At the top of the window on VICE, click the "settings" drop-down menu. Go down to "Joystick settings." In the joystick in port 1 box, there should be a drop down menu that says "none." Choose a Keyset. At the bottom, there are 3 buttons...config keyset a, calibrate joysticks, and config keyset b. Whichever keyset you've chosen, config it. A not of warning, on some games, like "Steeplechase," you need to config both keysets and assign one to port 1 and the other to port 2. For some reason, only configing one won't work to get you into the game. In the case of "Steeplechase," the fire key config for port 2 is required to start the game. This might be too late to help the original poster, but maybe it could help someone else!