
In most respects, the IBM design was similar or more advanced than existing designs. The Apple II, BBC Micro, Tandy Color Computer, and other popular 8-bit machines all used different, incompatible, joysticks and ports. In contrast with the IBM design, the Atari port was primarily designed for digital inputs its only analog connections were intended for paddles, although as there were two analog inputs per port they could theoretically support a joystick. But it could not be considered truly widespread until around 1983, when it appeared on the Commodore 64 and several other platforms. This was originally introduced in 1977 on the Atari 2600, and by 1981, was used on both Atari gear and the Commodore VIC-20. Īt the time there was no industry standard for controller ports, although the Atari joystick port was close. The design allowed for four analog axes and four buttons on one port, allowing two joysticks or four paddles to be connected via a special "Y-splitter" cable.
STATIONEERS GAME PORTS PC
The game port first appeared during the initial launch of the original IBM PC in 1981, in the form of an optional US$55 expansion card known as the Game Control Adapter. During the transition to USB, many input devices used the game port and a USB adapter dongle was included for systems without a game port.Ī "Y-splitter" cable used to connect multiple devices to the same game port Originally located on a dedicated expansion card, the game port was later integrated with PC sound cards, and still later on the PC's motherboard. It was the traditional connector for joystick input, and occasionally MIDI devices, until obsoleted by USB in the late 1990s. The game port, originally introduced on the Game Control Adapter, is a device port that was found on IBM PC compatible and other computer systems throughout the 1980s and 1990s. +5 V DC (or MIDI in, sometimes unconnected)
