Trackball support

[John Stamos Mullet]

38 minutes ago, MikeM_ said:

@John Stamos Mullet

 

i agree with you with one exception.
 

I haven’t taken apart a cx80, but on the cx22 the buttons are the old metal tab style. Newer micro switches would be much better. 

Yeah - the buttons on the CX-80 are nice quality rugged leaf springs. I have both. I prefer the CX-80. 
 

I had the same problem with my CX-22, so I re-wired the optics to the inputs wires of an old Mitsui serial ball mouse. It works great on windows. 
 

also - in case this can be added to the 2600+ I have a genuine copy of Centipede TB for 7800 and a harmony to play the 2600 TB conversions. I can test everything that exists. 
 

Edited February 28 by John Stamos Mullet

[Sean_1970]

7 hours ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Just whatever you do, don’t get tempted to make a “new” CX-80 or CX-22 with different parts, especially the rollers inside. There are lots of cheapo “arcade USB trackballs” on the market for the Arcade1up type setups and they are nearly all [i]full baby diaper in the dumpster of an Indian restaurant[/i] bad. 
 

keep with the original build with the large metal rollers on ball bearing rings (look like skateboard bearings). 
 

the one thing I would change though is the third diagonal line bearing - instead of a flat-faced bearing ring, it should just be one bearing ball so that it can spin smoothly and independently in all directions. 
 

the 3rd diagonal roller on the CX-80 is its Achilles heel. When you do a big solo spin in one direction, it makes the ball drift after a bit. 

Yeah when I took apart my Couchcade trackball to fix it I was amazed it would have worked at all with the teeny tiny rollers in it. Some WD-40 did the trick, but I expect better from any peripheral with a significant price tag attached.

[+sramirez2008]

On 2/27/2024 at 9:29 PM, John Stamos Mullet said:

Yeah - the buttons on the CX-80 are nice quality rugged leaf springs. I have both. I prefer the CX-80. 
 

I had the same problem with my CX-22, so I re-wired the optics to the inputs wires of an old Mitsui serial ball mouse. It works great on windows. 
 

also - in case this can be added to the 2600+ I have a genuine copy of Centipede TB for 7800 and a harmony to play the 2600 TB conversions. I can test everything that exists. 
 

The CX-80 is hands down the TB controller to own. I have 2 (1 sealed in Box) the other is a opened, as I use it regularly. I also own three CX-22's but prefer the CX-80s. It looks great beside a 7800.

[Stechmann]

on a side note, did you know there are ANALOGUE joysticks for DB9? such as this one

 

https://www.ebay.de/itm/224533461871

 

thats another peripheral i would definitely buy. opens up a lot of possibilities. 

 

it could also make the 5200 analogue joystick obsolete, somewhat

 

Edited February 29 by Stechmann

[Space Friend]

Given how much the Couchcade costs, I think you could charge more for it than the paddles bundle. True it does have some other stuff on it, but the trackball on it seemed to get mixed reviews from what I remember anyway.  

 

Maybe you could offer an adapter with it for an additional price, that would allow it to work on PC, if latency wouldn't be an issue. It would be great to be able to use it on the trakball arcade games in Atari Vault and Atari 50, which seem to already have mouse support, so maybe it would work. There needs to be a brand new good quality trackball out there in general i think.

 

Since Centipede 7800 has co-op play, I wonder how many people would by two?  
 

[fluxit]

1 hour ago, Space Friend said:

Given how much the Couchcade costs, I think you could charge more for it than the paddles bundle. True it does have some other stuff on it, but the trackball on it seemed to get mixed reviews from what I remember anyway.  

 

Maybe you could offer an adapter with it for an additional price, that would allow it to work on PC, if latency wouldn't be an issue. It would be great to be able to use it on the trakball arcade games in Atari Vault and Atari 50, which seem to already have mouse support, so maybe it would work. There needs to be a brand new good quality trackball out there in general i think.

 

Since Centipede 7800 has co-op play, I wonder how many people would by two?  
 

Perhaps, but how many Couchcades have actually sold?  The thing is *way* overpriced for what it is and includes.  It's in Apple pricing range, which sadly seems to be what Arcade1up is shooting for with most of their products lately. 

[Space Friend]

16 minutes ago, fluxit said:

Perhaps, but how many Couchcades have actually sold?  The thing is *way* overpriced for what it is and includes.  It's in Apple pricing range, which sadly seems to be what Arcade1up is shooting for with most of their products lately. 

That's a fair point. I couldn't think of anything else to compare it to. Since Arcade 1up did follow it up with an Atari 50 cabinet with similar controls, maybe that's a sign it did okay?  There's no way to know I guess.  In my opinion it'd be worth more than the paddle bundle, especially if the optional adapter is possible.