About Game Ports

If you're running a 486 or faster computer, you need to pay attention to the game port.

Game ports are easy to overlook. You've bought a hot game and the best controls on the market, so what else should you need? Just plug it in, calibrate and go. Right? It should be like that, but the fact is that some game ports can rob you of performance.

Game software interacts with the game card to determine the position of the controls during play. The software constantly cycles or loops to "see" if something has changed on the game card. The software counts the loops and uses them to create a value that in turn affects game play. As an example, a joystick pushed to the left produces a different loop count than when it's pushed to the right.

Game developers, however, didn't anticipate how fast computers would become. On a 486 and Pentium systems, the count values can be up to ten (yes, 10) times higher than the fastest computer when the software was written. These larger loop counts can wreak havoc when playing games on a modern system, resulting in jerky or uneven game play.

Speed-adjustable game cards like ThrustMaster's ACM Game Card provide a solution by bringing the loop counts down into a range the game can handle. Speed adjustment is handled through calibration software and an external adjustment knob.

Many gamers use game ports supplied with sound cards and multi-I/O cards (cards that have a serial, parallel, and game ports all on one card). Besides speed problems, these game port designs typically have not kept up with the electrical demands of new controls.

Game controls have passed beyond a simple joystick with a couple fire buttons. Multiple controls are often connected to the same game port, such as driving controls with steering/pedal combinations, or complete flight control systems with rudder pedals, and a programmable joystick and throttle. These controls get power from the game port. Many multi-I/O and sound cards simply can't provide enough power to run the controls correctly. A related problem is heat drift, where the card heats up to a point that the controls "drift" away from their original calibration. During game play, this shows up as a constant "pull" to the left or right.

Purchasing a quality game card that contains only game ports (called a dedicated game card) should eliminate the power and heat drift problems. Be certain to buy a dual port card, which means that it can handle two joysticks per connector. For a few extra dollars, a speed-adjustable card will provide all the features and a game port that can be tuned to your computer's speed.

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