Why didn't atari make more games compatible with the trakball?

[Prosystemsearch]

Atari really should have coded more games to be compatible for it. Why they didn't make Wizard of Wor, Ms. Pacman, and H.E.R.O compatibli with it, I'll never know.

[Lynxpro]

Atari really should have coded more games to be compatible for it. Why they didn't make Wizard of Wor, Ms. Pacman, and H.E.R.O compatibli with it, I'll never know.

Dan Kramer, you already have 2 accounts on here! Going for a 3rd?

 

Wizard of War and HERO weren't released by Atari.

 

As for Ms Pac-Man controlled by a TrakBall, uhm, wow...

 

Try steering the car in Pole Position with a TrakBall.

[Prosystemsearch]

Dan Kramer, you already have 2 accounts on here! Going for a 3rd?

 

Wizard of War and HERO weren't released by Atari.

 

As for Ms Pac-Man controlled by a TrakBall, uhm, wow...

 

Try steering the car in Pole Position with a TrakBall.

I'm not Dan Kramer. -_-

[bohoki]

the idea was to bring the arcade experience home games that used joysticks in the arcade do not feel right with trakball

[MAC-42]

Wizard of War and HERO weren't released by Atari.

 

As for Ms Pac-Man controlled by a TrakBall, uhm, wow...

 

Try steering the car in Pole Position with a TrakBall.

 

Ever play Defender with the Trak-Ball? I can, which I consider to be a minor miracle, but I sure as heck don't like fighting the aliens while I'm fighting my own controller.

 

 

the idea was to bring the arcade experience home games that used joysticks in the arcade do not feel right with trakball

 

My best scores in Galaxian happen when I'm playing it with the Trak-Ball, and oddly I enjoy the game a great deal more playing it on that device. But yeah, it's not for every game.

[Prosystemsearch]

What would pitfall be like with the trackball controller?? <3

[joystickjedi]

What would pitfall be like with the trackball controller?? <3

Difficult?

[Lynxpro]

What would pitfall be like with the trackball controller?? <3

Insane in da membrane.

[Prosystemsearch]

Insane in da membrane.

How would you know?? At least it wouldn't have the weird movement problems as with the stock joystick.

[tep392]

How would you know?? At least it wouldn't have the weird movement problems as with the stock joystick.

I don't see what a trakball brings to the table for maze or platform games. 4 or 8 way digital sticks usually work best. It has potential in games where you are freely moving around the screen and need precise directional or speed control, but I can think of some cases where it wouldn't. In a game like Adventure II, I would not want to be constantly rolling the ball to move around the world. You spend more time moving from screen to screen than trying to maneuver around a dragon so where's the benefit? Same with Pitfall. All that ball spinning would get tiring.

[Phredreeke]

Because only a subset of Atari 5200 owners would also own Trakball controllers, and Atari 5200 owners were in turn only a small minority among Atari console owners.

[ledzep]

I don't see a benefit to making more non-trak-ball games compatible with the trak-ball controller. What I wish Atari would have done instead was make more games that naturally used the trak-ball controller to begin with. Games like Quantum. If Atari wasn't going to port that arcade game to the 5200 at least they could make more original games that played like that or Centipede or Missile Command. And actually release the paddle controller for Crom's sake. Many games require unique controllers, joysticks aren't always the right way to go. Spinners, too. I guess I'm biased from growing up during the heyday of arcade games with all manner of controllers. Even those with combinations like Tron. I think it's a mistake to try to cram everything into a joystick mode of gameplay.

[Lynxpro]

I don't see a benefit to making more non-trak-ball games compatible with the trak-ball controller. What I wish Atari would have done instead was make more games that naturally used the trak-ball controller to begin with. Games like Quantum. If Atari wasn't going to port that arcade game to the 5200 at least they could make more original games that played like that or Centipede or Missile Command. And actually release the paddle controller for Crom's sake. Many games require unique controllers, joysticks aren't always the right way to go. Spinners, too. I guess I'm biased from growing up during the heyday of arcade games with all manner of controllers. Even those with combinations like Tron. I think it's a mistake to try to cram everything into a joystick mode of gameplay.

 

You are correct but we're lucky we got the TrakBall. That was Dan Kramer's pet project and he had to bully Atari management into getting it released. And as he said, he had to insist on GCC - or whoever programmed Pole Position - to add the code to the game so the TrakBall would work with it. He was also working on a steering wheel and a yoke controller but alas, they didn't make it out Atari's door as official releases.