Editing Game port (section)

==History==
===Pre-IBM game ports===
[[File:Game port to USB Adaptor.JPG|thumb|This Microsoft joystick's output was the traditional game port, but was supplied with a game-port-to-USB adapter for connection to newer systems.]]

[[Image:Gameport Splitter.jpg|thumb|A "Y-splitter" cable used to connect multiple devices to the same game port]]

At the time IBM was developing its game port, there was no industry standard for controller ports, although the [[Atari joystick port]] was close. It was introduced in 1977 with the [[Atari 2600|Atari Video Computer System]], and was later used on the [[VIC-20]] (1980), [[Commodore 64]] (1982), and Amstrad's [[PC1512]] (1986).

In contrast with the IBM design, the Atari port was primarily designed for digital inputs (including a pair of two-axis/four-contact digital joysticks, each with a single pushbutton trigger). Its only analog connections were intended for [[Paddle (game controller)|paddles]]<ref name="atari_400_800_hardware_manual">{{cite book |title=Atari Hardware Manual |url=http://www.atarimania.com/documents/atari-400-800-hardware-manual.pdf |date=1982 |publisher=Atari |pages=III.19–III.32}}</ref> -- although, as there were two analog inputs per port, each port could theoretically support a two-axis analog joystick, [[touchpad]], [[trackball]], or [[Computer mouse|mouse]]<ref name="atari_400_800_hardware_manual" /> (some of these being eventually developed for Atari systems).<ref name="atari_party_photos">[http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/atariparty/2014/photos/ "Atari Party 2014 - Photos"], archived by New Breed Software, retrieved March 26, 2023</ref><ref name="image_techy_1984_12_pop_photog">[https://books.google.com/books?id=-rbIcQgxMGAC&pg=PT34  Image Technology], By Don Leavitt, Popular Photography, Dec 1984, Page 140, ''...the Okimate 10...will also work with Atari Artist,...''</ref><ref name="magic_touch_1984_v92_sci_digest">[https://books.google.com/books?id=pqIoAAAAMAAJ Get the magic touch with the Atari Touch Table], Science Digest, Volume 92, 1984, Page 83, ''...The ATARI Touch Tablet with Atari- Artist"' software cartridge turns your TV into a magic palette of 128 dazzling colors. The Touch Tablet works a little like an electronic slate. Hook it into any ATARI Computer and what you draw on the tablet ...''</ref>

The [[Apple II]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ground.icaen.uiowa.edu/Faqs/R023PINOUTS.TXT |title= Apple II Pinouts |date=21 August 1998 |website= Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs}}</ref> [[BBC Micro]],<ref>{{cite tech report |title=Connecting Joysticks To The BBC Micro |publisher=Acorn |date=1992 |url=http://www.8bs.com/submit/acornappspdf/021.pdf}}</ref> [[TRS-80 Color Computer]],<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n5/240_A_joystick_for_the_color_.php|title=A joystick for the color computer|last=Hodgson|first=Ian|magazine=[[Creative Computing]]|volume=9|number=5|date=May 1983|access-date=2019-12-16}}</ref> and other popular 8-bit machines all used different, incompatible, joysticks and ports. In most respects, the IBM design was similar to, or more advanced than, existing designs.

===Initial IBM PC type game ports===
The IBM PC game port first appeared during the initial launch of the original [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] in 1981, in the form of an optional US$55 expansion card known as the Game Control Adapter.<ref name="lemmons198110">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-10/1981_10_BYTE_06-10_Local_Networks#page/n27/mode/2up | title=The IBM Personal Computer / First Impressions | work=BYTE | date=October 1981 | access-date=19 October 2013 | author=Lemmons, Phil | page=36}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/electron/elect57.htm |title=The Game Control Adapter |website=A Review of Electronics |date=18 August 2002 |last1=Calvert |first1=J. B.}}</ref> The design allowed for four analog axes and four buttons on one port, allowing two joysticks or four [[paddle (game controller)|paddle]]s to be connected via a special "Y-splitter" cable.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V2588uIxmAQC&pg=PA155 |title=ABM advertisement |journal=PC Mag |date=July 1983 |page=273}}</ref>

Originally available only as add-on that took up an entire slot,<ref name="lemmons198110"/> game ports remained relatively rare in the early days of the IBM PC, and most games used the keyboard as an input. IBM did not release a joystick of its own for the PC, which did not help. The most common device available was the [[Kraft Systems|Kraft]] joystick, originally developed for the Apple II but easily adapted to the IBM with the addition of another button on the back of the case. When IBM finally did release a joystick, for the [[IBM PCjr]], it was a version of the Kraft stick. However, it connected to the computer using two incompatible 7-pin connectors, which were mechanically connected together as part of a larger multi-pin connector on the back of the machine.<ref>{{cite book |title=PC jr. Technical Reference  |url=http://www.retroarchive.org/dos/docs/ibmpcjrtechref.pdf |date=1983 |page=2.12}}</ref> This eliminated the need for the Y-adapter.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.ca/2012/02/pc-gameport-joysticks.html |title= DOS Games Joysticks & Other Gaming Device Support |website=Nerdy Pleasures |date= 10 February 2012}}</ref> Adapters for Atari-style "digital" sticks were also common during this era.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/Joystick_PC_Gameport |title= Joystick PC Gameport Connector Pinout |website=AllPinouts}}</ref>

