• mercano@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Early PC only had 5 card slots, and the only jack on the motherboard was the keyboard. One slot is going to be used by a video card, one’s probably being used by a hard drive controller, one’s probably used by a parallel + serial card. Soundcards also included controller ports to try to save a slot.

    • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      I thought sometimes they called them game ports (for the joystick.)

      I reasoned if you are installing a sound card, you are probably doing some gaming, so it made sense to sort of bundle those together.

      • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Its on the sound card because it’s a midi port. Its designed for connecting a keyboard (as in electronic piano). Most people used it for gamepads but that’s not what it was there for.