Shannon Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 I've notice that some programs, for whatever reason, support the 5200 trackball. For example Pole Position.. So what is it that the program does to determine if a trackball is hooked up? Or does it treat it like a normal 5200 stick and the manual is just exagerating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 I've notice that some programs, for whatever reason, support the 5200 trackball. For example Pole Position.. So what is it that the program does to determine if a trackball is hooked up? Or does it treat it like a normal 5200 stick and the manual is just exagerating? No, there is special code that you need to include to read the 5200 trackball. It all depends on whether the game controls would work good with the trackball. You're not going to play Pac-Man with a trackball but of course Missile Command is great with the Trackball. I'm sure Atari wanted every game to use the Trackball so it would sell more but of course you couldn't do that. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari5200 Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 out of curiosity one time I hooked up my trackball to play some games, and it worked albeit the games were totally unplayable as the players character in whatever game would move extremely slow no matter how fast you spun the track ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 I imagine it'd really suck for digital games. However, I can imagine it would be great for something like Star Wars: The Arcade Game, where the player can move at variable rates of speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigO Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 Read Dan Boris' reply (post #6) in this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...p;#entry1359414 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted March 11, 2008 Author Share Posted March 11, 2008 Hey thanks. I've been meaning to do a more extensive search. I also found a document that discusses the differences between the 5200 and the 400 and I was beginning to suspect it had to do with the controller select bit and the controllers reaction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 Is there any way this technology can be applied to modern day game systems? It'd be nice to have a spinner for the Playstation 2 or the Xbox 360. It might even make Space Giraffe worth playing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 Thanks BigO' that little piece of information helped me clear up a bunch of issues. Once I modified my code to return the proper values a bunch of titles were no longer detecting a trackball and started functioning correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigO Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Thanks BigO' that little piece of information helped me clear up a bunch of issues. Once I modified my code to return the proper values a bunch of titles were no longer detecting a trackball and started functioning correctly. Modified your code? I thought you were playing games. Working on something fun? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Is there any way this technology can be applied to modern day game systems? It'd be nice to have a spinner for the Playstation 2 or the Xbox 360. It might even make Space Giraffe worth playing! How about just make a spinner for the PS2 or 360 using the joystick lines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Thanks BigO' that little piece of information helped me clear up a bunch of issues. Once I modified my code to return the proper values a bunch of titles were no longer detecting a trackball and started functioning correctly. Modified your code? I thought you were playing games. Working on something fun? Look at the first news item at the front of Atariage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomasholzer Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 side-note: on VCS some events in Decathlon work excellent with the trackball in joystick mode, really good for high scoring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigO Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 (edited) Thanks BigO' that little piece of information helped me clear up a bunch of issues. Once I modified my code to return the proper values a bunch of titles were no longer detecting a trackball and started functioning correctly. Modified your code? I thought you were playing games. Working on something fun? Look at the first news item at the front of Atariage Oh, now I see. He's hooking up a trackball to "Video Game Trader Magazine #3". Well, that just seems downright silly. Edited March 13, 2008 by BigO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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