Alternatives to USB Joysticks

Hello everyone,

I assume this would fit into General Hardware, as there could be a few alternatives.

1st off, the system basics:

Inspiron 3000 166mHz
48mb of Ram
Windows 98SE (fully up to date via Windows Update)

I have an inspiron 3000, which as we know, has a USB port, and no gameport/joystick ports. Now, the USB adapter is just fine for my Sidewinder gamepad, however I want to use a joystick.

Now, there are USB joysticks out there, MANY of them, but they are *useless* for older games such as Wing Commander 3, or XWing (ahh the classics!).

Im wondering about other alternatives. Now I have used keymapping software with my gamepad, but I dont know if there is descent software to emulate the joystick axis out there (meymappers tend to not offer the same functionality).

Ive also seen PCMCIA gameports occasionally, but I really dont know how well they function. Has anyone used these? Are they fairly transparent? (Ie, if I plug it in, will a game see my joystick without any special extras on behalf of the game in question [special fixes, ontop of the PC Cards driver])

Now, Ive also wondered about Gameport to USB adapters. While I know these would be purely useless in DOS, Im wondering if Windows allows for some level of connectivity. For example, I remember when I once used a USB joystick in windows with a dos game, it SAW the joystick, but went crazy. Maybe with an adapter, an older analog joystick would work, though only when windows is loaded of course.

I've also heard of other alternatives including converters to Parrallel, or to use the PS/2 port. Anyone reccomend or suggest those? Also, if they are quite good, where could I find one?

A bit of a weird request, but I imagine other people out there would love to play non directx games with their joysticks again, so this might come in handy for them too.