Back in the days of manually setting IRQs enough of them were used by the system that no, you couldn't use 8 gamepads. Assuming you could even connect them.
(I think this game is probably past those times but not by much)
I specifically checked if DirectInput from DirectX 5 already supports/provides USB HID devices, and it does! Granted, even then it was unlikely to encounter 8 USB devices, let alone HID devices in particular.
Comments
Back in the days of manually setting IRQs enough of them were used by the system that no, you couldn't use 8 gamepads. Assuming you could even connect them.
(I think this game is probably past those times but not by much)
I specifically checked if DirectInput from DirectX 5 already supports/provides USB HID devices, and it does! Granted, even then it was unlikely to encounter 8 USB devices, let alone HID devices in particular.