🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BSON.93Ap...@nutrimat.gnu.ai.mit.edu> bs...@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Jan Brittenson) writes:
>In article <1993Apr30.1...@ultb.isc.rit.edu> tjg...@ritvax.isc.rit.edu writes:
>
> > Let me put it this way: If a joystick for the PC can have 4 buttons
> > and I heard that they each have their own individual pathway, why
> > don't we have an extra amount of buttons based on combinations of the
> > 4 buttons.
>
>   Because it would make things much more complicated. To allow more
>than one button to be pressed at once you'd have to send button-down
>and button-up events from the joystick to the computer based on a
>4-bit protocol. This would make joysticks too complicated and
>expensive. Might as well plug a separate "button array" into a serial
>port -- a much more manageable option.

How about the parallel port.  If we are using bidirectional parallel
ports that's 8 data lines.  Plus the handshaking lines, we can get
enough switches for a digital joystick.  And if I remember correctly
there is a way to generate an hardware interrupt via one of the
handshake pins.  That would be an additional advantage for the
joystick needn't be polled.

Problem is not enough people have 2 parallel ports...  Though adding
one is not too expensive.

Stephen

P.S. followup to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.misc
--
Stephen Lee
Internet: sl...@crux2.cit.cornell.edu