If I wanted to buy a gaming joystick, which came in either a game port or a USB version, which should I buy? I have both a game port and 2 USB ports on my machine. If I got the USB version, would I have to disable the game port? Any adv./disadv. with either? Thanks.

I run a Joypad from my gameport and a wheel from the USB port (and another USB joystick). All of them work together fine (you don't need to disable the gameport). Both USB and Gameport devices perform the same on my system, so I would buy one for whatever slot you have free (or the cheapest if there is any difference). The only problem I've had are where certain games will only recognise controller ID #1. If you have two controllers connected (1 through the gameport and 1 through USB), you can swap their controller IDs in the Game Controllers menu in Control Panel. Newer games seem to have been written to accomodate more than 1 controller and so this is becoming less of a problem.