Post #3989773

2024-07-21 11:15 UTC

To start, here's a beautiful old expansion card to explain how gameports work. The PC fed power to the controller using the 5 volt and ground pins, and listened for changes on the digital and analog pins to tell what you were doing with it. The buttons would show either five volts or no volts, and the analog pins a variable voltage on a sliding scale based on how far you'd pushed the stick in any one direction. (Some pins were later used for MIDI, but we'll ignore that for now.) #retrocomputing

Replies (1)

@timixretroplays@digipres.club 2024-07-21 11:16

Joysticks at the time had two analog axes and two buttons, max, and the gameport had a total of four of each - it was designed so you could plug two joysticks into the same port using a Y-adapter cable, and each would use half of the pins. The Gravis PC GamePad came along in 1991, and selfishly took all four buttons for itself. That was revolutionary on its own, but time's arrow marches forward, and by the mid 90s games were becoming ever more complex, and gamers demanded more control.

Open ##3989771