Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: loddie on March 17, 2005, 01:48:59 pm
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Can trackball mice, like the one in the link below, be used as a trackball in MAME? If so, what makes them any different from a arcade track ball? Thanks.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5173313228&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT
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Yes. Nothing except style, quality mounting and all the obvious features.
John
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Why the huge price difference then?
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Style quality and VOLUME of sales.
John
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one is made to move a mouse pointer around.
The other is made for industrial strength abuse.
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Don't forget that there are PC trackballs out there in the world that simply suck no matter how you slice it. Cheap, poorly made garbage, many of them. If you start looking at large, high-quality PC trackballs like the Kensignton mice, the prices are much more comparable to the arcade models.
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I had been wondering about this too. I have to figure out the best option for players of my machine to navigate my hacked windows OS w/ MAME theme. A trackball of some sort is absolutly neccessary.
But hell, for $6, could you really go wrong with a big trackball like that?
Honestly I have been looking for the cheapest sollution with the best results (I want this to play The Simpsons: Bowling). Does anyone out there have a light duty trackball designed for PC, that they use in their CP? If so does it work well enough for what you do with it?
This guy does. http://www.skum.org/arcade/images/modular1.jpg I wonder how well that thing is working out for him?
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But hell, for $6, could you really go wrong with a big trackball like that?
I've been through enough cheap trackballs that I've found unsatisfactory for regular pointing/clicking activities that I wouldn't recommend a cheap one for gaming. You get what you pay for. If you think it's worth $6-$10 to find out for yourself, then by all means...
Honestly I have been looking for the cheapest solution with the best results
You can't maximize over two variables at the same time. :)
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This guy does. http://www.skum.org/arcade/images/modular1.jpg I wonder how well that thing is working out for him?
WOW, blast from the past.... :)
That was my 1st MAME cab, I haven't even thought about it in years since it is long gone now. It worked *okay*, but I primarily used it for navigation and the occasional game of Centipede or Missile Command. It definitely is not arcade calibre. It's certainly worth the extra $ for a real arcade trackball if you plan to do a significant amount of gaming with it.
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I hacked a Kingsington Pro trackball to put into my cab. It was given to me so I figured that I couldn't go wrong. It works well but it's not the same as the real thing. A real arcade trackball is the way to go.
This is the best picture I have of the trackball and control panel. I didn't bother documenting the hack. It's same amount of money to buy the real deal.
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This guy does. http://www.skum.org/arcade/images/modular1.jpg I wonder how well that thing is working out for him?
WOW, blast from the past....
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I wore out three PC trackballs before I finally bought an arcade one. PC trackballs generally use wire-thin roller axes wth rubber rollers and no bearings. They also have tiny little encoder wheels. They're fine for games that require less trackball movement like Centipede and Missile Command, but try one in Marble Madness, World Class Bowling, Atari Football, Golden Tee Golf, etc., and you'll kill it in a big hurry. The trackball itself is also lighter and smaller in a PC tracball, usually.
A Kensington Expert Mouse is a bit better; it has larger metal rollers, although still not as heavy duty as an arcade ball. But they cost as much as a Happ trackball when they're on sale, and more than an Imperial ball.
Also, PC balls are not meant to be mounted in control panels, so you'll have to figure out how to do that cleanly.
Now, the second PC trackball I tried was the EXACT trackball you linked to. It's awful. AWFUL. It barely even turns. The ball is not as big as it looks in the pic; it's a little under 2 inches, and if you try to put a 2-1/4" arcade ball on it it sits too high to touch the rollers, even with the upper shell removed. I had to hack out most of the encoder spokes because it backspins horribly when used in an arcade fashion (arcade trackballs are very low-resolution devices.)
I did, however, rip out its motherboard to hack as my interface to the Happ trackball, so it's not a total loss.
So if you buy it for an interface hack, great, but don't be under any illusions that it's very playable. You will HAVE to remove the upper shell at a minimum because of the horrible friction.
--Chris
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I hacked a PC trackball before the PS/2 arcade ones were readily available.
My install job was absolute genius (I'll explain it below), but unfortunately the ball was more useful for navigating windows then it was for actual gaming.
** The install.
I used the over popular Compusa crystal trackball, and I used some rubber floormat for overlay (I have used that on tons of machines, it is cheap, looks good on a wood panel and holds up really well), and I used foam rubber and plastic to build up the trackball top casing to a flat surface that still had clickable buttons. I installed that under the rubber overlay. The end result was that the trackball looked clean, and it had SECRET BUTTONS, which could be activated by CLICKING the correct spots on the control panel.
I loved the secret buttons. I wish I was doing a machine with that overlay again, I would give it some secret buttons too.
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Aside from quality and durability, I don't think those pc mice are designed to really get spinning fast. Even, for 6$, you will probably regret you wasted 6$.
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Aside from quality and durability, I don't think those pc mice are designed to really get spinning fast. Even, for 6$, you will probably regret you wasted 6$.
Well, it's still a USB non-optical mouse you can use as a hack to interface a real trackball... those aren't really easy to find anymore... the board is a bit big, though, compared to a mouse. In fact, to find room to install mine, I had to install it practically on top of a button, so the button passes through the trackball hole in the center of the board. :)
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I used one of these (serial connection)
and though it worked well as a mouse,
and for slower-spinning games... like
missile command, centipede.. the ball does not react well
when spun hard... the pointer jumped all over the place...
I changed up on the new cab and went w/a happs usb
for more $$$.. and EVERYTHING works well, as it should.
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I installed that under the rubber overlay. The end result was that the trackball looked clean, and it had SECRET BUTTONS, which could be activated by CLICKING the correct spots on the control panel.
I loved the secret buttons. I wish I was doing a machine with that overlay again, I would give it some secret buttons too.
That's a really cool idea.