Vintage
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The first three Macs had this jack in the front for the keyboard and a PC-like serial port in the back for the mouse. With the Mac SE and II, the switched to ADB, which looked like a PS/2 port, but you could daisy chain your mouse, keyboard, and other inputs like tablets or joysticks all into one jack in the back of the computer.
With the Mac SE and II, the switched to ADB, which looked like a PS/2 port, but you could daisy chain your mouse, keyboard, and other inputs like tablets or joysticks all into one jack in the back of the computer.
The port looks similar - both are mini-DIN - but ADB has four pins while PS/2 has six.
ADB was first introduced in 1986 on the Apple IIgs, and later was used in all Macs from the SE until the iMac. For the first few years there were two ADB ports, but in 1990 (maybe starting with the Mac IIsi?) they reduced it to one and started shipping keyboards with ports to daisy chain the mouse from.
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Except that wasn't a serial port, it was midi, and the reason it was on the sound card was because the input was analog.
Your joystick was just two fancy potentiometers, and your soundcard decoded the voltage on the middle legs into a position.
Soundcards handled joysticks because they had the fastest ADCs.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Wow, 30 years later and I'm just learning this now. Thank you
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Born in '88 and this was also my childhood. But to be fair, my parents bought the PC from Sears so it was probably an older, budget model. It ran Windows 3.1 and had a 16 MHz 386 with the Turbo button.
wrote last edited by [email protected]My 286 had PS/2 ports instead of the obsolete DIN keyboard/serial mouse.
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I'm this old.
love some fuckin trash80
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Except that wasn't a serial port, it was midi, and the reason it was on the sound card was because the input was analog.
Your joystick was just two fancy potentiometers, and your soundcard decoded the voltage on the middle legs into a position.
Soundcards handled joysticks because they had the fastest ADCs.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_port
The 15-pin D-sub connector itself was apparently a combination of analog and digital. It had to be, since MIDI is digital (it's right there in the name: Musical Instrument Digital Interface). TIL it wasn't all digital.
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Except that wasn't a serial port, it was midi, and the reason it was on the sound card was because the input was analog.
Your joystick was just two fancy potentiometers, and your soundcard decoded the voltage on the middle legs into a position.
Soundcards handled joysticks because they had the fastest ADCs.
They didn't even use an ADC. They used 555 timers to produce a pulse. They measured the length of the pulse to determine the potentiometer position. Since there are 4 analog inputs, they typically used the 558 timer which is the quad version of the 555.
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How are old you
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
Edit: I never used one of these, I'm just as old as one. First computers I used were a Macintosh 128k and an Apple ]|[, unless you count the TI 91-a as a computer and not a console, but that machine is older than me
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I’ll see your raise, and up it:
My brother in Munchman, Alpine, and coding racist stuff out of the book.
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They didn't even use an ADC. They used 555 timers to produce a pulse. They measured the length of the pulse to determine the potentiometer position. Since there are 4 analog inputs, they typically used the 558 timer which is the quad version of the 555.
wrote last edited by [email protected]And here I thought I had it all figured out. But it does make sense. Doing it with an analog signal introduces noise and measuring pulse widths is going to be simpler.
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How are old you
You why are old
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Don't buy copper from this guy, it's low-quality and your messenger will be treated with contempt.
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IIRC, that's electrically compatible with the smaller, more fragile PS/2 connector. The adapters are just wiring it down to the smaller connector (and maybe some impedance matching resistors?).
Only if it's an AT keyboard. XT keyboards are incompatible and require active conversions. They use the same port.
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I remember having a friend ask why my mouse connected to a s-video port.
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Maybe I'm an idiot, but I ordered one when they announced it. I have 2 perfectly good C64s already but the CRT whine drives my dog and kid nuts, so looking forward to HDMI!
There are HDMI mods for the C64 as well.
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PS/2
No, not the PlayStation.....
First one at home for me too.
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So is this a more classic case of Apple's usual tactic making their things needlessly different to move more product?
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I wanna say my first PC that I used a was an Amiga with similar i/o as this: I remember that mouse connector vividly.
You had an A3000? Those are not cheap today. Hell, Amigas in general are expensive.
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TURBO!!!
wrote last edited by [email protected]The "Turbo" function was a masterstroke of marketing.
The actual function of the turbo is to slow the machine down, so it can be compatible with older games and software that ran too quickly on those newer systems.
Of course calling it a "slow down" button wasn't very sexy, so just flip the function around and label it turbo instead!
