Im trying to use my powerpoint presentation as an interactive simulator of a
computer screen, with interactive buttons which would be assigned to keys on
the keyboard. I need the presentation to advance to a predetermine slide if a
button is not pressed with in a assigned time frame and also to get it to
advance to a selected slide if it is pressed. I have only been able to get it
to advance to the next or previous slides.

I also want to take it a step further by interacting with the presentation
via a joystick.

I need the presentation to run independently once started.

Can any of this be achieved with another program? Ive tried flash but the
converted jpegs are not as good quality as in powerpoint. (some small text)

I can not get the Shortcut Manager for PowerPoint to shortcut to an action
button once in presentation mode.