Before USB, we had THIS

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Thanks to Wendell of Level1Techs for his help with this video.
Learn about the ports we used on our computers before USB became popular.
Leave a reply with your requests for future episodes.
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[@TrowGundam]

Another advantage (at least for Keyboards, not sure about mice) of the PS/2 port was they were interrupt based, while USB keyboards use polling. The polling on modern devices is so fast it probably doesn't matter, but theoretically there is a latency advantage for PS/2 keyboards.

[@Raven-fu1zz]

Don't forget the n-key roll over so you can press multiple keys at a time, you get the interrupts for mice as well

[@Durkhead]

I still use a ps2 keyboard from my dad's 1990s dell

[@tro_b0t]

Nope, don't notice a difference in latency from my PS/2 Keyboard and modern USB-C one. N-key roll over is no problem on either, other than my PS/2 not liking me pressing Shift+W+D at once (because fuck me)

[@Schadows77]

@@tro_b0t input lag from the worst PS/2 keyboard is generally the same as the best USB keyboard (those with 1000Hz polling rate, etc). But we're talking about such low latency anyway that it doesn't really matter. The real interest of being "interrupt based" (with a direct access to one or more CPU pins) was that the keyboard could still do something when the OS froze, but the CPU command that still worked were obviously limited, like rebooting ... which is also achievable with a button on the computer itself XD

[@BleuSquid]

There used to be a recurring issue in the WinXP/Win7 era, where the USB interface would just stop working. Of course, this always happened when I was buried deep in the middle of some work. I kept a PS/2 keyboard around so I could reset the USB subsystem and keep working.

[@JanghanHong]

PS/2 keyboard (especially) is super useful for some issues where the motherboard forgets what a USB is due to BIOS corruption, it connects deep into their neural nerves like some primordial nails on chalkboard telling them to respond to it as opposed to just flat-out ignoring USB inputs.

[@JohnADoe-pg1qk]

🤣

[@techno1561]

Only if the PS/2 port on the motherboard is a traditional PS/2 port, and not an onboard PS/2-USB adaptor.

[@justaguycalledjosh]

@@techno1561 That sounds incredibly cursed.

[@jec_ecart]

Ps2 is how you can install windows 7 on Ryzen.

[@christophers5949]

great analogy 😂

[@jessecabaniss4070]

I love how you left out the mind bendingly frustrating process of manual driver installs for just about everything that used these ports.

[@morenauer]

Several things: the Game port was also used as a MIDI controller. That is the main reason they were included in sound cards, not just for gaming. You did not mention two more ports that, I concede, were more of an Apple thing than a DOS/Windows thing: the Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 ports, which would allow you to do things that USB couldn't even dream of, especially if you were using them to connect to a digital tape video camera. Used one in 2006 and you could control the camera from iMovie. Amazing. Also a port that was both DOS/Windows and Apple, but maybe more the latter, was the SCSI port, which was one of the biggest victims of high speed USB, as it was fraught with downsides that were only offset by its speed and, when that wasn't an advantage anymore, they swiftly were relegated to the drawer of history.

[@DaysonFeliz]

Ahhh I remember life with FireWire 400/800

[@heldt952]

SCSI lives on as USB attached SCSI, which is part of USB 3. If you transfer files faster than 50-60 MBytes/sec, you are using SCSI.

[@gljames24]

​@@heldt952It's also used in Sata and Sas.

[@rohansampat1995]

wait your hole thing is controlling a camera from a computer? Should be easy to do over USB lol, its on cameras to support it. (Im pretty sure bluetooth can even do it)

[@harleyspawn]

I still see a FireWire port every time I walk by the PS2. Though they used it as a link cable before the network adapter was created.

[@renevanhove1066]

It took a few years before PS/2 was colorcoded. I remember a lot of trial and error… Combined with not always working master/slave setups for IDE harddrives and booting from floppy disk and searching for drivers, building a computer was an adventure on itself

[@Acorn_Anomaly]

Don't forget setting IRQs, both on the device and in driver configs. And sucks to be you if you have devices that conflict, and have no resolution for it.

[@fixer1140]

"I was there Gandalf. I was there 3000 years ago..."

[@YoctoYotta]

I vividly remember the first time I saw purple and green PS/2 connectors. My friend's mom bought him a Gateway 2000 system somewhere around 1997 (still had the cow print boxes). For something that in hindsight is so boringly simple, my mind was utterly blown seeing those connectors and the glossy color setup instructions showing how to plug them in.

[@Ryarios]

And interrupt conflicts…

[@ryhanzfx1641]

ooof that takes me back, i remember that during computer lesson school when i was 9

[@veenmikki27]

It is nice to see that the world is moving towards usb c for everything

[@illustriouschin]

It's not best for everything and is quickly becoming obsolete.

[@knedl1k_]

@@illustriouschin??? said some random indian from a cave.

[@OtakuboyT]

​@illustriouschin Dang right I have a ton of Type A stuff that works and I don't want to have to replace.

[@Mr0901]

​@@illustriouschin it has better power and data transfer than everything else (at least consumer) The bad thing is just that weird ass "different types of type c" issue

[@dogs-and-destruction-channel]

​@illustriouschin Actually all devices are switching to C ports including Samsung, Hawaii, Desktops, laptops and even Apple devices are now C ports. Looks like your theory is out numbered by C ports bro.

[@TheDarkFalcon]

SCSI was something we used in the 90s and early 2000s when I was younger. I'm pretty sure the main advantage over standard parallel was that it allowed chaining devices together. SCSI from our computer to our scanner, which then had another SCSI input which was chained to our printer, to which again we could chain to something else, which I think.. Was another printer (laser printer for black, ink jet for colour).

