Atari 2600 Trak-Ball models....Difference?

[Stevaside]

Hello,

 

I've been wanting to get one for a long time & looks like I might be looking to get one soon..So far I've seen 3 different versions....4 if you count the 7800 Trak-Ball, I recently saw on Video 61's website with 2 button support (Which is really unecessary IMO especially at that price) ....Forgive me for not knowing the model #s off the top of my head or having the patience to keep searching online ...but as far as I can tell there's the one with the yellow ball, and 2 with the black...For a while I thought there was only 1 black variation, but I just watched a CGR review of the "Proline Trak-Ball" that appeared a little different, especially the button shape....

 

Any advice would be appreciated...and I am aware that none of the games that are compatibile play as a true arcade trackball would, I don't mind, sure I'll still have fun playing Missile Command & Centipede on one....& eventually try to get my hands on the Missile Command hack cart too

 

[gilsaluki]

ATARI CX-80 (Black w/triangular shaped buttons on either side), & CX-22 with the brown that matches the XLs, with round buttons. There's also WICO TrackBalls color matched to their joysticks.

[reklen]

I have the wico one, and the xl one, they feel different but work great on the 2600, 7800, the XEGS, and the 800xl. The xl trakball works correctly with missle command, and Millipede on the computer or xe games. I think 7800 Centipede works great, althought it is in the joystick mode.

[Ataritard]

I like all of them though I believe the CX-80 has a better build quality than the CX-22.

[metzger130]

From what I'm reading here all the trak balls work, but since no games use the trak ball they go in joystick mode. I would like to find one eventually so does it really matter which one or just whatever i find first? Not sure if any are ones to stay away from or not.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

AFAIK there is only one hack which supports the native Track Ball mode: MC TB

[78001987]

There are two hacks which support true trakball mode.

 

The Missile Command 2600 hack above, and Centipede-TB for the 7800.

[Lynxpro]

The Wico Trackball isn't even a true trackball; like the Colecovision Roller Controller, it's just a fancy joystick. The Wico also taxes the 2600 power supply so much so that Atari Inc was concerned it would burn out the power supply or fry the 2600. They had Dan Kramer - the engineer who created the CX-22 and CX-53 Trak-Balls - analyze it and report his findings.

 

The Video61 "7800 Trak-Ball" is lame. It's just a CX-80 modded for independent fire buttons. It's not the true "7800 Trak-Ball" that GCC designed and added code support for in their 7800 Centipede port. That Trak-Ball was a modified CX-22. Dan Kramer recently reviewed the GCC schematics and cast doubt about how affordable it would've been circa 1984-1986 for GCC's modifications to make it to market.

 

Since the "real" 7800 Trak-Ball never made it to market, there's no way to enjoy the Trak-Ball experience with stock 7800 Centipede. As others have mentioned, there's a ROM hack which adds support for the CX-22/CX-80 just as AtariAge's Missile Command-TB does on the 2600.

 

If you have an Atari 8-Bit computer, you can use the CX-22 or CX-80 on its port of Missile Command.

 

There's also a couple of versions of the CX-22; one of which includes "Atari 2600" on its lettering. There's a couple of versions of the CX-80 as well since the later Atari Corp modded some to make them more ST compatible.

 

If you want the best amount of Trak-Ball support, you'll have to buy a 5200 and the awesome CX-53 Trak-Ball controller. Centipede, Millipede, Missile Command, RealSports Tennis, and even Pole Position natively support that Trak-Ball. Some even swear on using it with Galaxian.