man this looks cool though i can imagine hard to figure out the balance/pressure on the sensors. i do wish trackball looked a bit cooler or allowed for more customization. i want the 8-ball for my kensington expert! but there are not many options.
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Since my PC is a bed setup, I use Elecom HUGE trackball mouse.
It’s such a niche, there is no perfect trackball mouse, like how I’m well aware there is always the perfect pc mouse.
Still, trackball rules.
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I went from the logitech trackball mouse which was great, then to Elecom Huge that my friend let me borrow, then the expert which i’m super happy with though its not very portable. For these things it’s better to try them out first I’ve found.
One thing I didn’t get with the Elecom is which finger do you use to rotate the trackball? Index and thumb or just index? The position seemed a bit uncomfortable to me…my hand was constantly making an “okay” sign which i didnt like.
much better way of interfacing with a computer imo, and despite my frustration at the aesthetic customization of it all, i do appreciate how many different/new options there are that iterate on the trackball concept.
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Yeah, I like that look. I do remember looking it up and you can get pool balls of the right size pretty easily. Or at least you could about 10 years ago. I want to go that direction too.
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this is pretty cool, i cant believe i hadn’t heard of this!
you’re probably right, i think i should commit to it and engage in some dyi stuff i’ve just been afraid to do it lol.
i vaguely remember the concern being the weight of the ball itself but that can be circumnavigated with some modding
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going pretty far down the trackball hole, I learned that early radar controls used a undrilled bowling ball for movement. I went with a duckpin ball because it’s still novel but not going to destroy my floor if it falls over.
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Thanks for that link! I couldn’t figure out what bearing to use but the article mentions that they’re called BTU or ball transfer units. My bearings suck on that bowling ball build.
elecom huge, you use index and middle finger, even ring finger. thumb stays on the left mouse button which can take some time to get used to.
yes, trackballs are super-not quite portable. when I go on trips I wish I had mine, but it’s just too bulky and heavy so I bring a Rii keyboard+trackpad remote.
a pool ball would be sick to have.
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I had the HUGE but it got lost when I moved to the Midwest a couple of years ago. I should consider getting it again.
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Love the mouse/trackball talk. Could almost justify its own thread.
Reminded me of my dad’s old monochrome laptop which had a mini trackball built in. The days before touchpads and ThinkPad nubs became the standard.
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Last night my Retro Fighter Defender controller broke. This is their PS1/2 controller that is 2.4 GHz. I was fighting a boss in Shinobido and the stick went weird and is constantly misaligned. Opened it up to fix it and no dice. Disappointed.
Decided to upgrade to the 8bitdo PS1/2 receiver and a blue Dualsense to go with it. Pricier upgrade but it is higher quality and the buttons aren’t gunshot loud.
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I’ve gone leverless.
I say that as if I was using a regular fight stick before or that I was somehow known for it, but whatever, I’ve got no room for levers on my arcade sticks no more!
I picked up the JunkFood Micro because I saw an ad that it was on sale (which feels embarrassingly stupid, but even more so due to the fact that I saw the ad on twitter). It was $165, (probably not anymore), but I hear the Haute42/CosmoX ones are very high quality for a bit cheaper. Anyway, It’s a solid little thing and I love the fact that the entire bottom of it is a nice foam pad that will keep it in place on whatever I set it on. If I had a proper desk right now, it would be perfect. Also, I like the font on the back they used for the word “MICRO.” Despite the pad, the screws are easily accessible, so now I’m burdened with having to get some custom artwork under the clear part of this thing. As tempting as it is, I won’t use the objectionable Garfield art. If you know, you know.
I was skeptical of this at first as I never really had a great time with arcade sticks in the past. They always hurt my hands and the buttons were a little too springy for my tastes (I freely admit that I might just have picked up low-quality hardware). I’m happy to say that I feel no pain in my hands using this for long periods of time. It’s relatively small, it isn’t noisy, and I don’t feel like soaking my hands in ice water afterwards. The buttons feel really nice to hit, feeling more like a decent low-profile keyboad keys than arcade buttons. Your preference might be different, but it’s a plus for me.
Of course, it has been hard getting used to using my thumb for the up button, but I’m slowly getting better at it (doesn’t everyone say this?). I’ve mostly been using to it to replay Hollow Knight (I remember Frank “The Tank” Cifaldi recommended playing it this way). At the very least, I don’t think I played any worse than I normally would have and only had to try fighting the Soul Master and Brooding Malwek once, which is pretty good for me.
I don’t have many fighting games installed at the moment (I’ve got a data cap at the moment and get scared of hitting it), but the few ones I do have prove to be decent testing grounds. I’m far from an expert, but it’s been way easier pulling off special moves, especially a dragon punch motion. The one thing that impressed me more was firing up Beyond Oasis and pulling off those special moves way easier than I ever had before. I can finally conquer the Sega Genesis.
All this babble to say I recommend it, but I would go for something a little cheaper and that you can easily return if you’re unsure. I don’t think I’d get a traditional arcade stick at this point. Sorry for going on for too long.
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Update: the 8bitdo retro receiver is pretty great!
I initially thought it was broken or incompatible with the DualSense firmware or something as it would pair but I couldn’t control anything.
Turns out that the first game I happened to test it with, Acquire ninja playground banger Shinobido, doesn’t like Bluetooth receivers. Every other game I tested with worked fine but for some reason, on Shinobido I need to remove the receiver, boot the game and then plug the receiver in for it to work.
I found that solution with some googling and finding a GitHub page for another company’s Bluetooth receiver for the PS2 that discussed compatibility with certain games. Just seems like some PS2 games don’t like booting with a Bluetooth receiver already inserted.
The other problem that this receiver has is that analogue sticks don’t work on the PS1 using the latest stable firmware 1.5. If you install beta firmware 1.6, you can press a button combination to switch to analog mode.
TO SUM UP:
I am just so tired. I just want to use a modern controller on my PS2 but nothing is simple. The Retro Fighter Defender connects seemlessly but is fragile and has hair trigger triggers. The 8bitdo receiver needs a work around on certain games and beta firmware for some PS1 games. Now that it all works, I am back to doing illicit things to people’s throats in Shinobido.
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oh, I have that 8bitdo ps1 blueretro adapter I think. You’re having problems with it? that’s unfortunate but I don’t think I did, between NSO SNES pad and 8bitdo pro 2.
I have yet to look up anything about this mutant. I’m enjoying imagining all the possible (stupid) use cases. “How many tonics would you like to buy?” is now so much easier to deal with.
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Only on one game so far. It works perfectly other than on one game, the receiver needs to be plugged in AFTER the game has booted or it won’t be recognised. Once I’ve done that it is perfect.
Well, it’s got a telecom company name on it so maybe it’s for early online banking or something? I know the Sega Genesis was used for ATMs in Japan for a while, so it’s not that crazy. It is crazy, but it’s not that crazy.
yeah looks the same as the original Famciom’s numpad which was made for banking software. so weird, but makes sense for the 80’s.
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