[@Carhill]

It surprised me that scussy wasn't mentioned.

[@gljames24]

Fun Fact: The SCSI commands are alive and well in USB and Sata connector protocols.

[@baleavitt]

SCSI was faster too. But it never had enough adoption on PCs. It was standard on Macs but for most people if they wanted to use SCSI peripherals, they had to buy an expansion card. Pretty much killed it because Apple was almost dead before they debuted the iMac and converted entirely to USB

[@sirusfox]

@@baleavitt Thing is, SCSI never actually died. It never made in roads on the home market as an interface but it was the standard of choice in the corporate world. Although the physical interface is no more, the protocol set lives on in USB as it is how USB attached drives are seen (UASP). Its largely become the drive interface standard for physical interfaces that were not designed specifically for drives and in many ways is why USB has the footing it has.

[@kas9402]

Came here to complain that the SCSI port was overlooked! My first wacom! Super awesome! Still works, crazily enough

[@jsncrso]

Industrial equipment still uses RS232 serial ports very commonly. It's big advantage is being able to let software (your PC) and a piece of hardware without any drivers, and control signaling down to the bit level. All USB requires a driver to communicate

[@mitchellmnr]

Also because USB has a tendency to sleep or forget what it is doing - serial is more stable. In the security industry there is zero USB radio receivers - all serial. Even the companies that sell them state to not use USB to serial converters due to the aforementioned issues.

[@profklyzlr]

Also a reason why Proliffic, Agere, and in-rare-cases FTDI RS232USB chips are some of the most "OEM'd" around... ...an Arduino with a dubious USB232 adaptor chip is one of the most frustrating debug-missions going-round...

[@1anwrang13r]

Nearly all enterprise-grade networking kit still comes with RS232 serial ports for console access. They're often needed for initial setup and for troubleshooting. More and more of those switches and routers are also coming with USB console ports as well, but even those they're just pretending to be RS232 and typically sit alongside the conventional RS232 port.

[@jsncrso]

Yup, lots of equipment with USB connectors simply have a USB-RS232 chip in them @@profklyzlr

[@eirythma9404]

Agreed, I work on a software company for retail stores and POS is connected via RS232 to receipt printer and barcode readers. USB works but can stop working for w/e reason and need to be reconnected.

[@notenoughmonkeys]

One I wouldn't mind seeing (if you've not covered it aleady), as it's one of those time is a flat circle concepts is a TechQuickie on PC Cards. For those who don't know, long before Frame Work offered user changable ports etc., there was an industry standard in laptops for expansion bays, being able to provide upgradable storage, add Wi-Fi, that sort of thing. It went through many iterations, PCMCIA, PC Card, Express Card and so on. It's one of those interesting technologies where consumers as a whole were happier to dedicate the space for more battery life / more USB ports rather than the option of upgrading/changing them over time, even if that meant living that dongle life.

[@GTXDash]

Back in the day, we used the parallel port for network play in games like Doom 2. Did not need a network card and was surprisingly easy to set up because no need to set up for IP addresses and other technical stuff.

[@AzrethK9]

Using the laplink cable was also a easy way too get data between notebook and PC.

[@BenitaShabibo]

i remember playing offline diablo2 with my brother in different rooms with a long lpt cable that we tested data transfer at about 300kb a second. good times.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Old enough to have been there but never have seen or used one of those. We had 28.8kbps dailup thanks to old phonelines that liked to make the phone buzz on rainy days lol

[@GTXDash]

@ShenBabibo Yeah. The LTP Parallel protocol was faster and extremly stable than most modems and network cards back then. Connection issues and rubberbanding in FPSs started when we switched to Ethernet.

[@HelenaOfDetroit]

My brother and I played a ton of Duke Nukem 3D against each other using two computers connected via parallel port. It was ridiculously lag free and super fast.

[@SandorX2k]

Serial ports were not mostly limited to 9600 BPS before USB. In fact a major use of serial ports in the 90s was for external dial up modems up to 57.6 kbps.

[@1anwrang13r]

The original IBM PC/XT/AT and clones typically used the Intel 8250 UART chip to provide the serial ports. That could only buffer a single byte at a time which meant a practical limit of around 9600bps. Most of the PS/2s and later PCs had 16550 UARTs which could buffer up to 16 bytes and were usually good for up to 115.2Kbps. Now the important question is this - why can I easily remember that kind of technical trivia from 30 years ago, but I still can't reliably remember to take the trash out?

[@zorkmid1083]

​@@1anwrang13rWhich is more pleasant to remember? 😅

[@mre9593]

MIDI was another fun connection. they usually were available on a sound card

[@EstebanGrasso]

The gameport was actually also a midi port, that why it was usually with the soundcards

[@KesorodaBlk]

I only ever knew about the [.midi] format. The music plays very well (and loud) on mobile phone speakers!😊

[@Ph34rNoB33r]

You could use the midi port to connect for example midi-capable keyboards (I know someone who turned their piano into a midi keyboard).

[@_DRMR_]

@@Ph34rNoB33r As a kid I had a computer with a MIDI port, and a Keyboard with a MIDI port, however these ports did not look alike and I had no idea how I could connect them at the time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@absalomdraconis]

​@@_DRMR_ : Yep, needed a converter. I know they were available, but don't recall ever seeing them. Admittedly, it also needed software.

[@MegamanXGold]

Scanners used the Parallel Port and, using another Parallel port on the scanner, could pass through a connection to your printer, daisy-chaining like Thunderbolt. I was waiting for this to be mentioned and genuinely surprised that it was not.

[@AzrethK9]

My scanners had all SCSI back than, but I had serval parallel port devices like CD and ZIP drives or some special things like a DCF77 clock Receiver, card readers or relay cards.

