Ah. I remember it well. Parallel ports. 9 & 25 pin serial ports. Setting speed, stop bits etc via DIP switches and software. Checking your serial cable was the right one (straight through or null-modem). And video: there was DVI, VGA, and before VGA, weren't there a bunch of different connectors?

March 22, 2026 - 18:03 UTC

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I had a job interview for a stores job at a university media faculty. They dumped a dozen different cables on the desk and asked me to define their use relative to the correct piece of hardware
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Oh gosh. Monochrome display adaptor(MDA), Hercules Graphics card, Professional Graphics Controller (PGC), Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) and Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA). These seem to use 9 pin connectors, but how you know if your monitor worked with your Graphics card I don't know.
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From dim memory - you tried it. If it worked, then.. it worked. If the magic smoke came out of one device or the other, well, then that was game over. Anything else, you had another throw of the cable-dice...
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