Kensington "Expert Mouse" trackball

[jcroach]

Hi!

[Tiger-Heli]

With very few exceptions, PC trackballs are good for mousing, and arcade trackballs are good for gaming.

If you want it for navigating your Front End and occassional play of trackball games that aren't important to you, go ahead.

For $99, you could add a nice arcade trackball though (and that will work in Windows as well).

[missioncontrol]

If your going to go with a Kensington track ball check out E-bay you can get one alot cheaper, that's how I got mine...

[jcroach]

Do you use it for general PC usage or for gaming? did you modify it in any way? 

Thanks for the advice on this!  It looks like a great trackball, but maybe not really the best for a arcade cabinet. Especially at $99!

If your going to go with a Kensington track ball check out E-bay you can get one alot cheaper, that's how I got mine...

[pointdablame]

I wouldn't touch that for 100 bux if you want it for gaming.  If you just want a trackball, and you'll play a game once in a blue moon ok, but otherwise, just get yourself a true arcade trackball.  You can get a USB 3" Happ trackball off of Ebay for less than that and it's plug and play.  You have plenty of options in the $100 range for a trackball... you'll have no problem getting one.

[missioncontrol]

Do you use it for general PC usage or for gaming? did you modify it in any way?

[ften]

I havn't hacked it up for my cab yet...it looks fairley easy to hack...I've got a few ideas on mounting it but need to test them out first....I have used it on my desktop to knock out a few games of centepede and Crystal Castles I'm sure a true trackball would feel better but this works for me....

ften has started a page showing the hack but hasn't finished it yet...here is the link:

http://fathertom.net/mame/trackball.html

[krick]

I have only ever owned one Kensington mouse, a USB model.  It had major compatibility problems with my mom's (old) Acer computer and ended up returning it and getting a logitech USB mouse instead.

It's the only mouse I've ever seen have compatibility problems since I stopped using DOS.

Not that you will have any problems or anything, I'm just throwing it out there.

[JustMichael]

jcroach, I would steer clear of that Kensington trackball.  I used to have a gray one quite a while back that I got for almost nothing on a clearance table.  For regular pc use it was ok. For pc gaming, it sucked.  The ball would sometimes come up off of the rollers when spun good.  For arcade gaming this problem was much more pronounced.  Also the ball itself was very light and didn't give you the same type of spin that an arcade trackball would give.  The Kensington trackball stopped almost immediately after your fingers left the ball.  I currently have a Logitech TrackMan Marble+ on my pc and have been extremely happy with it's performance.

[neuromancer]

The kensington expert mouse is very similar in construction to the Happ 2.25" trackball.

They both use three stainless steel bearings, and they both use cue balls. The Kensington has bigger bearings, so they should last longer.

I've been using them on PCs for over a decade and never had a problem. I used to use them for games, and never really had a problem.

For the price though, you can get a Happ trackball, so I don't see the point, unless you get one at a yard sale or something. It seems like the spinner thing might be kinda-sorta-ok for arkanoid but not much else, but it's probably mapped to the OS as a scroll wheel, which isn't used in MAME, afaik.

Bob

[jcroach]

It seems like the spinner thing might be kinda-sorta-ok for arkanoid but not much else, but it's probably mapped to the OS as a scroll wheel, which isn't used in MAME, afaik.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.  Especially that the scroll wheel can't be used in MAME.  that was one of the primary reasons I was looking at this model.  I might still buy something like this for my general PC use since I have a small desktop, but I'll keep on eBay for a real arcade trackball.

Another question, I see a lot of posts about the Happ trackballs, but I've also seen trackballs from Imperial and I know Ultimarc makes one. Is the installation/interface similar for all manufacturers? Can the Happ USB interface work on other models? How about the Ultimarc I-Pac? Anything to keep in mind when shopping on eBay for trackballs?