27th January 2005, 3:01 PM
DirectX has support for gamepads, called DirectInput (it is also used for sound and other stuff to import into your game, I think). I have no idea if there is an interface between Java and DirectX, and I know you aren't interested for this game. Just something you might want to look into for next time.
I've pulled some stunts with coding my game/class project, so I wouldn't think badly of anyone with messy code. Especially when you spend most of the time trying to figure out what you are trying to do. I tend to hack at it and try this and comment this out, and it gets ugly fast. I had a day to finish my game, and I had only created half the world. I was using a badly designed data structure for the world, and ended up with a hardcoded 700x500 array of objects. It was the ugliest thing I've ever seen. :)
I've pulled some stunts with coding my game/class project, so I wouldn't think badly of anyone with messy code. Especially when you spend most of the time trying to figure out what you are trying to do. I tend to hack at it and try this and comment this out, and it gets ugly fast. I had a day to finish my game, and I had only created half the world. I was using a badly designed data structure for the world, and ended up with a hardcoded 700x500 array of objects. It was the ugliest thing I've ever seen. :)