Spaceball in MAME?

[pragma]

CAD/CAM users have this neat trackball like device called a spaceball. Lots of manufacturers make them, and it's not unlike a joystick, except you've got a ball instead of a yoke. The thing is, you can pull on it, push on it, twist it in any direction to control things in 3d.

This is pretty cool, at least for CAD/CAM.

Here's a link to a used one available now on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3406319287&category=11193
and here's an inline image:  



Properly interfaced, this could replace a 360 degree analog joystick, as well as provide a way to do a lot of other interesting things (or so it would seem to me). One of the best things about this as an input device is that it's designed to "stick up" out of a control panel (see pic).

Is this completely impossible? :-)

Anyone have any ideas about this?

Paul

[radiator]

i've seen them before, but not sure how they work (don't know if they replace a mouse, or whether they're setup as a different tyop of input device)...

i shouldn't think it would be to difficult to get it to interface with MAME, maybe a custom written driver or something, but, as i've never used/owned one i couldn't say...

 

[u_rebelscum]

i've seen them before, but not sure how they work (don't know if they replace a mouse, or whether they're setup as a different type of input device)...

i shouldn't think it would be to difficult to get it to interface with MAME, maybe a custom written driver or something, but, as i've never used/owned one i couldn't say...

I haven't used them either, but from glancing at the http://www.3dconnexion.com/ info, they don't replace the mouse, nor use a mouse driver.

The ones shown are six axis, ~8 button devices, so if the driver installs it as a joystick, it should work in mame as an analog joystick already.  If the driver doesn't install it as a joystick, you'll need to hack a joystick driver to work with it (a windows default joystick driver might work, though).

[Santoro]

Just bumping this because I am amazed no one looked more closely at these since.  It's been a few years, and now there's a 'home' version. 

Thoughts?
http://3dconnexionstore.com/itemDetail.asp?T1=56826423N