HI,

I'd love to be able to hook up my old Zipstick to my laptop for a bit of retro gaming...no this is not a double en tendre for those too young or old to know about the mighty Zipstick a la C64 and Amiga days

It has a 9 pin RS232 type end...

I have 3 thoeries...
1) Plug it into the RS232 port of my laptop - this seems too easy a solution and doesn't work straight off...expect I need to work out a driver for it but no idea where to start.
2) You can get a RS232 to USB adapter for a couple of quid...with drivers...any idea whether I'd have any luck with these?
ABC Products USB to 9 Pin DB9 Serial RS-232 converter: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
3) Butcher a cheap joypad to connect a male 9 pin adapter in place of the actual pad and the fire button for one of the other buttons - I reckon this may be the best chance I've got.

Any ideas would be welcomed.
Cheers,
WIO

Welcome wolf in Oz..

Let me hook you up with one who more than likely has an idea to what you are trying.

Marked as open, and letting those know who may be able to help.

Thanks for your patience

Hi Wolf,

It will be a lot easier and cost effective for you to simply get hold of the PC version of this joystick, for example, this one here: Buy Powerplay Competition Pro 5000 Joystick (PC) Detailed Online Price Search

It's not possible to simply connect it directly to the PC. The issue is building a driver or interface that will actually talk to the joystick, as it's not a device that Windows will recognise via the Add Hardware wizard. I've taken a snoop around the net to see if a driver had been written for such a device with no luck, but I did find some information on how to build an interface: PC COMPETITOR INTERFACE

EDIT: Marked as Answered.