First post, by JimKusznir
Hi all:
I'm maintaining some old PCs (486-Pentium I) for a specialized machining machine. The computer only ever runs one program (a DOS one), which is a special purpose CNC control program. They do not, nor have they ever, had any form of windows on it. It uses two ISA cards to control the machine. It also uses a Game Port joystick to do some manual moving and control of the machining tools. The 486 came with a Gamecard III Automatic ISA game port card. We also currently have a special "crosshair generator" ISA card. This puts us at a total of 4 ISA slots, not including video (which we can easily do with PCI). So far I've managed to get by with it, but I'd like to reduce the ISA slot requirements to open up more options going forward, as some of these computers are dying.
Originally, I thought the game port would be easy to replace by putting in a PCI Sound card with game port. However, when I did that, the software never "saw" the game port. Growing up, when these computers were "new", I never did mess with game ports, so I don't know if there are any magic things needed to make a PCI Sound card's game port show up in DOS to applications, or is this a lost cause (eg, the software was likely written directly to the specified game port card, and will only use that one).
I appreciate any knowledge from those with more experience with game ports and DOS!
Thanks!
--Jim