[@randomgeocacher]

That’s not a standard feature of parallel ports, vendor specific stuff. I’ve seen similar vendor specific solution for serial COM port as well, Kodak Ektapro P-COM allows you to control a daisy chained array of slide film projectors from a computer, creating big multi-media :-)

[@MegamanXGold]

@@randomgeocacher Really?? I was sure that every scanner I owned at the time was the same way. I loved my Primax Colorado scanner back in the day, used it to scan my N64 game manuals and drawings for my friends.

[@daanwilmer]

There must've been some daisy chaining somewhere, I remember my dad owning some software that used a physical key in the printer port, that still allowed pass through for a printer. Somehow the printer driver could talk to the printer through that key, while the software could talk to that key and know it was present.

[@enosunim]

Cool! I forgot about this! Yeah, I have such scanner and it still works. It is not really a 'daisy-chaining' however = ) As you could not scan and print simultaneously. But you could use devices one at a time without reconnecting plugs, which was really convenient at the time.

[@Jason-mk3nn]

SCSI (and all of its iterations) was also really important back in those eras.

[@allenwand2818]

Yep for Scanners and High speed CD drives

[@pcfan1986]

Yes, but more as an internal connector. Of course it had external connectors for scanners and external drives, but most remember it as interanl like IDE.

[@kuhhnt]

BNC for networking, also the Parallel port via laplink cable for linking 2 PCs for PVP/co-op gaming and file transfer. Enter the CGA/EGA port also, pre-VGA port.

[@FlorianFahrenberger]

SCSI was used for the scanner we operated to create the yearbook after my school finals. I think that's the one I am missing in here. And maybe give a shout-out to the graphics connections of back then, like (but not exclusively) VGA and DVI.

[@IRMacGuyver]

SCSI is basically just a type of parallel port.

[@mattzukowski1207]

My first scanner was available in SCSI but the Microtek MRS-600Z was also available in it's own proprietary interface which had a performance edge.

[@dj4aces]

In the 80s and early 90s, mice also connected via serial port. I had one as a kid. Speaking of things I had in my younger days, I also owned a Diamond Rio and a ZIP drive. Those were the days.

[@tournamentmaster2000]

I have a serial port mouse lying around somewhere. I found it while I was looking for a ps/2 mouse for an industrial computer

[@dscrye]

Reminds me to get an expansion card to add a serial port so I can see if my ZIP drive still works.

[@kg4wwn]

And now to trigger some ancient trauma: Click Click Click :(

[@Ryarios]

I actually preferred the PS/2 ports over the early USB ports. First there was never enough USB ports, especially since back then, you still got all the other ports too, so you had to use a hub and a lot of those blew chunks. And, frankly I had fewer times where the keyboard or mouse seemed to freeze for a second or so like using USB. I liked the idea of taking any load I could off of the USB bus.

[@JJVernig]

Yep, PS/2 was IRQ-interrupt based, so the processor had to act.

[@avicohen2k]

Used the ps2 for keyboard up untill the 2010s

[@NicosLeben]

The Game port was also used for MIDI devices. In fact that was the only thing I used it for. To connect my keyboard to my soundcard.

[@NuminorTheFool]

It's worth noting that the Serial Port, Parallel Port and the Game Port are all more common names for what is essentially the same style of connector. Which is known as the 'D-type' or to put it's full name the D-subminiature. With the Serial Port known as a DE-9, Parallel Port as DB-25 and the Game port shown on the episode, which was made for joysticks being a DA-15 but not all game ports were DA-15s, in fact many of the original home consoles and early game systems actually used DE-9 for their Game ports. So yeah, Techquickie. How about a deep dive video on all the different styles of D-subminiature? Though, I suspect that if you did it wouldn't really fit the 'quickie' part of the channel.

[@1anwrang13r]

Don't forget that CGA and EGA displays also used 9-pin serial connectors as did IBM's Token Ring network cards.

[@zorkmid1083]

​@@1anwrang13r I don't think EGA and CGA were "serial" connectors, they just used the DB-9 form factor. The different connector types (DB-9, DB-25, etc.) could be serial, parallel, or whatever - the connector type had nothing to do with the function.

[@1anwrang13r]

@@zorkmid1083 You're right. What I should have said was "CGA and EGA displays also used the same connectors as 9-pin serial ports etc"

[@boblangill6209]

Another big difference: to provide additional ports on older PC's, you had to use a expansion card, and you had to configure the hardware using dip switches (little connectors between two pins). To configure the card correctly, you needed to know which interrupts were going to be used. I still recall having trouble getting a parallel port card working. I finally figured it out that the biggest, most obvious drawing in the documentation showed the dip switch in the wrong position.

[@daanwilmer]

I think you're confusing dip switches with jumpers? But yeah, I remember getting needle-nose pliers to switch a hard disk's configuration or making some changes on the motherboard.

[@drewzero1]

​@@daanwilmer I'm pretty sure I remember seeing both on different motherboards back in the day. Dip switches and jumpers are electrically identical.

[@absalomdraconis]

​@@drewzero1 : Yep, some manufacturers used dip switches, some used pin headers with jumpers, some switched back and forth based on time of the year, phase of the Moon, whether Mercury is retrograde, their horoscope, etc.

[@legojenn]

I don't miss those days. I also remember AGP video, PCI and ISA expansion cards and having to be selective on which type we bought so they'd all fit in. Good times.

[@drewzero1]

@@legojenn I feel like you still need to be careful about what will fit... Built a mATX PC recently and was surprised to find that the graphics card won't fit in the bottom x16 slot because it blocks the case headers, and it won't fit in the top x16 slot unless I leave one SATA port unplugged. It was reminding me of the way the ISA and PCI slots aligned so you had to choose which to use for a given expansion slot. I really don't miss trying to figure out IRQ settings for them though.

