

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Top Games
  • Search
  • New Releases
  • Daily Deals
  • Forums

Adventure Gamers - Forums

Welcome to Adventure Gamers. Please Sign In or Join Now to post.

You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Hint Requests & Technical Problems → Thread

Post Marker Legend:

  • New Topic New posts
  • Old Topic No new posts

Currently online

chrissieJdawg445nouramrfouad94

Support us, by purchasing through these affiliate links

   

Controller for PC - and possibly for an XBox/Playstation

Avatar

Total Posts: 2704

Joined 2004-08-02

PM

Jabod - 29 July 2018 06:34 AM

Cheers SD.
I’d been doing a little research on this and discovered the possibility of mapping (I had seen reference to it over the years but paid no attention as I had no intention of having a controller Smile ) but it seems like a right pain in the jacksy doing that for every game that I wanted to use a controller for.
However, I did come across software (pretty cheap as well) that does it for you - to an extent. The two most popular, it would appear, are Pinnacle Game Profiler (PGP) and XPadder. I’m tempted towards PGP as there are many profiles already created and available (and free!) for quite a number of AGs which makes life easier. Have you, or anyone else willing to pass an opinion, used either? I have come across some reviews that say PGP suffers from some latency problems attributed to translating between the profile and the game but these, and the XPadder reviews I’ve read, are fairly elderly being 3, 4 or 5 years old.

I bought PGP like 5 or 6 years ago and it was amazingly good at the time, but I haven’t used it for a while now(because like I said, lots of the new games don’t need it). I’m not sure of its status right now because last time I tried it on Windows 10, it crashed on startup. It could have been my PC or the software. I didn’t look too much into it. The creator of PGP has a new generation of the software called padstarr, and the cool thing is if you buy PGP, you get padstarr for free. There are trial versions for both so it doesn’t hurt to try them and see what you think. I have heard of XPadder before but never tried it.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

SoccerDude - 29 July 2018 12:55 PM
Jabod - 29 July 2018 06:34 AM

Cheers SD.
I’d been doing a little research on this and discovered the possibility of mapping (I had seen reference to it over the years but paid no attention as I had no intention of having a controller Smile ) but it seems like a right pain in the jacksy doing that for every game that I wanted to use a controller for.
However, I did come across software (pretty cheap as well) that does it for you - to an extent. The two most popular, it would appear, are Pinnacle Game Profiler (PGP) and XPadder. I’m tempted towards PGP as there are many profiles already created and available (and free!) for quite a number of AGs which makes life easier. Have you, or anyone else willing to pass an opinion, used either? I have come across some reviews that say PGP suffers from some latency problems attributed to translating between the profile and the game but these, and the XPadder reviews I’ve read, are fairly elderly being 3, 4 or 5 years old.

I bought PGP like 5 or 6 years ago and it was amazingly good at the time, but I haven’t used it for a while now(because like I said, lots of the new games don’t need it). I’m not sure of its status right now because last time I tried it on Windows 10, it crashed on startup. It could have been my PC or the software. I didn’t look too much into it. The creator of PGP has a new generation of the software called padstarr, and the cool thing is if you buy PGP, you get padstarr for free. There are trial versions for both so it doesn’t hurt to try them and see what you think. I have heard of XPadder before but never tried it.

For the price SD I think I’ll just purchase PGP (and Padstarr) as it’s only $6.99 (£5.33 in real money although I’ll have to pay my bank a conversion charge which annoys me) and for that money I don’t think it’s worth faffing about with a trial version. As I’ll be doing that later today I should be in a position to update here with how it went fairly quickly (assuming anybody is interested of course Smile ) as I know there’s a profile in existence for BS3 and I’ve got that game currently installed.

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 2704

Joined 2004-08-02

PM

Jabod - 30 July 2018 09:04 AM

For the price SD I think I’ll just purchase PGP (and Padstarr) as it’s only $6.99 (£5.33 in real money although I’ll have to pay my bank a conversion charge which annoys me) and for that money I don’t think it’s worth faffing about with a trial version. As I’ll be doing that later today I should be in a position to update here with how it went fairly quickly (assuming anybody is interested of course Smile ) as I know there’s a profile in existence for BS3 and I’ve got that game currently installed.

