What is the Wico Smartcard?

[Cloudscout]

I have an Apple IIe system with a card in it that I'm not familiar with. The card is made by Wico (the joystick folks) and has a label on one of the chips that says "Smartcard 2e".

The card has an external DB-9 male connector and it also "intercepts" the keyboard's ribbon cable. That is, the keyboard plugs into this card and then another ribbon cable goes from the card into the socket on the motherboard where the keyboard is supposed to plug in.

The only information I've been able to find online are references to the (now expired) trademark registration from 1984 and a bunch of magazine ads from 1985 offering the card for sale.

My guess is that this is some kind of adapter to allow Atari/Commodore style digital joysticks to be used with the Apple IIe by mapping up/down/left/right/fire to keyboard scancodes but I have no idea.

Does anybody here know anything about this card?

 

[magnusfalkirk]

I have an Apple IIe system with a card in it that I'm not familiar with. The card is made by Wico (the joystick folks) and has a label on one of the chips that says "Smartcard 2e".

The card has an external DB-9 male connector and it also "intercepts" the keyboard's ribbon cable. That is, the keyboard plugs into this card and then another ribbon cable goes from the card into the socket on the motherboard where the keyboard is supposed to plug in.

The only information I've been able to find online are references to the (now expired) trademark registration from 1984 and a bunch of magazine ads from 1985 offering the card for sale.

My guess is that this is some kind of adapter to allow Atari/Commodore style digital joysticks to be used with the Apple IIe by mapping up/down/left/right/fire to keyboard scancodes but I have no idea.

Does anybody here know anything about this card?

I did some looking on the internet and what I came up with indicates that it was an interface card for their Smart Mouse or Smart Ball (trackball) for the Apple II. I found it on a Korean page that Google translated into English.

At least that's my two cents worth.
Dean

 

[dorkbert]

It's an early attempt to integrate pointing device into text based applications. I have a complete set (trackball + card) with varies application preboot diskettes. I got it along with some other bits from an fleaBay estate sale (all $300 worth) I've since sold of some pieces (a couple Apple IIIs and Disk III) from it.