Been in programing for a few years. My strong point and job is Perl, though I do know VB and some C++, and I have alot of friends who work in both of these as well.
Hacking isn't an issue, it's to be built from the ground up. Thus my program will work directly with WinAmp. It's really not that hard, nor is taking commands from the game port, so I figure an 8 command system (4 buttons and left/right/up/down) from a game pad is a peice of cake. And yes, that's a normal, every day, 4 button game pad.
This would be for the 8 command one. If I do expand into handling persay 20 inputs from the car/user, it would need to be a custom built controler.
As to hard coding, you're right in some ways. To begin with I will be hard coding everything, but once it's tested I will adjust the program to allow users to select which buttons do what, so they can assign the movements/buttons on the game pad what ever features they like.
BTW, I'd recommend a game pad and not a joystick for this, unless that is you want to confuse the joystick for your shifter and miss 2nd gear..
Scott--