World-of-warcraft – Using an XBOX360 wireless controller in WoW used to work but not anymore (Windows 7 x64) using Xpadder software

I'm still interested in the real answer to this question, but in the end, I just found a controller that works.

For anyone else who really wants to do this, keep trying different controllers until you find one that works. I recommend quality console controllers (gamecube, PS2, xbox) if you already have them, connected using USB adapters, or cheap USB gamepads from eBay.

The one that worked for me cost about $7 (bought from wholesaler xinga.com years ago but try ebay etc). It's a semi-transparent (purple) chinese knock-off of the standard PlayStation 2 dualshock controller. Windows recognises it as "PS converter", so the electronics are probably identical to USB PlayStation 2 controller adapters sold by the same company (and many/most other companies, probably).

The original version of GTA3 used a button, and not a analog stick axis, for both throttle and brake. On the other hand, the DualShock 2 had pressure sensitive button support, so on the PS2 they were more like analog controls than digital buttons.

However, most of the ports of GTA3 don't support analog throttle/brake for whatever reason. It might be possible to use a controller remapping program (AutoHotKey is my go-to for this, but I think Controllermate might fill a similar niche in OSX) in order to change this behavior. However, it's likely to break other things you'd want to do with the right analog stick - like looking around when you're on foot, for example.

I think in the end you might just have to chalk this up to a missing feature in the ports of GTA games.