Big keyboard jack, serial for mouse, parallel for printer
I’m in this picture.
Nailed it! I was going to post the DIN-5 kb connector.
In my day, the RJ-11 jack was for connecting the keyboard, not the phone line.
Okay that’s something I had no idea about hahaha
The first three Macs had this jack in the front for the keyboard and a PC-like serial port in the back for the mouse. With the Mac SE and II, the switched to ADB, which looked like a PS/2 port, but you could daisy chain your mouse, keyboard, and other inputs like tablets or joysticks all into one jack in the back of the computer.
With the Mac SE and II, the switched to ADB, which looked like a PS/2 port, but you could daisy chain your mouse, keyboard, and other inputs like tablets or joysticks all into one jack in the back of the computer.
The port looks similar - both are mini-DIN - but ADB has four pins while PS/2 has six.
ADB was first introduced in 1986 on the Apple IIgs, and later was used in all Macs from the SE until the iMac. For the first few years there were two ADB ports, but in 1990 (maybe starting with the Mac IIsi?) they reduced it to one and started shipping keyboards with ports to daisy chain the mouse from.
Fairly certain my first computer used something like this for the keyboard. I did not have a mouse.
IIRC, that’s electrically compatible with the smaller, more fragile PS/2 connector. The adapters are just wiring it down to the smaller connector (and maybe some impedance matching resistors?).
I did have a converter from this to a ps/2 connection when I got a newer computer.
Should also work with a USB to PS/2 so you can use it on a modern machine if you want. Some modern keyboards are still backward compatible as well. I have a USB keyboard I can use on my old Din machines using two adapters.
Only if it’s an AT keyboard. XT keyboards are incompatible and require active conversions. They use the same port.
I remember having a friend ask why my mouse connected to a s-video port.
Back in my day they weren’t color coded.
That’s because color hadn’t been invented yet and therefore people could only see in black and white. That’s why old shows don’t have color.
Well they were pretty racist in spite of not seeing color
Well, they could still see in black and white…
Back in my day days didn’t exist /s
Look at you with your fancy ps/2 keyboard port. Where’s my AT port and 9 pin serial mouse.
Look at you with your fancy AT port.
Where’s my altair with front panel register switches
Ok, I’m not that old either, but still
Old enough
“hey guys–”
JOYSTICK PORT!
“not what I’m called.”
Yeah a 9 pin dsub. Still used widely in industry applications and other Fields. Edit: just saw that these were used for mouse or keyboard input, wth. This is truly old.
if I remember correctly my first PC had the bigger DIN connector for the keyboard and a DSUB9 for the mouse. Guess I’m old ;)
I’m this old.
I’m punchcard Fortran old.
Yeah well my first computer typed in cuneiform so get off my lawn you kids
Typed! Back in my day we just got a wire that you had to lick in binary to tell the computer what to do.
A wire!? We just got raw sand and had to scratch out a calculation ourselves.
My brother in Christ, I also used this
And I’m 17
old
PS/2
No, not the PlayStation…
First one at home for me too.
Haha yeah I was hoping someone would make a PS/2 not PS2 joke!
An elegant port for a more civilized time
Nothing civilized about no hot plugging. Had to restart the whole damn computer, if the cable was loose or out at startup.
I loved the PCs that had Ctrl + up as a shortcut to flip the monitor orientation. I think it was a Dell thing?
My favourite prank was to flip the screen upside down then unplug the keyboard. Good luck saving your work fuck face
I wanna say there’s a Windows hotkey for that now.
Maybe, but it’s just not the same if you can plug your keyboard back in and fix it. CURSE YOU USB
Quote joke referencing Obi Wan Kenobi…
If you only knew the power of the hot plug!
I know hot plug is a path to many abilities some considering to be unnatural!
A yung’un huh