The game port became somewhat more common in the mid-1980s, as improving electronic density began to produce expansion cards with ever-increasing functionality. By 1983, it was common to see cards combining memory, game ports, serial and parallel ports and a realtime clock on a single expansion card.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Super 12 Pak Multi-Function |journal=PC Mag |date=17 April 1984 |page=342}}</ref> The era of combo expansion cards largely came to an end by the late 1980s, as many of the separate functions normally provided on plug-in boards became common features of the [[motherboard]] itself. Game ports were not always part of this supported set of ports.

===Integration with sound cards===
However, the game port was given a major boost in usage in 1989, with the introduction of the first [[Sound Blaster]]. As sound cards were primarily used with computer games, [[Creative Labs]] took the opportunity to include a game port on the card, producing an all-in-one gaming solution. At the same time, they re-purposed two otherwise redundant pins on the port, 12 and 15, to produce a [[serial bus]] with enough performance to drive an external [[MIDI]] port adapter. Previous MIDI systems like the [[MPU-401]] used their own separate expansion cards and a complex external adapter, whereas the Sound Blaster only required an inexpensive adapter to produce the same result.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HERlo0BgpGYC&pg=PT390 |first=Charles |last=Petzold |title=Environments |journal=PC Mag |date=28 April 1992 |page=403}}</ref> By the end of the year the Sound Blaster was the best selling expansion card on the PC, and the game port was receiving widespread software support.

With the exception of laptops—for which companies released joystick adapters for parallel or serial ports, which needed custom software drivers<ref name="cgw199311">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1993&pub=2&id=112 | title=Laptops Take Flight | magazine=Computer Gaming World | date=November 1993 | access-date=28 March 2016 | pages=11–12 }}</ref>—through the early 1990s, the game port was universally supported on sound cards,<ref name=":0" /> and increasingly became built-in features as motherboards added sound support of their own. This remained true through the second half of the 1990s, by which time integrated sound support had displaced the third-party sound card to a large degree. By the early 2000s, such support was so widespread that newer sound cards began to dispense with the game port as it was certain the machine they would be used in already had such support, including MIDI. Every Sound Blaster card from the first model up to August 2001 included a game port. In 2001 the Sound Blaster Audigy moved the game port to a second expansion slot, which connected to a header on the card.<ref>[[Sound Blaster Audigy]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=February 2021}}

===Replacement by USB===
The introduction of the first [[USB]] standard in 1996 was aimed squarely at the sort of roles provided by the game port, but initially had little market impact. The subsequent release of the [[IMac G3|iMac]], which featured no legacy ports in favor of USB, started a rapid expansion of USB in the market.<ref>{{cite web |first=Benj |last=Edwards |url=http://www.macworld.com/article/1135017/imacanniversary.html |title= Eight ways the iMac changed computing |date=15 August 2008 |website=Macworld}}</ref> This led both to new gaming devices using USB, as well as the profusion of adapters. For instance, the 1997 [[Microsoft SideWinder#Precision Pro|Microsoft Precision Pro joystick]] was re-introduced in a version that used a game port connector, but also included a USB adapter in the box.<ref name="3DP-Vert">{{cite web | url = http://code.google.com/p/sw3dprousb/ | title = 3DP-Vert, a USB adapter for the Microsoft SideWinder 3D Pro, Precision Pro and Force Feedback Pro | author = Grendel |access-date=2015-11-11}}</ref> The rapid takeover of USB meant that this was superfluous when the Precision Pro 2 was released the next year in 1998. By 2000, game ports were purely for backward compatibility with now outdated devices.

[[Microsoft Windows]] discontinued support for the game port with [[Windows Vista]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/itprovistahardware/thread/4491e426-a9ec-4fea-8bf0-4a54fa2744ae/ |title=Hardware Compatibility and Drivers 5600 |last=Rivera |first=Andre |date=11 September 2006 |quote=Q: Are MIDI/game ports supported under Vista? A: We've removed support for these types of devices, in favor of USB connected devices. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081231062533/http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/itprovistahardware/thread/4491e426-a9ec-4fea-8bf0-4a54fa2744ae/ |archive-date=2008-12-31 }}</ref> though USB converters can serve as a workaround.