Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick

[Bones]

Before I ask, please understand that I am older and not computer savy. Way back in the day, when Half-Life first came out, I used a traditional joystick to play ( Logitech Attack ) , as I am not a wasd warrior, nor am I comfortable with the Playstation / xbox style pads.
Back then, to use the joystick, one had to create a cfg file, within the game. I do not understand how or why it worked, but it did, and I thouroughly enjoyed the whole Half-Life series and spin offs, like Zombie Panic and Day of Defeat etc. I also Played L4D and L4D2 with the joystick.
Now that my children are older, I would like to play these classics with them. I have a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick. Using the software that came with it, I have it configured and it is working perfectly with L4D & L4D2, but for the life of me, I cannot get it to work for HL, HL2 , ZPS nor DoD.
I have tried to follow Valve and Steams replies to my request for help. I get to the configuration screen and select my controller,,,,,, but it always comes up as one of those crazy gamepads, and not as a joystick. I do try to assign buttons and axis to it, anyway, but everytime i try in game, the joystick is unresponsive.
i do know that i did in fact play all of these games before with joystick, i cannot figure out why i cannot, now.

Please, any help or education is greatly appreciated.

[Bones]

PS ... is it possible that this particular joystick is not compatible ( digital ??? ) as I believe the Attacks were analog ????

[flingwingbird]

Same joystick and same problem. Steam stinks.

[Blyte]

Make sure to enable joystick in the game menu options / mouse settings.
If that foes not work.Try to set it up in Steam's big picture mode.

[Bones]

Thank you, for trying to help me. I have tried that, as per the instructions from Steam support.