[@v2joecr]

You forgot that the joystick port on soundcards was also a MIDI port for a MIDI device to connect to including MIDI keyboards. There was also a bus mouse connector. The parallel port was also used for some scanners with a passthrough for a printer. SCSI was available for hard drives, optical drives, Iomega JAZ drives & scanners. (The drives could be used internally or in an external enclosure & the Jaz drive had both external & external versions.)

[@hedgeearthridge6807]

In the manufacturing world, the sort of USB connector equivalent is the M5, M8, and M12 Circular Connectors. They are used everywhere to connect everything, including carrying a surprising amount of voltage. And for good reason, they're IP67 or IP68 rated, so it's almost impossible for them to get shorted out by all the dust and water and crap that gets everywhere. I'm surprised they're not more common with hobbyists.

[@robertlinke2666]

firewire and optical ports, you also had VGA and DVI for monitor connections, still used today in business settings, or at leat the stingy ones IR receivers were also not uncommon to find on pc's back then

[@user-sv9mi5yd2d]

There was also GPIB, General Purpose Interface Bus, used predominantly for connecting technical equipment.

[@vartikcsaba]

I'm still using GPIB on Agilent3070 equipment.

[@casbot71]

How many of us still have boxes full of those cables....?

[@aparsons81]

No one mentioned SCSI which was often used as a faster alternative to a parallel port for connecting devices such as CD-ROM drives & ZIP drives.

[@Maverick842]

I’ve used every single one of those ports, and all I can say is I do not miss having to deal with manually assigning IRQ channels

[@BalancedSpirit79]

Back before I had a home LAN, I used Direct Cable Connection in Windows 95 to send data from my laptop to my desktop with a parallel cable. Took a little while but it wasn't bad for the time.

[@chriswathen9612]

Although they pushed Direct Cable Connection in Windows 9x as a replacement file transfer tool for the old Interlink tool that came with DOS, it was actually a lot more than just file transfer; it essentially implemented a software based NIC on the two computers - once the connection is up you can run any protocol and any network traffic you want over the connection as if you had two computers connected by a crossover cable (albeit much more slowly). If one of the computers has an actual NIC and an internet connection, you can bridge it over to the DCC and get the internet coming through the parallel port on the other computer! I actually do this in one of my retro setups to simulate sort of 56K modem-ish data transfer speeds whilst accessing theoldnet to get a more authentic experience.

[@Nikioko]

Before PS/2, you had the COM port. And LPT port. And DIN ports. And D-sub etc. My first USB device was a scanner back in 2000.

[@jonaslinter]

I find it quite funny how the names of National Standard organisations can occasionally just be used for specific concepts. Like the Iso setting in cameras or in this video the Din Port

[@EdKolis]

ASCII characters too!

[@BleuSquid]

As long as you're in the right context. If I'm talking about data, ISO usually refers to the date format ISO-8601. If I'm talking about physical media, ISO refers to the CD-ROM format ISO-9660 (this is why rips of CDs and DVDs have a .iso file extension) The old keyboard DIN port was just one specific DIN standard, but it's the only one relevant to keyboards - 5-pin DIN (DIN 41524). The PS/2 port is actually a DIN port as well - 6-pin mini-DIN (DIN 45322). This led to the occasional bit of confusion during the transition period.

[@disneyjay]

Cannot forget about SCSI. My first 2x CD-ROM drive was an internal SCSI drive, with the connection coming on the sound blaster Pro clone card I had.

[@AndyK.1]

Oh yeah. When sound cards had a header for CD-ROM

[@ahmadnoral-awad9639]

I am a PS/2 keyboard user till today and I love it The vintage look just gives a good vibe 😁

[@erjino]

"I was there, Gandalf. Three thousand years ago..."

[@craigmurray4746]

Many network switches still use serial ports for console access, but thankfully they have mostly used to using a USB-C or micro USB connector for that vs a full fat serial port or serial to RJ45 cable. Serial will never die, but as long as the connector morphs and keeps up, then it's good

[@Staren01]

This brought back memories of swapping devices around and dealing with good old IRQ conflicts.

[@fragalot]

i'm so old school i had a BUS MOUSE which was a logitech mouse that had its own dedicated card that connected to the computer's ISA BUS (thus the name) that had a DIN-like connector on the back for my mouse to plug into.

[@aah_einstein]

Recently, I've been using the serial port a lot since I've been working in fuel pumping company, as we have a lot of industrial automation devices that use both modus and profibus. Most of them are old, though, and the new ones have moved to usb and ethernet.

[@Pandamad]

I had a scanner, video capture card and Iomega Zip drive that all used external SCSI connections. Also the earliest CD burners used SCSI. IEEE 1394 commonly known as Firewire. The game port/joystick port was also capable of supporting MIDI devices. The 5-pin DIN connector for older keyboards was often call an AT connector. While 9600 baud was a common standard for serial communication, UART designs evolved to support higher baud rates.

[@brekmister]

Special application for serial port: Network equipment and some edge devices. Because most network equipment today (even bleeding edge) uses a text based interface to configure, an RJ45 port using the RS-232 protocol is built in so you can use your USB to RS-232 dongle to log in and manage the switch without having a default IP.

[@dangingerich2559]

My first computer was a 486SX with the old XT keyboard port and a serial mouse. So, I've seen a great many changes over the years. As a sysadmin, I still use serial ports for programming switches and other IT devices.

