Re: Flight Stick For Vista?

Col. Richard J. Hucker wrote:
Robert . . .you are correct. I said a 10 pin adapter and I have to belay
that. Actually, the female
connection at the game port is a 15 pin. However the Sidewinder Force
Feedback stick actually
has "9" pins at the male connector. (my wife never did understand this
male/female description. I
guess she just doesn't understand electrical connections . . . or
something). But that's Ok, I still
can't operate her fancy coffee maker either.

I appreciate your comments Sir. Perhaps this stick will work if I can find a
MiniMidi to Midi connector.
I didn't understand the "music" connections . . . I guess I better study
some more. Or better yet. Buy
an updated Force Feedback stick. I don't really understand the technology.
It's apparent that you are
an old hand at this. Thanks again. Semper Fie my friend.

Regards,
Huck

Original concept for game port controller support was to include circuitry for two joysticks, each with two axis and two buttons (for two player capability). As the plug on each joystick cable would be wired to use the pins for joystick number 1, a Y cable could be used to duplicate the computer's game port with the second socket cross wired so the joystick connected to it was read by the circuitry intended for joystick number two.

Many game controller manufacturers designed equipment that would use the circuitry intended for both joysticks. The vertical axis for the second joystick was usually used for a throttle lever or thumb wheel. Pedal manufacturers usually used the circuitry intended for the second joystick's horizontal axis. A few manufacturers used one of the second joystick's axis for a Point Of View (POV) hat switch, connecting different resistor values to the axis for each position.

The game port's MIDI capability was provided to support the interest some user's had in recording electronic keyboard/organ key strokes in compact computer files (at that time the size of a MP3 file would have been considered extravagant) for subsequent playback. The MIDI circuitry could also be used export files to the electronic music keyboard to be played by its digital sound production circuitry. These capabilities were handled in a user friendly manner by software purchased for those purposes.

Since the game port was at one time more widely available on computers than USB, the bidirectional MIDI interface was utilized by some manufacturers of force feedback joysticks and racing wheels to transmit force information to the electronics in the control. some manufactures used one the computer's serial ports instead. The MIDI serial data capabilities were also useful in implementing functions beyond the game port "game controller" circuitry's capabilities (like multiple hat switches, toggle switches and "radio tuner" thumb wheels).

The added versatility of USB has resulted in the near abandonment of the game port by game controller manufacturers and computer manufacturers. The higher speed of the USB 2 ports has resulted in a similar shift for printers (once used parallel ports, although there were some serial port printers), mice (usually used serial or PS2 ports) and flat bed scanners (often used a different parallel interface called SCSI).
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