This artifact vexes me.

I assumed it was a sync cable header for a light pen card, because you know, DE9 and all says "CGA video" to me. I assumed that it was plugged into the wrong header in the eBay auction by mistake. Because of course it was the sync cable header, right?

It is not a sync cable header. It is a connector for a light pen.

Cue record scratch. I have the light pen connector header for the very first card FTG made and it's just an RJ11 wall box, just like the Warp Speed pen is.

... so where does a DE9 light pen connector come from?

#retrocomputing #lightpen

The slight tingly sensation I get from having a new wrinkle to explore now is outweighed by my annoyance that I now have to cobble together my own sync cable after all