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Main => Reviews => Topic started by: Broncofan on March 15, 2016, 12:41:29 pm

Title: Best Trackball?
Post by: Broncofan on March 15, 2016, 12:41:29 pm

TLDR:  What is the best trackball for arcade like GT experience?  Ultimarc? Happ? X-gaming?  Others?  What is the best one that will mount directly to a 3/4" ply without having to rout it down to 1/4"?


I recently purchased the x-gaming BYO kit and have everything mocked up on a thin 1/4" mdf board.  I have been very pleased with everything with the exception of the trackball.  The problem I am seeing is that the trackball is very inconsistent in how it plays GT.  I am moving from a dedicated Arcade GT to a MAME GT, because I thought it would be cool to have the other games in the same cab.  The problem is that the game play on the x-gaming does not live up to my expectations.  I have seen some incredibly inconsistent shots.  Sometimes the drive goes 300 yards and other times it goes 100 yards.  To a point where it is unplayable by anyone that wants to keep score.  I also don't like having to rout out my control panel down to 1/4".  I am worried that the 1/4" requirement for the x-gaming trackball could potentially split or break the wood.  I also saw a note on the x-gaming site that all trackballs veer to the left.  While this is hard to believe that they all do this, I did verify that their trackball does indeed veer to the left.  The x-gaming trackball is fine most of the time if you plan to use it as a mouse or navigate some games, but I don't think that it is the best option for me being that I wil be playing GT most of the time.

Title: Re: Best Trackball?
Post by: Broncofan on March 19, 2016, 04:01:13 pm

Any opinions on this?


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Title: Re: Best Trackball?
Post by: markc74 on March 19, 2016, 05:05:07 pm

Easiest to mount in 3/4" is the utrak from Ultimarc. You only need to drill the right size hole - no routing or mounting plates required.

In terms of performance I've used them all and don't really feel like any one performed better than the others with the exception of the x-arcade one which didn't feel as smooth to me. Purely opinion though.

Title: Re: Best Trackball?
Post by: Broncofan on March 22, 2016, 12:34:18 pm

I wonder if I got a bad one? Or if I would be better off replacing it with a different one? 

Anyone else have good or bad experience with trackballs for playing games like Golden Tee that require consistent trackball performance?

Title: Re: Best Trackball?
Post by: Token on March 22, 2016, 02:24:23 pm

I use a Happ trackball (red board) to play GT in my MAME cab. No complaints once you get the sensitivity set.

I cut the existing connector off, added .100 "DuPont" connectors, and plugged it into an IPac Ultimate I/O.

Title: Re: Best Trackball?
Post by: Broncofan on March 25, 2016, 10:46:08 pm

 I messed around with the sensitivity in the tab menu and it seems to help.  I set the track y sensitivity to 50.  Do you mind sharing your settings?