Small trackball needed for small control panel

[spidrw]

So I'm finally getting around to finishing my MAME conversion.  It's been almost 8 years in the making, but now it's time to get it done.  It's an original Pac-Man cabinet (long since converted to the game with the awesomest side art - Romstar's Black Tiger).  The Pac-Man art is under about 17 coats of paint, and the CP is long gone.

Anyway, my problem is that I want to keep the panel at the same width as the interior of the cabinet - about 23 1/8".  I had one on there that I liked and it fit, but I want to add a trackball.  I'm looking for 2 players, 6 buttons each, and one trackball in the middle.  Everything I look at has giant bases, and they take up nearly a third of the space of the panel.  My current joysticks are (I think) Happ Competition, but I'm not sure (grabbed them in a kit from ebay 5 years ago).  I've seen some layouts that manage to incorporate all of that, but can't tell what the components are underneath.  Is 6 buttons overkill for the size I'm wanting to keep?  I'm not so worried about depth, but ideally I'd keep it between 8 and 10".

Are there worthy controls that don't take up giant swaths of space?  I'm up for switching any of it out.  Thanks!

[boardjunkie]

http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/en/47-ps2-led-trackball.html

[Funkoid]

When the site says "it won't work with old school arcades" what specifically? Will if function with missile command?

[PL1]

When the site says "it won't work with old school arcades" what specifically? Will if function with missile command?

That means that it will not work with the original arcade printed circuit board.


It will work fine with MAME.


Scott

[stan2323]

This may sound crazy but flip a optical mouse upside down and put a ball on top of it.  You would need to make a housing for the ball so it would spin free but once that was done you just need to mount the mouse under it close to the sensor.  Then when the ball spins the mouse will think it is moving on the x or y axis.    You will have to reverse the axis but I think it should work fine.