Old PC Mouse and Keyboard Question

minimaniac

Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2019
Messages
8
Hi all,

I am no stranger to PC gaming, but it is of the modern variety.

I was given the below machine which is a Pentium 200mhz but for the life of me I have no idea how to connect a mouse and keyboard as it obviously doesnt have a ps/2 or usb port.

Have done some googling but its confusing me even more.

So my question to you folk is, what do i need to acquire to enable me to plug in a mouse and keyboard and to which port.

Thank you :)

 
Keyboard needs a DIN Connector (yes there are all kind of adapters...good luck testing) ;)

din keyboard.jpg

Mouse would be serial (yea, there are also adapters but...good luck testing)

serial mouse.jpg

...or just buy old hardware.
 
While we're at it - If you want a joystick*, that would go into that extra port on the sound card.

*Yes, stick. Gamepads on PCs mostly weren't a thing back then, but if you must have one, Gravis has you covered.
 
I find it oddly endearing that male and female connectors are apparently called Papa and Mama in Russian.

:)
in Russian, a phrase said in different intonations may have different meanings
the meaning of the phrase may vary depending on the situation in which it is pronounced
 
:)
in Russian, a phrase said in different intonations may have different meanings
the meaning of the phrase may vary depending on the situation in which it is pronounced
My understanding of Russian is limited to the alphabet for now, but it does really seem like a nice language. Oddly both similar and different from latin languages.

On-topic: Such old mice and keyboards can usually be found for dirt cheap where you'd buy old electronics. Yard sales, schools getting rid of old hardware, PC shop backstores and the likes are your friends.
 
I know that isn't the newest thread, but depending on the age of the motherboard it may have a PS/2 header on the board that a ps/2 mouse port can be connected to.

Good mouse to look for is the microsoft intellimouse most of them supported bot serial and ps/2 (there's even a wireless variant).
 
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