Alright, this took a bit too long to arrive, but I was heavily sidetracked with other matters for a while. Sorry about the wait. After having the Joyball in my possession for a couple of weeks now, I'm about ready to deliver unto this thread my impressions and thoughts on this bizarre plastic monstrosity.
Also, pictures. We all know those are more important.
It arrived rather nicely-packed, which is a plus. The box itself is a little worn, but the text and imagery is still very visible and prominent. I mean, it advertises "micro switch!" at least twice per side. I didn't think to get a picture of the box once I took off the bubble wrap though, whoops.
Aaaand here is the controller itself. I'll admit, I didn't really know what to make of this thing. It seems like such an odd, uncomfortable design for a controller. The joystick -- ahem, pardon, joyball -- is freaking massive. It's like a trackball, except, it's on an extremely short stick. Also, why are there three sets of buttons? Three buttons that all do the same thing, and three more buttons that do the same thing, except rapidly when you hold it down. I did wonder if the multiple buttons would mean it could work with the 7800... but I tried it, and no, it does not work. Each button is the same fire button.
Honestly, the buttons are the worst part, using it. They're stiff, uncomfortable, tiny, and tend to feel like they're sliding around the contact when being pressed rather than simply depressing straight down. They're also in somewhat awkward places, but on the plus side, when I got tired of pressing one set of buttons, I just swapped to another set. Maybe it was intentional.
I placed it here next to the Wico Red Ball controller I have for size comparison. The Wico is a pretty good-sized beast of a joystick, but the ball alone on the Joyball is at least a quarter of its size!
Speaking of the ball, I thought it was actually kinda nice. It definitely feels... loose, and very hollow/cheaply-made, but it does function fine. Moving it in each direction gives a satisfying click, though it does feel a tad on the "sponge-y" side. That being said, it easily fits into the palm of a hand (as seen above), and the wide base does help in keeping it nice and steady, so it's entirely possible for me to use just one hand without worrying about the whole thing bowling over. It took a lot of getting used to, me being more accustomed to the Wico by this point, and a cheap (but very tight and responsive) aftermarket Atari joystick, but it functions fine. Can be kinda hard on the wrists after a while, but what joystick isn't?
Would I recommend this controller if you happen across one? Honestly, I'd have to say no, unless you just happen to like collecting controllers, or can appreciate this odd design. It's not the WORST controller I've ever used, but there are better options out there, if control is your main concern.
...
I guess I could just leave it at that, but, no, there's still one more story to tell about the Joyball. See, the controller worked fine for a while after I got it, but then after a while, it just inexpicably stopped. Many of the buttons felt like they'd gotten stuck. Or just simply weren't depressing in the slightest. Only two buttons were working, out of the six that were working beforehand. What happened? I certainly don't recall throwing this thing at the wall in frustration, recently...
So, I decided to open it up. I don't normally do this, but I had to know what was up. And since no one seems to know anything about these, and that they are so poorly-documented, I figured that it'd be cool to be among the first to dig into the guts of this thing. And this is what I was greeted with.
Seems like a fairly-basic circuit board. You can even kinda see the microswitch assembly, down there. I know next to nothing about these sort of things, so it doesn't mean all that much to me. But, when I took it apart, a few other parts also fell right out...
Button contacts. If you notice in the preceding pic, only one of them is still firmly in place. Every other one pretty much fell right out, because the thin strips of masking tape holding them down was brown and rotted through. Yikes. Seemed like an easy fix though, so I stripped off all the old tape, cleaned the contacts and circuits for good measure, then replaced the contacts and held them down with some new, better quality tape.
The buttons themselves were fine, but I feel like they might have benefited from a spring, or at least a flatter tip or something...
Just pieces of plastic with a pointed tip on the underside. Doesn't get much simpler than that. I assumed that the "sliding" issue with the buttons was because the plastic tips were not lining up with and seated into the indents on the contacts properly. I tried my best to realign them when I put them back together, but it still isn't perfect. Oh well.
There was nothing really wrong with the microswitch assembly, but I lifted up the board to get a better look at it anyway, out of curiosity. I'm the exact opposite of an expert on this stuff, though, so I can't really make heads or tails of anything I see.
Once I cleaned and reassembled everything, it started working fine again. The buttons still feel uncomfortable to use, but at least they work fine now. And hey, I guess a "turbo" button is always a nice thing to have handy. Makes Asteroids a bit easier on my thumb, at least!
So, there you go. Sorry for the image-heavy post, but I assumed people would be interested in actually seeing it instead of listening to me try to describe it text-only, so... yeah. Hopefully you guys find this little find of mine at least kind of interesting.