First post, by Pathfinder
The Joystick Rehab project is about locating, discussing, and reviewing various methods for converting joysticks from the old IBM DA15 interface into USB, due to the fact that Microsoft Windows ceased support for DA15 with Windows Vista. There are several ways to do this. The first major method is the simple Gameport adapter, which has an old-school female 15-pin Joystick port on one end, and a male USB connector on the other. These adapters were designed for Analog joysticks. Several groups such as ECS, Rockfire, and Mayflash produce such adapters, but they tend to be somewhat hit and miss with digital joysticks; hundreds of different kinds of joysticks were produced from the mid 1980's to the late 90's which used the 15-pin interface and many joysticks had their own programmable interfaces and used a varying mixture of signals to produce their results. For Digital joysticks especially the alternative to these adapters are direct USB controllers, which require you to disassemble and rewire the joystick. I have also found references to 3rd party drivers for Joystick ports providing Game support post-Vista.