[@terminaljunk]

Fun fact, despite using the same connector the XT and AT (286) had different keyboard controllers so one would not work on the other - I still have a keyboard from the mid 1980's that has a switch to select between the two.

[@Jason-mk3nn]

Another wonderful explainer video. Nice to see a good reference that relates to modern connection types. Great work.

[@noelkelly4354]

My FIRST USB device didn't replace an old cable. It replaced 3½-inch floppy discs. It was a 256MB memory stick. One of the two best vendor giveaways I ever got.

[@brmolnar]

External SCSI. My 1999 Power Book had an external port for SCSI. A good way to have faster speeds and larger drives back at the time. PCMCIA - the old laptop expansion port. Old Macs had a networking protocol that would let you chain from computer to computer over what was basically phone wire. It was extended and would work over tcp. Can't remember the name anymore. But the connector to the computer was anything from a basic proprietary connector to a CAT-5.

[@ahadmrauf]

Back when I did my first EE internship, I remember my company had purchased eight, very expensive motor controllers to control my system, but didn't want to spend the couple hundred dollars each the company was charging for their serial cables. So I spent a few days on the job learning how to order and solder my own D-Sub 9 connectors 😂. TBH, I probably could have convinced someone to spend the money, but it was also stubborn undergrad pride to not spend money on overpriced cables that kept me from protesting too hard.

[@Anonymous-mf8ii]

I still have a pin insertion/removal tool somewhere.

[@coolsnake1134]

Also firewire. It was common on Mac but it was also found on some multimedia focused PCs from brands like Sony and HP. And it was used for things like mp3 players, external DVD drives, external hard drives and video cameras.

[@fungo6631]

It was found on any custom built PC that was used for multimedia. All you needed was a PCI or PCI-e x1 card.

[@Carewolf]

Also known as the insta-pwn port.

[@jpjokela1]

I used SCSI for my scanner with my Amiga. IIt's so much easier nowadays, when you can just have 3 USB cables that look the same. One can only transfer data, one can also be used for display, and only one can charge devices fast. Could have also mentioned that the "joystick port" was also used for MIDI. Yet another reason why it was such a good fit with sound cards.

[@Stratelier]

Because PS/2 keyboards and mice are interrupt-based, I distinctly remember that you COULD NOT plug in a mouse and run (certain) PC games unless _the game_ was able to catch the interrupts, otherwise just bumping the mouse would immediately hang the whole system. Fun times. Our first few family computers had ALL of the ports shown here: 9-pin serial, 25-pin parallel, 5-pin DIN ("AT") keyboard, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, "game port", then finally USB (via its own expansion card, before it became truly universal)

[@nickcardwell]

I don't know how it worked, but I remember having a MIDI cable that connected to the "game port" on my sound card. Actually worked pretty good for the time.

[@xnamkcor]

That's because the thing he called a "gameport" was actually a MIDI port, it just also eventually was used for gamepads.

[@absalomdraconis]

​@@xnamkcor : Nope, it was the gameport first, MIDI was added later. In fact, MIDI was added by swapping an extra power and ground for the MIDI serial pins. If MIDI had been given a PC connector all it's own then nowhere near as many pins would have been needed (4 was actually enough, as opposed to 15 on the gameport).

[@xnamkcor]

@@absalomdraconis That sounds true. but was the gameport on audio cards before it was midi?

[@jpstanley0]

A lot of current 3D printers, like the Ender series, speak the protocol of the serial port (essentially they contain USB to serial adapters). You can connect to them with terminal programs from the 90s and send commands.

[@cookies1702]

Print 3D with 90s computer sound fun😅

[@LMacNeill]

The SCSI bus (used mostly for hard-drives and CD-ROMs, but also for some external devices like scanners) had an external 50-pin port, which could take two different forms. One with 50 individual pins that looked like a giant parallel port, and the other which had a very large "slot" which had 50 edge-connector-looking pins that made contact with the giant male end of the plug. SCSI wasn't *super* common on PCs back in the '80s and '90s, but it was definitely there on the higher-end PCs, because it was a faster interface than the IDE available at the time, and it could support 7 devices on a single bus instead of IDE's two devices (one master, one slave) per bus. Although most IDE hard-drive interfaces had two IDE busses on them, so you would usually wind up with the ability to connect four IDE devices on any given computer.

[@4RILDIGITAL]

Really brought back some tech nostalgia about the various connector ports and the evolution to USB. Amazing to remember how each device had its own distinct port, and now it's mostly standardized.

[@bradtowne2305]

In a weird way, I kind of miss all of the various variety of ports and connections. I still think that for keyboards and other interface peripherals, the PS/2 ports were perfectly fine, and would honestly prefer they still used those.

[@Ripskin16]

I remember being excited to add in a Parallel port via expansion card. And the coiled AT 5 pin pre PS/2 keyboard and mouse port.

[@alhypo]

I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if he would cover the game port. 😂 I remember thinking it was pretty weird that I would connect my joystick to the sound card.

[@destrierofdark_]

because the port's primary reason for being on those cards was for midi devices.

[@alhypo]

@@destrierofdark_ hmm... Funny, it still seems weird to plug a joystick into a sound card even after reading an unsolicited answer to a question I didn't ask. 😛

[@destrierofdark_]

@@alhypo sure, because the association is made by far more people that the port is for video game peripherals, when in truth its primary purpose in life was audio hardware. it's kinda icky when you grab a kettle plug to power your pc in a pinch, but it's the same cord. feels wrong, but it's legal.

[@alhypo]

@@destrierofdark_ Really? Your kettle uses a C13/C14 power cable? I've never seen that before. 🤔

[@destrierofdark_]

@@alhypolots of kettles do. that cord is used in a lot of other places, including in the kitchen. look around a department store and you'll definitely find c13/c14 hanging around.

