My son was given a joystick at the last local L**** User Group[1] meeting.
So I plugged it in and a few of his games didn't recognize it.

Then I noticed the dmesg didn't have any "joystick" logged. The joystick
port is on a Ensoniq AudioPCI card that works.

So I later plugged in a second card:
 joy0 at isapnp0 port 0x200/1
 joy0: OPTi Audio 16 Game Port
 joy0: joystick connected
(The sound didn't work on that card.)

I wasn't sure how to test. So I searched pkgsrc/games/DESCR and found
rocksndiamonds and Kobo Deluxe.

rocksndiamonds didn't see my joystick when I tried to calibrate. Then I
noticed that /dev/joy0 was not readable or writable. So I changed its
group to a group my son was already a member and made that group readable
and writable. Then rocksndiamonds worked fine with the Joystick #1. I had
to choose it and save it the setup; then exit and restart rocksndiamonds.

Then I tried kobodl (Kobo Deluxe), but its output didn't mention any
"joy". The application said to use the joystick, but it didn't do
anything. (The keyboard did work.)

I noticed online that defendguin has joystick support. (It uses SDL like
kobodl.) I had already packaged defendguin. So I tried it, and it
complained:

 Warning: Could not open joystick 1.
 The Simple DirectMedia error that occured was:
 /dev/joy0: USB_GET_REPORT_DESC: Device not configured

My /dev/joy0 is not USB related. (It is at isapnp0.)

So I found a patch for SDL's src/joystick/bsd/SDL_sysjoystick.c at
http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/devel/sdl12/files/patch-joystick%3a%3absd%3a%3aSDL_sysjoystick.c
I haven't ported it to NetBSD to try it yet.[2]

What games or programs should I install for my 7-year-old and younger sons
so they can happily use the joystick?

Thank you,

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://bsd.reedmedia.net/

[1] No *BSD User Group meetings around Seattle, Washington, yet. But
real soon. http://www.seabug.org/

[2] I send-pr'd this: pkg/22462. If you try this
src/joystick/bsd/SDL_sysjoystick.c patch, please reply with your comments
to tech-pkg.