VOGONS


First post, by monsterbaldy

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Can you have an MT-32 and a joystick connected at once to the same gameport? I have a cable that allows it to be physically connected, but I'm starting to suspect that doesn't mean that is what it is for. Just the joystick plugged in directly to the gameport works fine, the MT-32 connected works, but the joystick plugged into the adapter on the MT-32 midi gameport cable does not work (though the MT-32 continues to work).

Reply 1 of 7, by JudgeMonroe

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It's a supported configuration. The Midi in and out use pins that aren't necessary for joystick operation, so you are free to pass all the pins required by a joystick.

Most likely issue is that the joystick port on your MIDI cable is miswired or not wired at all. I've seen cheap "MIDI game port" cables be wired with just the bare minimum to get the MIDI pins hooked up and the joystick port on it might as well not be there. Of course these also probably lack the optocoupler and logic buffers on those midi pins, so I wouldn't use it with real gear anyway.

Crack open your adapter if you can and see what's actually wired up.

Reply 3 of 7, by JudgeMonroe

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I ended up making my own breakout box because I wanted to integrate a joystick y-splitter without a rube goldberg chain of adapters. I don't know how to spot a legitimate breakout cable except maybe by the girth of it -- if it looks like there can't be 15 conductors inside the cable jacket, then there probably aren't.

Reply 4 of 7, by Srandista

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I bought mine authentic new old stock cable on SerdaShop, but unfortunately I see, that Serge already sold all of them 🙁

Unfortunately then I'm unable to give you advice, where to get another authentic one.

Socket 775 - ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA, Pentium E6500K, 4GB RAM, Radeon 9800XT, ESS Solo-1, Win 98/XP
Socket A - Chaintech CT-7AIA, AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1GB RAM, Radeon 9600XT, ESS ES1869F, Win 98

Reply 6 of 7, by JudgeMonroe

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monsterbaldy wrote:

Judge is this what you used to build the breakout box?

Small warm up project - Gameport/MIDI box

I may build my own too, but want to go with a known good.

That looks like an equivalent schematic, including the hex inverter I used. I just assembled mine on a solderable breadboard and stuck it in a box. If you don't plan on using MIDI IN you can leave a bunch of stuff out.

Creative used to sell a 5 Out/1 In MIDI breakout box for $80 in addition to the more typical adaptor cable. You might could use the other inverter outputs to do such a thing if you had multiple synths.

Reply 7 of 7, by the Goat

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monsterbaldy wrote on 2019-08-27, 16:05:

the joystick plugged into the adapter on the MT-32 midi gameport cable does not work (though the MT-32 continues to work).

What joystick are you using? Some joysticks use the MIDI in and out ports as supplemental I/O. That means they will not work through a MIDI/Joystick adapter cable. For instance the Microsoft sidewinder force feedback pro does this.