Welcome to the evolution of USB... The path from the original IBM PC to now, has been a relatively short one, but still one tangled in webs of cables. USB seems so common place now, it's sometimes hard to imagine what we used before it?
Well, thanks to a multitude of connections such as RS-232 (Serial), Centronics Parellel and the splendid Gameport, we were able to use many a device without issue.... maybe.