Post #3989774

2024-07-21 11:12 UTC

Here's a thread on how the Gravis GamePad Pro - a game controller with ten digital buttons - was made to work on the PC gameport interface, which actually only supports a total of four buttons. You've probably never actually wondered about that, but you very probably *have* wondered about where all those zeroes and ones they talk about in computing come into things, and this thread has that, too! 🧵 #retrogaming #retrocomputing #GravisGrIP #GravisGamePad

Replies (1)

@timixretroplays@digipres.club 2024-07-21 11:15

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

Open ##3989773