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From: cdold@starfish.Convergent.COM (Clarence Dold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.periphs
Subject: Re: Using a Joystick instead of a Mouse
Message-ID: <618@starfish.Convergent.COM>
Date: 5 Aug 88 18:09:52 GMT
References: <1129@gethen.UUCP>
Organization: Convergent Technologies, San Jose, CA
Lines: 8

>   Have any of you plugged an Atari joystick into the serial port and used it
>   instead of a mouse?  Doing so would make playing some games easier.

Assuming we're talking about an 'Atari 400/800/1200' joystick:
The joystick only has switches, not pots.  The return value will be a bit or
two indicating direction, there is no 'off-center' value to indicate how
far you might be pushing the stick.
With the polling rate on the Atari, that was okay, but on a PC or AT, I would 
expect to reach the limits of the screen before I could let go of the stick.