Wow

Nice!

Oh, I forgot to mention a feature I put in: there's a slide switch on there with 2 modes:

1 player mode: joy1 gets buttons 1,2,3,4 and the X1 and y1 axes - you may or may not use all of that, but a complicated flight stick would need many of those. The joy2 port gets almost nothing so it's basically disabled as joy1 is now all-in

2 players mode: joy1 gets buttons 1,2, axes X1, y1 while joy2 gets buttons 3,4 and axes X1,y2, perfect for those special local multiplayer mode games

Does it have MIDI isolation? I remember reading that using opto-couplers was almost mandatory on MIDI ports...

This looks amazing. Well done.

Zup wrote on 2024-11-06, 05:46:

Does it have MIDI isolation? I remember reading that using opto-couplers was almost mandatory on MIDI ports...

It does, there's a H11L1 optocoupler for the MIDI IN port.

None on the MIDI OUT port since it's assumed that the target device aimed at will have to deal with an optocoupler in its midi in port.

There's a limited time coupon with code HOLIDAY2024 to get 10% off anything at https://jcm-1.com through December 13th, and that would include this pc gameport party ofc.

NEW VIDEO IS OUT: it explains everything about my PC Gameport Party PCB I designed last year.

All the use cases scenarios I had in mind, including the ones that combo with the MIDI selectors I also designed.
Links to gerbers in the description

https://youtu.be/SGnbr5O1Wa0

I've made a new tool called MIDI Sniffer, that can be used to test out the MIDI in capability of the PC gameport Party,

see a short demonstration video of it

takes in MIDI in
reroutes to: MIDI out, PC Speaker, or OPL2
supports polyphony
can take in regular keyboard playing (qwerty...] = white notes, etc)
generate a random OPL2 instrument for you to dig and test out its values (I use that to find new interesting sounds for other projects)

https://youtu.be/9_MNY7hs1qg

Phil has just put out a video on it as well!

https://youtu.be/bvkpvyx8jO8?si=VzbK4m7AbgjOD0Xf

There are ready-made inexpensive solutions, I bought one for $15 this year, works very well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-78k9YRs6w

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m11980738855/

Great product! I wanted to ask if anyone knows if a dedicated isa gameport card can be used in combination with a sound card's gameport for simultaneously supporting a total of two joysticks with four buttons each in dos and/or windows 9x. One four button joystick in the soundcard's gameport and one more in the isa gameport card.

Johnylyr wrote on 2025-12-05, 21:58:

Great product! I wanted to ask if anyone knows if a dedicated isa gameport card can be used in combination with a sound card's gameport for simultaneously supporting a total of two joysticks with four buttons each in dos and/or windows 9x. One four button joystick in the soundcard's gameport and one more in the isa gameport card.

Caveat: I have no machine on which I can test that. My 486 DX2/66 doesn't have an onboard gameport, but its SB16 has.

I don't remember having seen games make you punch in the gameport address manually. I think the general accepted knowledge is that Game ports are always at 201h. You can only have one piece of hardware servicing game ports; if you have two, like one on the motherboard and another on a sound card, one of them must be disabled.

Now, some companies like Gravis made the Gravis Gamepad Pro with its GRiP system but iirc it's kind of a serial communication system passing through the normal gameport pins, the game has to be built for it. This allows their 4 buttons + 4 shoulder buttons + start + select on two gamepads because every signal gets sifted through eventually.
There are probably other proprietary systems like that.

Does this mean that dual gameport isa addon cards are equivalent with a single sound card's gameport with a y splitter supporting only two two button joysticks?

I remember having two pci sound cards in ine of my old (then current) PCs, specifically for having two fully usable gameports in windows and it was working perfectly with two 4 button joysticks at the same time, but I never tried it in dos.

In windows, it's doable to set ports however you like and not create conflicts with Window peripheral properties. In msdos, it would be a case by case basis per game. I wish I could summon an example for you but I can't.

So would it be mostly accurate if we say that in dos it is either one 4 button joystick or two 2 button joysticks no matter what hardware you use? Gravis grip and similar solutions excluded of course.

Johnylyr wrote on 2025-12-06, 17:24:

So would it be mostly accurate if we say that in dos it is either one 4 button joystick or two 2 button joysticks no matter what hardware you use? Gravis grip and similar solutions excluded of course.

yes

After Phil's video, the 2nd batch sold out pretty quickly within a few days.

A 3rd batch of 20 has just arrived in Joe's store though:
https://jcm-1.com/product/pc-gameport-party/