Did you give it a try Jabod? What do you think?

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

SoccerDude - 01 August 2018 01:23 PM
Jabod - 30 July 2018 09:04 AM

For the price SD I think I’ll just purchase PGP (and Padstarr) as it’s only $6.99 (£5.33 in real money although I’ll have to pay my bank a conversion charge which annoys me) and for that money I don’t think it’s worth faffing about with a trial version. As I’ll be doing that later today I should be in a position to update here with how it went fairly quickly (assuming anybody is interested of course Smile ) as I know there’s a profile in existence for BS3 and I’ve got that game currently installed.

Did you give it a try Jabod? What do you think?

Something has happened SD and I’m not in a position to say anything for 48 hours as that is what I’ve said I’d do and I am a man of my word.

Apologies for the mystery Smile

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

A little later than the stated 48 hours but I’ve been watching the England India Test Match Thumbs Up  Smile

Right.

The problem that I encountered was with the software.

Firstly, whilst it installed OK, it wouldn’t run. Start up and then immediately close down. That’s not good.

Secondly, it installed some banner ad malware which was permanently running. More about that further on.

Thirdly, although I’ve paid for the software and Amazon Pay have passed the payment on I received no validation key.

Fourthly, although I contacted both support and the webmaster by email no response has been forthcoming even though I said I’d go public with the problems if I hadn’t heard within 48 hours from them.

Fifthly, trying to access the website forums always returns an internal, to the website, database error.

This doesn’t fill me with confidence that the “company” is still legitimate.

Back to the malware.

When installing PGP it self installs, without you being aware or being asked (this is actually illegal as the European Union laws regarding this strictly forbid it and, no matter that they are an American company, they are selling within the EU) a cutdown version of Firefox which pulls in the banner ads. Somewhat surprisingly neither Kaspersky nor Malwarebytes blocked this Embarassed

In case you need to get rid of the malware:

The software creates a hidden folder called AMozilla the file path for which is:
C:\users\your user name\appdata\local\AMozilla

As said this is a hidden folder because that file path is automatically hidden by Windows so just unhide them. This is different in the various versions of Windows but a 10 second on the net to find out how to do so.
If you try to delete the folder it will tell you that you can’t as it’s in use. You can get round this by restarting the PC in Safe Mode and then deleting but it’s quicker to open task manager and looking for a running process called Firefox Update. Stop this task from running and you can then delete the folder. Whilst task manager is open click on the start up tab and disable Firefox from auto starting (Caveat - I don’t know what this will do if you’ve got Firefox genuinely installed as I don’t. Can’t stand the program Smile ).

You will also need to delete the Firefox update folder from:
C:\users\your user name\appdata\roaming\FFPortable - the above caveat applies although the folder name implies that it refers to a portable Firefox version so may be no problem.

You will also need to delete two registry entries. These are:

(x64)HKey_users\S-5021-97717-48358343-711310603-1001\software\Microsoft\windows\current version\run\firefox

and

(x86)HKey_users\S-5021-97717-48358343-711310603-1001\software\Microsoft\windows\current version\run\firefox


If you’re not happy about editing the registry download AdLice’s Rogue Killer (there’s a free version) and run that but be careful as it may well find other things that are genuine. Among the other things it could find are 2 other registry entries resembling:

(x86)HKey_users\S-5021-97717-48358343-711310603-1001\software\Microsoft\internet explorer\main\default_page_val

It’s possible that the number string that you see above could be different on your PCs.

I deleted mine and had no problems afterwards Smile

My initial problem occurred on my main Windows 10 PC but I ran a test on a spare Windows 7 laptop that I have. Doing that and having task manager open at the same time I could see PGP installing (fine) but also a version of Firefox with an incredibly long file name made up of sundry letters and numbers and when I say long I mean long!

