Posted by Bstrache on February 14, 2002 at 09:54:49:
I have been thinking about this topic for awhile now. Does anyone remember serial keyboards? Serial keyboards could only send one keystroke to the computer at a time. It was not possible to send multiple key signals to the computer. I believe this type of setup would work well for all those 4-way games out there, while using an 8-way joystick. I was also thinking, would it be possible to setup a PS/2 encoder and a serial keyboard hack. Possibly mount a switch to change between the two setups.
I have been searching for serial keyboards for some time, without luck, until now.
I found one here: http://cableclub.com/view_product.asp?item_no=25831
The picture seem to be inaccurate, it shows a PS/2 connector instead of serial. The site also shows that the keyboards are out of stock. Serial keyboards did however require dos drivers, if I am remembering correctly. However many people use mame in dos.
Just another thought; would it be possible to add serial functionality to an encoder? Possibly have an encoder output serial and ps2 signals and switch between them.