You need to at least give some information about the notebook? If it doesn't have one most common way is to use a PCMCIA joystick card if the laptop has PCMCIA slots. Sometimes the port is on a port replicator or dock that you can get for the notebook.

For Windows games, you can use a Gravis Stinger gamepad which connects over the serial port. There is a PicoGUS for PCMCIA project in progress that may be released soon.

In terms of being able to catch digital joystick signals, one would think an LPT port would be a better solution. In theory, a port trapping TSR could do the legwork, and a very minimalistic port adapter would let a joystick port digital joystick connect easily. Analog would be more of a trick though. No support for analog signals on LPT.

Similar concept to the SNES PAD LPT mentioned here.
https://www.instructables.com/SNES-to-Parallel-Port/

But would need a DOS Port trapper to catch reads from the joystick port.

There are several options:
- PCMCIA game port adapter, rare, expensive (see my sugnature for all models and specs)
- this device https://ebay.us/m/5AeUog
This one is sold, but they pop up once in a while. Has it’s limitations.
- PicoPCMCIA - new project in progress. Pre-order is open

Thanks for the replies. The most correct and simple method seems to be the PCMCIA to GamePort adapter, but it's incredibly expensive. I understand there's no easy way to achieve this. The notebook is a classic Texas Instruments Pentium 133, which has the classic PCMCIA, serial, parallel, and VGA ports.

I have another computer though… an IBM T22 with a docking station that has a PCI slot for a card that could also be a sound card with a 15-pin Gameport port… which one could work under Windows, perhaps? Or under DOS?

I just realized that the IBM T22 is a Pentium 3 so it has a USB port and you can connect all the joysticks you want... if you want to use the Pentium 133 instead, wouldn't it be an option to use a PCMCIA-USB card under Win95 and use a USB joystick??? Or would DOS games like Tie Fighter started from Win95 not see the ISB joystick anyway?

A thing I have done before, when I had a hinge which had play in it, such that "enthusiastic" gaming would make screen flop back and forth, and also to spare the keyboard some wear... Was to get a ps/2 numpad and reassign keys to it, turning it sideways to work like a gamepad... you can even remove some keycaps if they get in the way of your directional buttons. Look for one that's more flat than wedge shaped though, and without excessive key sculpting, otherwise it might have annoying edges on the "bottoms" of the keys when you rotate it.

wierd_w wrote on 2026-05-03, 03:46:

In terms of being able to catch digital joystick signals, one would think an LPT port would be a better solution. In theory, a […]
Show full quote

In terms of being able to catch digital joystick signals, one would think an LPT port would be a better solution. In theory, a port trapping TSR could do the legwork, and a very minimalistic port adapter would let a joystick port digital joystick connect easily. Analog would be more of a trick though. No support for analog signals on LPT.

Similar concept to the SNES PAD LPT mentioned here.
https://www.instructables.com/SNES-to-Parallel-Port/

But would need a DOS Port trapper to catch reads from the joystick port.

Similar thing can be done with playstation dualshock gamepads which gets you analog sticks.

wierd_w wrote on 2026-05-03, 03:46:

In terms of being able to catch digital joystick signals, one would think an LPT port would be a better solution. In theory, a […]
Show full quote

In terms of being able to catch digital joystick signals, one would think an LPT port would be a better solution. In theory, a port trapping TSR could do the legwork, and a very minimalistic port adapter would let a joystick port digital joystick connect easily. Analog would be more of a trick though. No support for analog signals on LPT.

Similar concept to the SNES PAD LPT mentioned here.
https://www.instructables.com/SNES-to-Parallel-Port/

But would need a DOS Port trapper to catch reads from the joystick port.

Some DOS games supported digital joysticks.. Such as CHAMP Kong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKloEnCYTwI&t=1320
Re: Game pads for DOS ?

Yes, I'm aware of games supporting digital joysticks. Mystic Towers (and most everything that supports gravis gamepads) is another.

The issues are that the LPT port uses digital level signals, and that you'd need a port interceptor/trapper.

Otherwise, very little would be needed to make a very simple DB25(M) to DB15(F) adapter, so that you could plug in oldschool pc gameport joysticks, since yes, 'digital pc joysticks were things'.

This would let you slap a digital joystick on a 486 class laptop very inexpensively.

Jmarsh suggests that ps1 controller to lpt was also a thing. If that's true, then dual stick analog is on the table as well.

Looks like psxpad uses just a few diodes in the mix.
https://www.raphnet.net/electronique/psx_adap … _adaptor_en.php

For clarity:

The intention is to use ideas from those projects, with the standard PC Gameport pinout as the target, to let pc gameport joysticks live on an lpt port intead.

the existing 9x / nt4 dinput drivers would work, since the driver wouldnt know the difference; using the same lpt wiring as those projects.

To sum up: apart from the PCMCIA card - GAMEPORT there is nothing ready-made and that works out of the box

For laptops the best is just connect a snes, psx or more easy to build, megadrive pad to parallel

onethirdxcubed wrote on 2026-05-03, 02:43:

For Windows games, you can use a Gravis Stinger gamepad which connects over the serial port. There is a PicoGUS for PCMCIA project in progress that may be released soon.

The PicoPCMCIA as mentioned here is probably the best hope anyone has for a reasonably priced and available piece of equipment to connect controllers to a laptop, but it won't be a native joystick port. It will support bluetooth and USB controllers. Maybe it can work with a USB->Gameport adapter.

https://www.yyzkevin.com/picopcmcia/

Does the laptop have a PS/2 port for external keyboard?

If yes, what is your electronics assembly skill and willingness levels? I know of at least 1 commercial joystick (X-Arcade) that still supports PS/2 keyboard emulation, but is large/expensive. If you are up for building your own, the control board is $40.

There are also devices like the HIDman: HIDman - USB to PS/2 converter (Open Source)

If you are willing to dive into microcontrollers (Arduino, etc) there are PS/2 keyboard libraries that would let you build your own joystick to keyboard adapter.

For games that don't really need analog stick capabilities, I personally prefer keyboard emulators, because it gets around the 4-button limit without game support issues or using a DOS TSR/Windows driver. That reminds me, I should test this on a 90's laptop - I'm curious if it will coexist with the internal keyboard, or force me to use external via joystick PS/2 input.

Back in the days me and a friend of mine built this little circuit (last page)
on a stripboard that worked quite well.

http://www.digitanto.it/mc-online/PDF/Articol … 5_231_235_0.pdf

We found some Commodore +4 joystick that were sold for penauts in those days
since Commodore abandoned the 264 computer line.
Remember that the seller was quite happy to give them go ...
We cut the connectors and soldered the wires directly on the board.
The hard part was to digit the list from the magazine ...
Must have the COM file in some floppy somewhere ... Good Days!