It looks like that I’ve lost my money (not a huge amount - £6) but I am going to contact Amazon Pay to let them know and perhaps stopping anyone else wasting their cash.

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 2704

Joined 2004-08-02

PM

Jabod - 04 August 2018 02:10 PM

A little later than the stated 48 hours but I’ve been watching the England India Test Match Thumbs Up  Smile

Right.

The problem that I encountered was with the software.

Firstly, whilst it installed OK, it wouldn’t run. Start up and then immediately close down. That’s not good.

Secondly, it installed some banner ad malware which was permanently running. More about that further on.

Thirdly, although I’ve paid for the software and Amazon Pay have passed the payment on I received no validation key.

Fourthly, although I contacted both support and the webmaster by email no response has been forthcoming even though I said I’d go public with the problems if I hadn’t heard within 48 hours from them.

Fifthly, trying to access the website forums always returns an internal, to the website, database error.

This doesn’t fill me with confidence that the “company” is still legitimate.

Back to the malware.

When installing PGP it self installs, without you being aware or being asked (this is actually illegal as the European Union laws regarding this strictly forbid it and, no matter that they are an American company, they are selling within the EU) a cutdown version of Firefox which pulls in the banner ads. Somewhat surprisingly neither Kaspersky nor Malwarebytes blocked this Embarassed

In case you need to get rid of the malware:

The software creates a hidden folder called AMozilla the file path for which is:
C:\users\your user name\appdata\local\AMozilla

As said this is a hidden folder because that file path is automatically hidden by Windows so just unhide them. This is different in the various versions of Windows but a 10 second on the net to find out how to do so.
If you try to delete the folder it will tell you that you can’t as it’s in use. You can get round this by restarting the PC in Safe Mode and then deleting but it’s quicker to open task manager and looking for a running process called Firefox Update. Stop this task from running and you can then delete the folder. Whilst task manager is open click on the start up tab and disable Firefox from auto starting (Caveat - I don’t know what this will do if you’ve got Firefox genuinely installed as I don’t. Can’t stand the program Smile ).

You will also need to delete the Firefox update folder from:
C:\users\your user name\appdata\roaming\FFPortable - the above caveat applies although the folder name implies that it refers to a portable Firefox version so may be no problem.

You will also need to delete two registry entries. These are:

(x64)HKey_users\S-5021-97717-48358343-711310603-1001\software\Microsoft\windows\current version\run\firefox

and

(x86)HKey_users\S-5021-97717-48358343-711310603-1001\software\Microsoft\windows\current version\run\firefox


If you’re not happy about editing the registry download AdLice’s Rogue Killer (there’s a free version) and run that but be careful as it may well find other things that are genuine. Among the other things it could find are 2 other registry entries resembling:

(x86)HKey_users\S-5021-97717-48358343-711310603-1001\software\Microsoft\internet explorer\main\default_page_val

It’s possible that the number string that you see above could be different on your PCs.

I deleted mine and had no problems afterwards Smile

My initial problem occurred on my main Windows 10 PC but I ran a test on a spare Windows 7 laptop that I have. Doing that and having task manager open at the same time I could see PGP installing (fine) but also a version of Firefox with an incredibly long file name made up of sundry letters and numbers and when I say long I mean long!

It looks like that I’ve lost my money (not a huge amount - £6) but I am going to contact Amazon Pay to let them know and perhaps stopping anyone else wasting their cash.

Did you try running padstarr? That one actually runs fine. It’s a bummer there are so many problems with PGP, but I did warn you it didn’t run on my windows 10 last time I checked. It sucks about the banners malware. What does it actually do? I did not know about that. As far as not getting a validation key, that is really strange. He did send them to me when I bought it 5 years ago.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

SoccerDude - 05 August 2018 04:17 AM

Did you try running padstarr? That one actually runs fine. It’s a bummer there are so many problems with PGP, but I did warn you it didn’t run on my windows 10 last time I checked. It sucks about the banners malware. What does it actually do? I did not know about that. As far as not getting a validation key, that is really strange. He did send them to me when I bought it 5 years ago.

