1 Feb
2012
1 Feb
'12
2:27 p.m.
On Feb 1, 2012, at 4:00 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
Getting back to classic ocmputers, one of the few
video game consoles I
have is the Vectrex. This uses DE9 connectoes for the control pads, but
they're recessed into the case so a normal DE9 socket and hood won't
fit. About 20 years ago (when I was buildign stuff for htis machine) one
of the current games consoles -- I think it was the Sega Megadrive --
used DE9s for the control pads too. I found that if you bought a cheap
etension cable or cotnrol pad for that unit, you could shave a little
off the moulded DE9 socket so it would fit the Vectrex case, then cut the
cable and use it to wire your joystik interface, light pen, etc, to the
Vectrex...
Yeah, the MegaDrive (called the Genesis over here) had DE9 connectors. It seemed like an
odd choice in an era when Nintendo used much more durable and convenient (but much less
standard) proprietary connector for theirs. Either one was better than Nintendo's
Famicom (the original Japanese version of the NES), which had hard-wired controllers.
- Dave