For some reason I always found it fun messing with serial cables, and always had a desk draw full of various types (cross-over, gender-benders, db9-db25 etc), as well as occasionally needing to make custom ones.
I still have a USB terminal server for when I want to play with old stuff like my DECTalk (VCR-sized speech synth) which has two DB-25 serial ports on it.
I did the same thing! I actually got my first soldering iron (and learned how to use it) so that I could wire to my own connectors. Building a home-made graph-link cable for my TI-83 in particular was a fun experience, as well as a good education in what can go wrong when you mess up soldering.
I still have a USB terminal server for when I want to play with old stuff like my DECTalk (VCR-sized speech synth) which has two DB-25 serial ports on it.