Alessandro Levi Montalcini http://www.usboverdrive.com
C.so Re Umberto 10 mailto:support@usboverdrive.com
10121 Torino
Italy
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Ñ Introduction
╫ The USB Overdrive is a universal USB driver that handles all USB mice, trackballs, joysticks and gamepads from any manufacturer and lets you configure them either globally or on an application-specific basis. It reads all kinds of wheels, buttons, switches and controls and supports scrolling, keyboard emulation, launching and complex macros as well as all the usual stuff like clicking, control-clicking and so forth. The USB Overdrive can easily handle several USB devices at once- I have two mice, one trackball, two joysticks and one gamepad connected to the same iMac, and each of them comes from a different manufacturer.
╫ Because each control in each device can be fully configured, the USB Overdrive lets you use any joystick or gamepad with any game, including the ones that don╒t support Apple╒s InputSprockets. You can map your joystick movements and buttons to the keyboard and mouse to make the game believe you╒re playing on the keyboard, and you can do this mapping separately for each game so that it╒s immediately available as soon as the game is launched.
╫ For games that already use InputSprockets, the USB Overdrive provides all the needed hooks to support the device-specific configuration panels provided by the manufacturer.
╫ The mouse settings allow you to speed up your daily tasks by assigning useful actions to all the extra buttons and wheels in your USB mouse. You╒ll typically want to assign a control-click to the right button for easy contextual menu acces, and enable document scrolling if your mouse has a scrolling wheel.
╫ The Control Panel includes an active help feature that explains each command and option as you move the cursor around.
Ñ System requirements
╫ The USB Overdrive will run on any USB Mac running Mac OS 8.5 or later, but all Mac users should make sure that their firmware and system software is up to date. I recommend installing Mac OS 8.6 or later (Mac OS 9 is fully supported), any Mac OS ROM updates that may apply, and the latest firmware updates for your machine. Most of of these updates are available for free on Apple's web site, and they fix several USB-related issues that may cause problems with the USB Overdrive. Here are a couple of hints about the updates:
- Full system software updates (such as Mac OS 8.6 or 9.0) can be installed on any machine, and generally improve both performance and USB support. Since 8.6 is a free update for all USB Mac users, there's no reason to stick with an older Mac OS.
- Firmware Updates such as the iMac Firmware Update and G3 Firmware Update should always be installed. Exception: if you have a blue G3 and plan to install a third-party G4 upgrade you may want to double-check the G3 ROM block issue discussed on MacInTouch. Because firmware updates are slightly more complex than other software upgrades, be sure to follow the supplied instructions carefully.
- Mac OS ROM Updates may no longer be needed after a full system software update. For example, the Mac OS ROM Update 1.0 is useful under Mac OS 8.6 if the version of your Mac OS ROM file (inside the System folder) is earlier than 1.6, but should not be installed under Mac OS 9 or if the version of your Mac OS ROM file is greater than 1.6.
- The iMac Update 1.1 is only required for Mac OS 8.5 and 8.5.1 and should no longer be needed under Mac OS 8.6 or later. Note that you'll have to reinstall this update after updating an existing Mac OS 8.5 to 8.5.1. If your iMac is running Mac OS 8.5 or 8.5.1 and the USB Overdrive doesn't work, this is the first thing you should check out.
Ñ Installation
╫ The USB Overdrive Installer installs the following files:
- USB Overdrive control panel in the Control Panels folder.
- USB Joystick Overdrive extension in the Extensions folder.
- USB Mouse Overdrive extension in the Extensions folder.
╫ To enable USB Overdrive's universal, non-specific mouse and joystick drivers you may have to manually remove any device-specific mouse and joystick drivers from your Extensions folder. There are no such drivers in the Mac OS so you don't have to worry about them if you never installed any USB driver on your machine. However, you probably installed a specific driver for your mouse when you bought it. This typically includes one or more extensions whose name starts with "USB" and one or more control panels. Because these drivers only work with their own device, the Mac's USB software thinks they are the best match for that specific device when it compares them to other available drivers. Moving these drivers out of the Extensions folder allows the USB software to load the USB Overdrive instead.
╫ You do not have to remove any device-specific InputSprocket extensions. These extensions won╒t conflict with USB Overdrive, and they allow you to configure your device using Apple╒s InputSprockets in games that support it.
╫ You also don't have to worry about any USB drivers for devices that are not mice, trackballs, joysticks or gamepads. This includes USB drivers for printers, zip disks, superdisks, serial adapters, scanners, cameras, audio devices and so forth. None of these should conflict with the USB Overdrive.
╫ If you ever wanted to uninstall the USB Overdrive from your system, all you have to do is move the USB Overdrive, USB Joystick Overdrive and USB Mouse Overdrive files from their respective folders (listed above) to the Trash.
Ñ OEM licensing
╫ Sorry, OEM licenses and custom versions are no longer available. The shareware version of the USB Overdrive may not be bundled with any hardware device, although you can still point your customers to my web site for direct download.
╫ Registration codes should never be distributed or otherwise revealed.
