Because this game has been abandoned by the dev, is there any way to bypass the activation to even play the game?

no way to start game

How do I activate it? I really want to use my microsoft controller to drive this thing, but I can only steer the car and make it go backwards.

If you have an issue you will get help. Please, don't spam here

Thank you all for bug reports, especially you RA2lover. Please post all bug reports in the appropriate forum Important! After we fix the bug topic will be deleted, but we will keep a log of your reports