I guess he's never heard of PC gamepads, or PSX->PC adapters, and he's assuming you're emulating.
Cybernator was pretty hard. Not as hard as Target:Earth, but pretty hard. Fun, though I thought T:E got across the point that you're a soldier in a war larger then you better then it did.
Since I'm guessing 5-1 you're emulating, and you haven't just managed to dig up an actual cart, I'd suggest you look into the afforemention Target: Earth for the genesis - it's Cybernator's predecessor. And you might want to dig up Front Mission: Gun Hazard. Despite the name, it has zippo to do with the tile based game, and IIRC it started out as Assault Suits Valken 2 (Cybernator 2). It's got no space scenes, and some rudimentary RPG parts, but it's pretty much 16 bit giant robot fun.