[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Mouse emulating a joystick

everett@hpcvlx.HP.COM (Everett Kaser) (06/28/88)

Sorry, but you're probably out of luck.  The mouse, from its inception, had
a DRIVER that software applications talked to in order to get input from the
mouse.  This hid the actual mouse hardware from the programmer, allowing lots
of different mice to be used by the same program without ANY modifications
to the program, only a new DRIVER for that new mouse.

HOWEVER, the joystick never had a DRIVER!  Each application had to talk
directly to the joystick hardware, which was always the same.  The result of
this situation is that you can write a DRIVER to make a joystick look like
a mouse, but you can't write a driver to make a mouse look like a joystick,
because the application talks straight to the hardware, and mouse hardware
doesn't look like joystick hardware.

Now, that's not to say that a HARDWARE solution isn't possible.  I can
imagine a mouse controller that interfaced to the system the same way a
joystick controller (game port adapter) does.  But, I've never seen anything
like this.

Everett Kaser
!hplabs!hp-pcd!everett