[rescue] Fun ports on a PC

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Curious George <jorge234q at yahoo.com>
>Date: 2008/08/21 Thu PM 06:47:04 EDT
>To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] Parallel ports [was Re: Slightly OT: ?Bad Cap  Saga]

<snip>

>A geek port is NEVER going to be something that we'll see
>supported in a mainstream product nowadays.  Because the rest
>of the world has no interest in it!  So, unless it is *free*,
>you aren't going to have manufacturers include it in their
>products!  (and, even if free, they'll only include it BY
>ACCIDENT not BY DESIGN)

Older gamecontroller ports included on early sound cards were interesting - they had a number of normally open contacts and some potentiometer ports as well, I always thought those would have been more popular with harware hackers...

They were essentially "free" and were set up for simple access (in BASIC you just "peek(port)", IIRC)...

Lionel