THIS GUIDE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Ness_and_Sonic (Steam has forced me to claim this is my work it is not)

A sincere thanks to Ness_and_Sonic for troubleshooitng this issue and giving a great resource to anyone in need of this information


About this guide:
Mekazoo is a game that draws inspiration from 1990s platforming games. If you want to play it with a controller for a 1990s console, I won’t blame you. There is a bit of a problem, though. Even if you have a 1990s console controller and adapter or a USB version of one, you won’t be able to use it just by plugging it in. The issue is that those controllers are detected as Direct Input controllers. Mekazoo doesn’t support Direct Input controllers. But don’t worry, there is still hope as Steam has a way to set up Direct Input controllers so that they can be used as if they were Steam Controllers.

What you’ll need:
A keyboard.
A 1990s console controller.
An adapter for your controller (assuming it is one that plugs into the original system and not a USB port on your PC).
A mouse (recommended, required if you’re using the Desktop method).
The Steam client.
Mekazoo
The device you’re going to play the game on (your computer).

Okay, chances are you might have most of the things on the list. If you’re looking for older console controllers or an adapter or a USB controller, you can get them from Amazon. Now, let’s move on.

First steps:
This can be done in both Steam Big Picture Mode and Desktop Mode, but the first steps are the same. You’ll need to start up Steam and have your keyboard, mouse, and controller plugged in. Depending on how you want to do this, I’ll separate this into two sections.

Getting to the controller preparation screen (Big Picture Mode Method):
If you prefer to do this through Big Picture Mode, I’ll assume you know how to access Big Picture Mode. Once you’re in Big Picture Mode, click the gear at the top. “Select Controller Settings”. This should bring you to the screen you need to get to.

Getting to the controller preparation screen (Desktop Method):
Click “Steam” at the top, Click “Settings” from the list. A window should pop up. On the left side of that window is a list. At the bottom of the list is the word “Controller”. Click it, then click on “General Controller Settings”.

What to do here:
First, turn on generic controller support. It’s important that it is turned on. Next, look at the bottom left section of the screen. There should be some notification that you have controllers plugged in. Select your controller. You don’t have to register it, but it is recommended. Whether or not you register your controller, you will need to click “Define Layout” to move on to the next step. If you have an official Dualshock 4 controller (one with two holes on the bottom), you can turn on support for it here and skip the layout defining. Generic Dualshock 4 controllers will require layout defining, though.

Defining the layout:
You should be taken to a screen with a controller on it. From here, you’ll have to define buttons as commands. The controller should help you get an idea on where the button is on an Xinput (Xbox 360/Xbox One) controller so you understand what button you’re defining. The list of commands does scroll down a bit. It’s worth pointing out that you might want to define the controller’s “D-pad” as the “Left Analog Stick” instead of the “D-pad” in the command list. The reason is that some controllers treat the D-pad as the X and Y axis over an actual D-pad when you’re defining the input, thus you can’t separate them into left/right and up/down. When you are done, press the Esc key on your keyboard and click save at the bottom to save the definitions.

Getting to the controller binding screen:
Now that you’ve defined your controller’s layout, you’ll want to find Mekazoo in your Steam library. After you get to it, you’ll have to set up bindings for it. To do this in Big Picture Mode, click on “Manage Game”, then “Controller Configuration”. This will take you to a screen with a controller like the one you saw while defining the layout of the controller earlier. To get to this same screen in Desktop mode, right click on the game’s name, then “Edit Steam Controller Configuration...”

Setting up the controller bindings:
Okay, now you’re almost done. Chances are the controller bindings are set to keyboard. It’s not going to do much good. You could manually configure each button one by one while remembering the buttons you defined, but there is a faster way. Click browse configurations at the bottom. It should have the gamepad binding as the recommended one. If it doesn’t, click templates and select gamepad from there. Click apply configuation. If you’ve registered the controller, you can save the binding by exporting it.