Don’t forget that not only did I not get a licence key for Pinnacle I’ve had no response to emails to support for Pinnacle and nothing either from the webmaster (sent as a completely different email) plus getting Pinnacle database errors.
Can’t say what it actually does as Kaspersky blocked the link to the banner ads when trying to run via the cutdown Firefox installation, which is how I first knew there was a problem - that and the fact that I had a Firefox application sort of running as well Smile

Edited to add: Don’t forget that I had identical problems on Windows 7 as I had on Windows 10 and you’d think PGP would be stable on Windows 7 given its age.

Didn’t try Padstarr as there was no download for it on the Pinnacle webpage so assumed it was a choice when I ran Pinnacle - which doesn’t work as I’ve said. I have just looked for a Padstarr site which I found and downloaded the software from there. Ran it on my Windows 7 laptop and it works (well, apart from assigning a controller to it as I don’t have one installed there Smile ) and nor did it install any other software, at least that I could find. The one big plus is that it had a contact email facility for the creator (Rob) so I’m going to install it on my Windows 10 PC and then email him and see what happens. I’m going to include a link to this thread for him to see if he’ll also add comment here. It will be interesting to see what happens.

 

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

AS an addendum to all this I’ve just discovered via the Padstarr forums that Rob (creator of Pinnacle and Padstarr) died in April of this year aged just 37 Frown

I suspect that this has had an impact on things where his software is concerned (and, in the great scheme of things, becomes somewhat irrelevant in comparison) so I think a much greater tolerance of the situation is required and which I will adhere to.

I am going to email the admins at the Padstarr forums later today and I’ll update here accordingly.

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 2704

Joined 2004-08-02

PM

Jabod - 06 August 2018 07:41 AM

AS an addendum to all this I’ve just discovered via the Padstarr forums that Rob (creator of Pinnacle and Padstarr) died in April of this year aged just 37 Frown

I suspect that this has had an impact on things where his software is concerned (and, in the great scheme of things, becomes somewhat irrelevant in comparison) so I think a much greater tolerance of the situation is required and which I will adhere to.

I am going to email the admins at the Padstarr forums later today and I’ll update here accordingly.

Oh wow.  That is so sad and at such a young age. Frown That might explain the db going down and the lack of responses. His website states this project was made by one person so I wonder if there is no one taking it over from him. Thanks for the update.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

Update:

As was far from unexpected having discovered Rob’s death the current admins of Padstarr have no access whatsoever to the PGP and Padstarr websites and appear to have only limited access to the Padstarr forums. Therefore the only way to get a licence for Padstarr is to download the software from the Padstarr website, pay for it, register on the Padstarr forums where you’ll find a thread stickied right at the top of the General Help Forum called No Activation Key Received. You’ll be asked to provide proof of purchase (I had to do this via email (you’ll be notified of the correct email address to use) as I could find no way to load a screen capture of my proof of purchase) whereby you’ll receive a key and instructions as to how to validate. This works with no problems at all.
Once I’d registered and left my forum post all this happened very quickly so kudos to Gary (whom I dealt with) and Errol the two people trying to manage the situation the best that they can.

Do NOT download the PGP software from the Pinnacle site (or from anywhere else as far as I can tell). Gary and Errol are fully aware that there is a problem with PGP working and also aware of the infection. There are, apparently, instructions on the PGP forums as to how to get PGP running but the forums are down and they have no idea if or when they will ever return. Having no access to the sites there is nothing, for now at least, that they can do about the situation. I suppose it’s possible that they will gain access when Rob’s probate is resolved but even that could be problematic if he left no will which is possible given that he died at such a young age.

All-in-all it’s a difficult situation and I think some praise is due to Gary and Errol for doing whatever they can to help out.

