How do I control soft switches?

[hiroki@limerick.cbs.umn.edu (Hiroki Morizono)]

Hi, I'm trying to open/close a switch using  a solid state relay, from
the game port of an apple2e, using game controller 0
(there is this piece of lab equipment that needs to be turned on and off at 
20 second intervals)


The program looks something like this:

10 INPUT "on interval"; A
20 INPUT "off interval"; B
30 INPUT "repeats "; C
40 FOR L = 1 to C
50 POKE -16295,253   
60 FOR O = 1 TO A : NEXT O
70 POKE -16296, 0    
80 FOR F = 1 TO B : NEXT F
90 NEXT L

-16295, -16296 are supposed to turn the game control output  on and off,

So before doing anything, I decided to just put wires in pins 5 and 3,
Game control 0, and ground , and hook em up to a multitester. Got no changes 
when I ran the thing. (I used long intervals--100, 300 etc) 
Pin 2 (+5V) and Pin 3 (Gnd) gives me back 5v, so it isn't a loose connection. 

How do I turn on and off the soft switches? 

Am I right in assuming that once TTL is set high, it stays high, or do I 
need to enclose the "switch on" magic woid/line between my FOR-NEXT statements?

What am I doing wrong (besides poking at the brains of my computer)?
(I don't need a nice program for now, just one that does the job)

Email would be very gratefully appreciated,
Thanks in advance,
Hiroki Morizono
hiroki@limerick.cbs.umn.edu (Machine is supposed to be taken off line tonight)
mori0009@student.tc.umn.edu (Might be a better place to try.)