Questions tagged [ports]
The ports tag has no usage guidance.
20 questions
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What is an external IDE 37 DBI pin device?
I have a couple of Paravision SX-1 expansions for the Amiga CD32 game console, and I want to use the external DB-37 pin port for storage, however, I have never seen anything that uses that connector. ...
- 343
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0
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Were there ever any commercial products produced for the BeBox GeekPort?
I know that the BeBox was a short lived product, but whenever someone mentions it they never fail to also point out the "GeekPort".
While the possibilities of the GeekPort were tremendous, I'...
- 17.3k
24
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2
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4k
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How did Joysticks with more than 4 buttons and all those extra features work on a Game Port?
The question is pretty straight forward. How did they do so much more than the simple, unidirectional 4 axis of analog control, plus 4 on/off buttons?
There was surprisingly precise force feedback ...
- 341
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4
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Which home computer first included a printer and modem port as standard?
As home computers rapidly gained in popularity in the early 1980s, third-party peripheral manufacturers also began selling peripherals. For those users wanting to do "serious work", the ...
- 61.5k
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If a PS/2 device on a 32-bit x86 sends a byte to the IO port 0x60 and you read it, what happens next?
I'm writing a hobby OS and the first thing I want to do is access PS/2 devices (it's a somewhat legacy, 32 bit OS, so I figured it's relevant to ask here?).
I can see my PS/2 devices and I want to ...
- 3,697
12
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2
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Why do some Atari ST motherboards include many Inductors?
There are versions of the Atari 520ST, and perhaps the 1040ST, that differ in having many discrete inductors attached at the I/O port lines for serial, parallel and floppy ports.
The first image below ...
- 61.5k
11
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Did the PAL version of Super Mario Bros. on the NES really have faster music, and if so, why?
I have a real PAL NES hooked up to a modern TV with an AV-to-HDMI adapter (yeah, I'm working on finding a CRT). I bought an EverDrive cartridge for it because I'm a poor person who cannot afford to ...
- 111
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1
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373
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Did Tomb Raider on Saturn have fewer save crystals than the PlayStation port? [closed]
I've been trying to find this out for ages. Having owned the Saturn version (which was the original release, BTW) when it was new, but also playing the PlayStation version at a cousin's house, I could'...
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2
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578
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Could the BBC micro's analogue input be used to sample sound?
Reference:
BBC Micro analogue in
A custom connector would be required between this D-shape rows of pins port and a standard input socket for phono/rca or 3.5inch or 1/4inch jack.
What would be the bit ...
- 891
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What was the 1 MHz bus used for on the BBC micro series?
What was the 1 MHz bus used for on the BBC micro series and how did it compare with the TUBE in terms of speed/bandwidth?
I read somewhere that EPROM programmers used the 1 MHz bus, but anything else?
- 891
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1
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How were console games ported to DOS?
Many popular DOS games were ported from video game consoles:
Earthworm Jim
Mega Man
The Lion King
The Lost Vikings
Turrican 2
Rayman
Oscar
Zool
Video game consoles generally have wildly different ...
- 1,096
-2
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2
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379
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What is this port? [closed]
So, first off, to begin with this isn't "exactly" retrocomputing; the technology in question is about 5-10 years old. That being said, I couldn't find answers anywhere else, so my best bet ...
- 115
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8
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Were there any parallel port keyboards?
I was reading this QA ( Why is the clock frequency of the PS/2 keyboard protocol so high? ) and read in the replies that a high frequency was chosen (at least in-part) to reduce the latency between a ...
- 823
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2
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Why did SCSI require so many pins?
SCSI, I think, is a serial interface. A standard serial port on PCs used a 9-pin DSub connector where a parallel port used a 25-pin connector. Then why did SCSI require so many pins? I vaguely ...
- 353
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10
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What 8-bit microcomputer systems multiplexed multiple physical ports on a single controller?
The NEC PC-8201 had three serial interface ports on the back,
"RS-232," "SIO1" and "SIO2." These were all driven by a single IM6402
USART, switched between each physical port via bits 7 and 6 of IO ...
- 27.9k
6
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How did the BBC sideways ROM software for the AMX mouse process the user port input data to determine x and y movement?
This mouse plugged into the user port on the underside of the BBC micro models. The mouse came with software in the form of a sideways ROM which provided APIs, CLI commands for own programs as well as ...
- 891
4
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1
answer
446
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Did the IBM Game Control Adapter have I/O port aliases?
I was taking a look at the logic diagram in the manual for the original IBM game port adapter card:
In the upper-left corner of the schematic, there is the circuitry responsible for decoding the I/O ...
- 1,779
15
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3
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3k
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What are the electrical characteristics of a PC gameport?
I'm considering building some custom gizmos to connect to the gameport on my retro-hobby PC (SNES controller adapter, macro/turbo box, etc.) but I haven't been able to find much information on details ...
- 7,461
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Why are C64 games inconsistent with which joystick port they use?
The Commodore 64 has two DE-9 joystick ports. If I'm the only person that ever plays games on my C64, it's natural to assume that I could just leave a joystick plugged into Port 1 and be done with it. ...
- 17.3k
8
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Is the NES controller port identical to the port on a Wii remote?
I was recently playing on a friend's NES Classic, and noticed that the controller ports look similar to the ones on a Wii remote (where you can plug in the Numchuck or Class Controller). Keep in mind ...
- 4,081