As far as using the Padstarr software is concerned I think I have a learning curve to get through Smile My first foray (BS3) was distinctly unsuccessful but I think I can reasonably put the blame onto myself at this time Content

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 2704

Joined 2004-08-02

PM

This whole story is surreal. I remember when I bought PGP for the first time, I received the key within a day of my purchase, and I never had a single complaint. I used the software for a few years,and at the time, I was very happy with it and it was money very well spent. t felt very strange when you said that Rob didn’t respond and the database was broken. Also the fact that PGP was not starting even on Windows 7, when the developer could very easily patch it and it worked before. The developer did not seem like that type of person from my limited interaction with him. Now it all makes sense, and it is such a tragic and sad incident. Just goes to show how very fickle and transient our lives are on this earth.

I actually tried Padstarr after you told me about all this fiasco, and I do like the PGP UI better. I managed to get BS3 running on padstarr, but I had to tinker with the downloaded profile I got.

The only thing that I am confused about in all this, is that how can a malware make its way to the installer of PGP? Can some hacker from the outside change an installer to install a malicious piece of software? And speaking of which, I am now worried that my computer might have it, because like I mentioned before, I have tried this software a while back on my PC, and it just crashed on startup. Jabod, is there a certain anti-malware program you use and recommend over others? I want to scan my computer and make sure I remove all instances of this.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

SoccerDude - 13 August 2018 01:41 PM

I actually tried Padstarr after you told me about all this fiasco, and I do like the PGP UI better. I managed to get BS3 running on padstarr, but I had to tinker with the downloaded profile I got.

I’ve now manged to get it all working in BS3. I found I hadn’t set up Padstarr properly with my Xbox controller but managed to find a controllermap file for it created by the aforementioned Errol which works fine and allowed me to install the BS3 profile. Currently I’m thinking - how on earth does anyone ever want to use a controller and why would anyone bother writing games solely using one. PnC is so much easier. I may get used to it of course Smile

SoccerDude - 13 August 2018 01:41 PM

The only thing that I am confused about in all this, is that how can a malware make its way to the installer of PGP? Can some hacker from the outside change an installer to install a malicious piece of software? And speaking of which, I am now worried that my computer might have it, because like I mentioned before, I have tried this software a while back on my PC, and it just crashed on startup. Jabod, is there a certain anti-malware program you use and recommend over others? I want to scan my computer and make sure I remove all instances of this.

I do have thoughts on how and why the infection happened but I’m not putting those thoughts here because it could open up a nasty legal can of worms and I’d expect CaliMonk/Jackal et al to delete it immediately. I will say that I don’t think for one second that anyone directly involved with the software or the forums had anything to do with it.

As to ensuring that you’re clean SD. I know of no software that will clean it up for definite I’m afraid. By doing the manual investigation and clean-up as outlined above obviously I left nothing for other software to find. As said, Kaspersky and Malwarebytes found nothing when I first ran them prior to cleaning and Kaspersky didn’t even find anything when I did a direct check with it on the programme exe file. The main reason I think is that it’s not a direct infection, only a corrupted portable version of Firefox which tries to run banner ads. The only thing I can suggest is to follow the instructions I gave above particularly checking for the AMozilla folder first. If that’s not there I’d think you’d be fine.

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

Had a thought overnight about an easier way to check for an infected machine SD.

The file size of the exe file downloaded should be smaller than the infected one - straightforward logic that Smile - so I’ve checked my file, which is a definitely infected version. That file size is 22.2MB. What I also found whilst checking was the version number. In my case it’s 0.0.0.0 which, I would think, is not what a genuine version would be, or anything like it. No way they could keep track of what was the most recent version using that.
So if your file size is smaller and with a genuine looking version number I wouldn’t worry in the slightest.

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 655

Joined 2017-04-14

PM

Jabod - 13 August 2018 02:53 PM

Currently I’m thinking - how on earth does anyone ever want to use a controller and why would anyone bother writing games solely using one. PnC is so much easier. I may get used to it of course Smile

I felt the same way when I started using a controller for PnC but have grown quite fond of it for some games and even prefer it in other games where I have a choice.

My only complaint now is that the controller takes two hands so I can’t chain vape while I play! Tongue

     

You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Hint Requests & Technical Problems → Thread

Welcome to the Adventure Gamers forums!

Back to the top