[@Zurich_for_Beginners]

The USB-RS232 adapter cable is still a important part in my toolbox at work. So can connect to some devices to pull logs an update firmware.

[@madTVwatcher2]

There was also FireWire, which was used by a lot of camcorders, imaging devices, hard drives and iPods, it was often faster than usb 1 or 2, but it usually only found on Macs and some Sony PCs

[@kstarler]

I'd like to see a video on SCSI and whether it's an interface that is still around today. I remember SCSI drives being insanely expensive in the 90's/early 00's.

[@arnezbridges93]

SCSI still exists, but has a different name and an upgraded speed. It's almost only seen on a type of Data Center Server, though you can buy a card to use then for home PC,

[@craigmurray4746]

The original SCSI that used wide ribbon cables internally and chunky external cables for devices is long gone. However, the command set is used in USB3 for thing like flash and external hard drives. SAS stands for serial attached SCSI and is used pretty much exclusively in the server world for hard drives or tape drives, using a connector that is a half brother to a SATA connector.

[@morenauer]

I know, I'm old enough to have used all of those AND more.

[@philipmcdonagh1094]

One thing you said about the old stuff it worked. I've a fairly new PC and I can be sitting using it only to hear that USB disconcerting / connecting sound because its lost contact to one of the myriad of things connected via USB.

[@eldibs]

I actually used a USB-to-PS/2 converter for a long time because I often found myself running short on USB ports, and I didn't see any point in using one up when I had a dedicated port available specifically for mice and keyboards.

[@TitaniumFPV]

I’ve litterally spent the last two weeks hunting down a PC that still has a parallel port to run my CNC as the old laptop self combusted. Didn’t wanna spend over on a janky parallel to usb motion controller.

[@nielsarensman]

Lots of business prebuilts still have options for them. Asus also still makes motherboards where you can put a parallel port on such as the Asus PRIME B760M-PLUS.

[@TitaniumFPV]

@@nielsarensman yeah I looked into a pcie add on card. Unfortunately Mach 3 software doesnt really like it and all usb to parallel are actually only in serial. So moving forward it will be an external motion controller or make the switch to a new grbl machine without the need for a second computer to run it. Just load up the cut files onto a memory card from my design pc and put it straight on the machine much like most 3d printers. Gives a good excuse to upgrade and invest in a bigger machine at least.

[@nielsarensman]

@@TitaniumFPV I actually did not mean adding a parallel port through the pcie connectors but on the LPT connector. There are pci brackets with a parallel port on a cable that connects to the LPT port. But replacing the CNC is also a solution.

[@user-lz2mu9uq4e]

This week my parents tried to get my "old" PC working. They found PS/2 keyboard and... my "old" Taichi X370 motherboard has a port for it! I've also seen COM and LPT port headers on some Ryzen gaming motherboards.

[@johnmcgaw2753]

Several of the early machines I bought/built utilized SCSI ports of one form or another for external disk drives and QIC tape drives and my HP scanner and then later for a DAT drive. Very advanced for their time.

[@marcoskatsuragi]

On series 286,386 the doors were all the same color, it was easy to mess up. In the 486 the VGA (board, there was no onboard) were already in blue. But even the sound pins on the SoundBlaster 8 or 16 were all the same color. Hard times.

[@smokeduv]

I would add the FireWire port, which most Macs had and some PCs had too. It was better than the USB of the era, but there were very little devices that supported and like the Thunderbolt of today, those devices were more expensive. They're still used today in some recording studios because most of the studios preferred Mac and most of those devices did used FireWire. They're almost obsolete now because Apple dropped the driver in the latest OS

[@shalevhaham]

I gotta be honest - the only three ports I actually need are Type C, Lightning and 3.5mm (The reason I like lightning is because of its superior water resistance compared to USB C)

[@IIGrayfoxII]

Things not mentioned. PS/2 ports, Serial ports and Parallel ports were NOT color coded in the beginning They were just black. Color coding came in with the PC-97 design standard for PS/2 and PC-99 for everything else. PS/2 ports also have a more direct connection to the CPU so it has less latency and PS/2 keyboards do not suffer from Ghosting like USB keyboards do The speed issue does not only effect the Parallel port, but ANY Parallel based connection IDE or PATA(Parallel ATA) also suffered issues with high data speeds would cause "Crosstalk" This was somewhat mitigated by using a cable with 80 conductors instead of the standard 40 conductor cable The extra 40 conductors were just grounds. Gameport was also used for MIDI devices.

[@bryanmakesstuff]

I've been having to revisit external SCSI for some tape backups. Talk about fun there. There's several standards using the same connector, and you can easily fry gear if not matched correctly.

[@moofey]

Another reason why sound cards had a game port: It doubled as a MIDI port

[@Martin_from_SC]

I miss the old ports... computing was much simpler back then.

[@gus473]

Yup, just strap into the desk, grab a donut and a Diet Doctor Pepper, and wait for the thing to boot up while preparing to fax some documents. Good times. 🙄😉✌️

[@triadwarfare]

I don't remember it being that simple. It takes 5-10 minutes to restart the computer. You actually had to "defrag" to make your computer run a bit faster and that process takes half a day. Also, I think prior computers were more complicated than the pre-USB generation where there's plenty of daughterboards for every function

[@Martin_from_SC]

@@triadwarfare the DOS era was pretty cool. Windows 95/98 was quite bad because they were just running on top of DOS.

