What is a Koala Pad and how do I test it?
The Koala Pad is drawing pad peripheral. It ‘looks like’ a two-button joystick to your Apple II. So, any software which accepts joystick input can use the pad. This includes the paint program originally included with the pad (the “Koala Micro-Illustrator”), “Blazing Paddles”, “Dazzle Draw”, “816 Paint”, and many other programs. The Koala Pad has the old 16-pin game plug. It is supposed to be plugged into the Old Game Port socket. This is an ‘IC socket’ near the back right side of the Apple II (II+, IIe, IIgs) motherboard. The cable end should be facing toward the back. It’s a good idea to get a 9-pin plug -to- 16-pin socket converter cable so that the pad can be plugged into the newer, external, 9-pin Game Port. This makes it much easier to unplug the pad when you want to swap-in a joystick for games. The converter cable is not hard to build; or, you may find one at a swap meet. You can test your KoalaPad using software which checks joysticks. For example, touching the stylus to the up
