Super Monkey Ball Plug N Play

[jdbailey1206]

After mulling over this idea in my head and conferring with a few members here on the forum I believe I can pull off the project.  I would like everyone to feel free to speak up and tell me I'm crazy if this will not work.  So here goes.

Project Components

• Intel Compute Stick BOXSTK1AW32SCR
• Purple USB Trackball (I was thinking Twisted Quarters 2 1/4" version)
• TV Games Deluxe Golden Tee (Gutted for the case.  Artwork to be added later.)

If I read the specs correctly on the Intel website I should be able to run a usb trackball off of the Intel Compute Stick as the USB is powered by 5V which I would need to run a USB trackball.  I wanted to have the trackball illuminated at first but I don't think this is possible so I may have to settle for a non illuminated ball. 

One of my first ideas was to use a ZOTAC ZBOX C Series CI540 but I believe this was a little over kill and would not fit into the gutted Golden Tee case along with the trackball.

Another idea was to use a Wii and wait for Kade to release the minConsole+.  If they stayed on track with how they released the original Kade the miniConsole should be released next month but that is all speculation.

So hopefully this set up will work.  Spending $200+ dollars is a lot more doable then waiting and sitting on my thumbs or spending over $500 trying to get this to work with a Zotac Mini PC.

[jdbailey1206]

Welp...The Intel Compute Stick only supports 32 bit systems while the software I need is 64 bit......

[vwalbridge]

It's more expensive, but what about the ZOTAC ZBOX P Series

-or-

The Kangaroo

[dmckean]

Yeah, a number of these mini PCs have a 32-bit only Windows UEFI bios but there's several cheap NUCs that do not have this problem.

[jdbailey1206]

The Kangaroo looks promising vwalbridge.

I was wrestling with the idea of just creating a controller for my computer dmckean.  I have a small i3 NUC I hook up to my television already for all my older games.  This is for my daughter and children grow out of things so quick I'm wondering if I should just create a unique controller and hook it up to the NUC.
I can foresee going through all this trouble just to have her lose interest in six months.

[dmckean]

The Kangaroo looks promising vwalbridge.

I was wrestling with the idea of just creating a controller for my computer dmckean.  I have a small i3 NUC I hook up to my television already for all my older games.  This is for my daughter and children grow out of things so quick I'm wondering if I should just create a unique controller and hook it up to the NUC.
I can foresee going through all this trouble just to have her lose interest in six months.

She will. 

[jdbailey1206]

The Kangaroo looks promising vwalbridge.

I was wrestling with the idea of just creating a controller for my computer dmckean.  I have a small i3 NUC I hook up to my television already for all my older games.  This is for my daughter and children grow out of things so quick I'm wondering if I should just create a unique controller and hook it up to the NUC.
I can foresee going through all this trouble just to have her lose interest in six months.

She will. 

 

[jdbailey1206]

Well upon some extensive research I may have found my answer.  It seems there is a 'company' in Canada that sells exactly what I am looking for as far as a circuit board goes.  Raphnet Technologies sells a circuit board that can connect NES/SNES/N64 controllers to the Wii.  I have a copy of the original Game Cube version of Super Monkey Ball on my Wii but it gets old playing it with the classic controller and I wanted to try it out with a trackball like I did in the arcade a couple weeks back in Florida. 

Now looking at this schematic correct me if I'm wrong but I should be able to connect this board via the schematic below and run a regular trackball (adding LED's later if I need to) and have it run off the Wii.  Again feel free to tell me I'm wrong...



Raphnet even states that soldering both Datas onto one port will work.  Now after doing all this my question is it even worth it if the Wii won't recognize it?

[burn_654]

I don't think it's going to work that way...the input pins from the NES/SNES/N64 is in the data format that the converter board is expecting - your trackball is giving out usb data designed for a computer. They may sound like similar pins but they are speaking different languages.

A standard old-school trackball is basically using two optical sensors with wheels to vary resistance into the game board to determine the position, not that different from an analog joystick (which is in truth 2 small analog potentiometers).

I think if you're looking to play gamecube monkey ball with a trackball and there's no trackball peripherals available to hack for gamecube (correct me if I'm wrong?) you might have better luck hacking an analog trackball into the analog joystick pins of a gamecube controller. Does the monkey ball game have sensitivity settings? It might be hard to achieve a nice-playing result if there's no way to tweak how much spin equates to how much in-game movement.

Also maybe if you found a nes/snes/n64 trackball maybe you could wire that into the raphnet adapter.
Good luck!