[@coolsnake1134]

One that I used that you didn't cover was SCSI. It was both an internal port for hard drives mainly found on servers and workstations but also offered an external option that again could be used for external hard drives, external tape drives and again it was mainly found on servers. Another one is the serial port but with an RJ45 connector instead of a DB9 connector, that was commonly found on Enterprise routers and switches so that you could manage them and configure them using a command line interface. Think Cisco iOS

[@coolsnake1134]

One I still occasionally have to work with is BNC which was common for CCTV security camera systems as well as the rg6 F connector, which is still used to this day because it is the connection used for coax cables for things like over the air TV, retro game consoles, cable TV and cable internet

[@whytecold]

The RJ45 serial ports are still around on modern hardware. For scientific equipment the RS-232 serial ports are mostly being replaced by ethernet connections nowadays.

[@cobaltninjas]

The majority of the customers at my work use serial ports (industrial), another benefit of serial (using the RS232 protocol) is the distance the cables can be as well. However a lot of them are being retrofitted to send serial over ethernet because the converter boxes are cheaper than ordering serial cards.

[@johnsparozich6839]

Yes used all of the ports prior to USB

[@shapelessed]

I honestly love how USB, the "universal SERIAL bus" has secretly become a parallel bus, with introduction of USB 3.0.

[@randomgeocacher]

No? USB 3.0 is serial single lane full duplex (one lane up, one lane down). USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 is multi-lane, i.e. two independent serial lanes. Serial clock implicit, encoded into the serial lane. Neither USB is a traditional parallel port, that’s why it works pretty well at high speed. Traditional parallel cables had interference problems and out of sync problems on long cables at high speed; that’s why virtually everything is using serial communication today with a few exceptions (like e.g. QSPI).

[@gljames24]

​@@randomgeocacherI think they are referring to the fact that USB 3 has support for SCSI commands that allow for faster data transport for things like hard drives. USB 4's data transfer protocol has superseded this and now only tunnels USB 3.0 commands. That being said, the distinction between serial and parallel, like digital and analog is really blurred and doesn't really make sense in extremely optimized networking connections like USB 4 as it uses things like PAM-3 and alternate modes that can have a mix of serial and parallel technologies.

[@Youckle]

That was a nice trip down memory lane. Some ports that come to mind are RG-58/BNC connector for networking, S/PDIF for digital audio, SCSI for disk/tapedrives and scanners, VGA/EGA display ports. Nowadays all you have to plug in is a single USB-type-C cable to your dock and all peripherals are connected.

[@llamatronian101]

Oh man, early networking was the best. 10-base-2, vampire plugs, oh my.

[@TEKMOTION]

The serial port used a connector called DB9. This was an IEEE design from the early 50"s (1953?). The original monochrome monitors used a DB9 for a connector as well. The early 286's and 386's is you had to be real careful not to plug in your mouse into the graphics port because it was the same connector. When Vga came out it used a combination of analog and digital signals so the DB9 had 15 pins. That was also a source of foul language .

[@trevorbradley3737]

I am 49 and am severely called out by this video. PS/2 was not hot swappable. I managed to fry a motherboard by pulling one live. It worked fine, just no more keyboard input. Not a good day at my co-op work term. Surprised the old XT keyboard connector wasn't mentioned. About 1cm across, it was very popular in the late 80s for PCs.

[@MegamanXGold]

Was the XT the one that looks like a giant PS/2? Also, I think they specifically said the PS/2 was not hot swappable when they were referencing the USB adapter, because USB is normally a hot swappable connector. In my experience, unplugging a PS/2 device, or USB device adapted to PS/2, would either freeze a computer or the port would no longer work until a complete system restart. That experience with the motherboard sounds awful, yikes.

[@MinePlay25YTB]

If bro thinks VGA is ancient, he still hasn't come to India 💀💀💀

[@Dukenukem]

PS2 also helps you if you really need to get into UEFI-BIOS after quick start disables your USB periferies for the extra seconds. I keep one PS/2 keyboard at home just for those situations (I have yet to see MB without this port)

[@SadlyBest]

I'm certain you covered these, I had an external SCSI CD-ROM drive, and used Firewire (IEEE 1394) for a while. Thank you, for this great trip down memory lane

[@petwisk2012]

I tend tô prefer gabinets with PS2 ports since It let the USB port free for other uses

[@Jellysem_06]

Please add chapters.

[@Charlesb88]

You missed SCSI (Pronounced SKUZ-ee), aka Small Computer System Interface, which was the de-facto way to connect high-data transfer parietals like external hard drives and flatbed scanners before USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt existed. While not very common on home PC’s, it did see use in enterprise PC’s (via an add-on card) and was also universal on Macintosh Plus and later Macs prior to the original iMac. It was a parallel-type port that supported much higher data transfer speeds then even the fastest Parallel Bi-directional port (aka Printer port). You could Daisy chain like 7 different parietals (or more in later version of the spec) so long as each was assigned it’s own unique address (done via dip switches or other means) on the back of each device). You also had to make sure the last device was terminated via a terminator device that plugged in second SCSI port on the last device. It was commonly used for things like large external storage devices (such as external hard drives, SyQuest drives, and Jazz Drives) and flatbed scanners.

[@fungo6631]

The PCMCIA slot was more comparable to thunderbolt as it was electrically identical to ISA or PCI and found on Laptops. You could in theory make a PCI eGPU enclosure connected via PCMCIA and get 3DFX Voodoo graphics on a laptop (though you had to use a monitor).

[@Charlesb88]

@@fungo6631 But Thunderbolt is used these days for applications where SCSI was was used. On laptops, PCMCIA (and later ExpressCard) did replace SSCI for some purposes but not on Desktops where ISA/PCI/PCIe/etc have always existed so USB/Firewire/Thunderbolt served as SCSI replacements in many instances (SCSI still is used today but in modern forms like Serial attached SCSI, iSCSI (SCSI over Ethernet), USB attached SCSI, Fibre Channel (SCSi over fiber optic cables).

[@namelessbag]

I'm literally still using a 2005 PS/2 keyboard on the 1300€ gaming PC that I built last year. My USB keyboard died after only 2 weeks of use, and then I saw that my motherboard still had that ancient port available. Surprised to see that this old ass keyboard with nearly 2 decades full of use is still working flawlessly

[@_____alyptic]

*Petition:* If the headphone jack isnt coming back, we should have two USB-C ports on phones. One on top, and one on bottom.

[@procrastinatingnerd]

I just used a serial connection about a week ago to reset the configuration on a new to us switch that we got. The switch is from July 2010, I think serial is probably the one old port that still is used for many things today. It's main advantage is that it is such a rugged spec. It just works.

[@nathanielswanson5730]

We use serial ports at work for display output from little appliance boxes. Since we have so many of them all on a rack, it's not not needing any monitors at the rack. Just SSH into the box the serial is connected to and connect to the serial port. Also really handy for remotely installing an OS on something that doesn't have IPMI or iKVM.

[@almeisam]

My first scanner used a SCSI port. Had to install an expansion card and driver for it. And the parallel port was often called the Centronics parallel port.

[@r.j.bedore9884]

I had an old PC that had a Midi port that allowed you to connect a music keyboard to the computer. You could also hook up a tape recorder to it to make mix tapes from CDs you put in the CD drive, or back up data to tapes. It was pretty cool, but I was pretty young when we had that computer and our next one didn't have that.

[@natbarmore]

That whole mess (except ADB) you talk about in the video, with half a dozen different, sometimes-colorcoded ports, was a thing I mostly never had to deal with: except for when I worked in the U computer lab, I was only dealing with Macs and Unix machines (which had their _own_ mess of not-always-clearly-identified ports). So for me, the ‘80s and ‘90s were SCSI, ADB, Ethernet (RJ-45 and that twist-lock token-ring connector), and the round serial port that looks like an ADB or PS/2 port with way more pins. Oh, and display connectors - DVI, multiwire BNC cables, multiwire RCA connectors, and I don’t remember what Macs used before DVI. And MIDI ports.

[@XionSteel]

still use the old serial port cables as a means to connect to certain devices in a data center i work at and sometimes we have to use it as a means to connect to a really old monitor, but more often then not we now use dvi-d to display cables on our personal setups.

[@nathanielescudero5379]

I'm glad you mentioned DIN, that was my first keyboard's connector, I needed to find a PS/2 adaptor. All mechanical, so loud and heavy and doom didn't work with more than 3 simultaneous key presses. We rejoiced once membrane keyboards were produced. Oh look how the cycle of history turns....

[@johnpaulbacon8320]

Nice video. I had used a SCSI (S)mall (C)omputer (S)ystem (I)nterface. The IDE also known as - Parallel ATA (PATA) was used a lot as well. The IDE cables had to bet as Master or Slave. The SCSI cable had to have a terminator for propper operation similarly to how IDE devices had to set to Master or Slave. Then there was the PCMCIA interface AKA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. Those were the days ; always having to make sure that the IDE devices were set properly and that the scsi cables had a terminator.

[@Thomas-po4ex]

I use the serial port almost every day for work. The port is bulky, the pins can be finicky, and the port breaks easily. However, the port also just works with basically no drivers and still has tons of support through adapters and hubs. I was kind of amazed that even the M3 MacBook Pro I got recently works perfectly with serial ports and I can test hardware devices and run massive control systems right from that laptop and everything just seems to work exactly how I would expect it to even though some of the devices I connect to are multiple decades old at this point.

[@zachcrawford5]

I remember in the late 90s my older brother found a way to rig an original SNES controller up to a serial port. He opened up the cables and bradded the wires in the SNES controller cable to the wires in the serial cable and wrapped the all connections in duck tape, and got it working on a SNES emulator, it was amazing at the time and it actually lasted for years.

[@user-vh6jh3do3q]

I'm working in an institute, and GPIB ports are being used in our lab. The thing is that each GPIB port (or card?) has a specific number (address) and usually won't change. So, we just labelled our instrument with the GPIB address in order to choose the right instrument in the software.

[@brickviking667]

I've used SCSI, both the 50-wire variant, and the SCSI-2 (many more wires) connector. This could be used to connect external drives, scanners and printers too. I'd also dealt with older MFM and RLL drive cables, and even a true blue ESDI cable set. Blech. I have also had the "pleasure" of using SCART, as it was one of the few ways I could daisy-chain a Digital TV decoder to a VCR to a television. That was an interesting ride, especially when I found I couldn't do what I wanted with _any_ other connector family. The only real headache was in working out which order to connect things in. I've also seen (but not used) S-Video. SCART wasn't strictly a computer connector, but S-Video most certainly was. I'd also used MDA/CGA and EGA video connector, and dealt with the dubious pleasure of hooking up a cassette player to another one of those DIN5 ports. Sigh.

[@Tense]

Thank you, Riley. I appreciate you not being patronizing in showing just how old some of us are.

[@pinkflamingo8806]

We used parallel ports with a built-in direct connect program in windows. We were even able to directly network 2 PCs with a crossover cable, and then use a parallel cable to a 3rd PC to play StarCraft over LAN. This same program could be used to do the same thing with infrared ports on old laptops. To play StarCraft of course.

[@manofwill2468]

Fun fact! Com ports are still used quite a bit in the AV Industry! Specifically on professional displays to renotely turn them on/off using RS-232!

[@_OS_]

RS-232C is also used for maintance servers, network and other specific hardware. And not be replaced in nearly future.