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Showing results for tags 'trak-ball'.
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I know that the Atari 5200 advertised the Real Sports games and they were cool but I'm really surprised that, considering the analog stick + keyboard (and later, the magnificent Trak-ball) that they never converted their older arcade sports games, specifically Atari Baseball, Atari Football, and Atari Soccer since those games utilized the analog trak-ball controller and had buttons for preset plays. That seems like it would have been stupid easy to adapt to the 5200. I think the Football and Soccer versions also had 4-player versions of the cabinets? I know it would be pretty expensive to have 2 (or 4!) Trak-ball controllers for the 5200 just to play those games but the joysticks would have been good enough, probably, and the keypads would have lent themselves perfectly for the play selections. Maybe they thought the games looked too primitive and they left that style to the 2600, which had no hope of recreating the look and play of these games without loads of flickering, probably. As a Trak-ball controller fan I'm biased, obviously, but I would have loved to have had a home version of Atari Football, especially one that wouldn't have ruined my hands with those giant trak-balls, hahaaha. And the Baseball version which I've never played. They could have added basic colors to the game for the field and the team colors (with an option for classic vivid black and white). But keep the Xs and Os for the Football game!
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We are playing Biopede in the Jaguar HSC currently and I was daydreaming about how amazing it would be to play with a Trak-ball. I wonder if anyone has ever explored this? @Bratwurst? Also trying to think of other games that would benefit from it to make it more worthwhile. Anyway, just a thought since the 2600, 5200, and 7800 ALL had Trak-Ball controllers Of course if these were made and readily available it might open up the homebrew market to make these types of games for use with this controller...
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Greetings. Old forum lurker here in need of some part-specific information regarding the physical switch on the switched CX22 trak-ball. The following text is mostly a copy paste of an old post (edited to become shorter) I did in a FB group for trak-ball enthusiasts. I recently (Dec 2020) came into possession of a Pro-line CX22 Trak-ball in a mostly decomposed box. New as I am in the wonderful world of sphere-based XY position devices, I had no idea that I should have asked about the switch... Turns out it's one of those first units without the trackball/joystick option switch. That was a bummer for me to discover as I wanted to use it mainly as a trackball on my Vectrex. Edit: Then I was asking if there was a way to put that functionality back in. Someone pointed me in the direction of the CX22 schematic where the circuit with the switch is also showing. Link below. http://www.atarimuseum.com/ahs_archives/archives/files/videogames/consoles/7800/7800trakball/7800trakball-cx22-patch.gif Such a modification seems doable but is going to take some surgery to the PCB, but I'm not afraid of that. I ordered the missing components (that I didn't already had on hand in my parts box) from ebay. Mainly the inductor and the IC responsible for the switching of signals when the physical switch is flipped. Right now I am hung up on the actual switch. What kind and type of switch is it? Is it a four pole double throw switch? If anyone can shed some light on this trivial matter that somehow is holding me back from going ahead with the modification, I would appreciate it greatly.
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Hi friends, As much as I love the cool design, I realised that I prefer to play Centipede with the stock controllers. In perfect working order ... 85$ + actual shipping from Canada If you happen to have a a gold upgraded stock controller , or maybe a Wico, or a Competition pro, let me know Henry
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Hi everyone, I was in need of a couple of CX22 replacement fire buttons, so I contacted Best Electronics and found that they are "down to the very last of them". As such, there is a limit of 2 per customer. If you own a CX22, you better act now, as the shaft on these buttons tends to break over time, from normal play. BTW, my transaction started with an brief email request and concluded with a 5 minute phone call. Everything was handled over the last 12 hours (Brad actually responded to my email yesterday, Sunday, which I was not expecting ) and the entire transaction went very smoothly, which has always been my experience. Say what you want about their website, but IMO, Best is still the best!
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I found a Trak-Ball that is serial number 00249, so I figured it'd be interesting to see what kind of serial numbers are out there. I asked the 5200 facebook group and a bunch of people there gave me the numbers off of their Trak-Balls. Please feel free to post your serial number and any interesting information, like Country of Manufacture and the EP codes. Or, any other code prefixes. Here's the list. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aOaXTLlwIG_rvisCZmIbVjZiZ8-MXtSo0AxY41u3-BU/edit?usp=sharing
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Dan Kramer 3 Fire Button Custom Trak Ball Controller
Lynxpro posted a gallery image in Member's Gallery
From the album: Hardware
Not mine. This is Dan Kramer's legendary custom 3-Fire Button Trak-Ball Controller built in Atari Inc's Consumer Engineering Division. This was used for playing the in-house "3-Base Missile Command" game for Atari 8-bit computers. Dan and others built several custom Trak-Balls there that weren't meant for the public. This one was unveiled at the 2015 Davis Atari Party.-
- Dan Kramer
- 3-Fire Button
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Play Atari 2600/VCS Trak-Ball enabled games with your 5200 Trak-Ball controller. One-Trak adds functionality Switching between platforms is as simple as unplugging or plugging in a cable, outside of the controller. Plug into the configuration cable to play 2600 games, unplug the configuration cable and connect the original cable to the 5200. One-Trak is easy to install One-Trak requires no cutting, no soldering, no wiring, no drilling: your CX53 remains as Atari produced it. The installation is completely reversible. The most permanent change is a 1" square adhesive pad affixed inside the controller. Pick your protocol The configuration cable is currently available in two styles · Quadrature encoded: Gray code, compatible with ST mouse signals · Direction+Clock: same as CX22 trackball signals (Personally, I prefer the quadrature encoding as it lets you navigate the Harmony cartridge menu) $25.00 + shipping. (Currently shipping to U.S. addresses only) Available while supplies last. PM me if you're interested.
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Play Atari 2600/VCS Trak-Ball enabled games with your 5200 Trak-Ball controller. One-Trak adds functionality Switching between platforms is as simple as unplugging or plugging in a cable, outside of the controller. Plug into the configuration cable to play 2600 games, unplug the configuration cable and connect the original cable to the 5200. One-Trak is easy to install One-Trak requires no cutting, no soldering, no wiring, no drilling: your CX53 remains as Atari produced it. The installation is completely reversible. The most permanent change is a 1" square adhesive pad affixed inside the controller. Pick your protocol The configuration cable is currently available in two styles · Quadrature encoded: Gray code, compatible with ST mouse signals · Direction+Clock: same as CX22 trackball signals (Personally, I prefer the quadrature encoding as it lets you navigate the Harmony cartridge menu) $25.00 + shipping. (Currently shipping to U.S. addresses only) Available while supplies last. PM me if you're interested.
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I have developed an "upgrade" kit to allow playing 2600 trackball games with a 5200 Trak-Ball. The process just adds another cable to the controller and uses another "configuration cable" to link the original 15 pin cable with the new cable. Terminates in a 9 pin that plugs into a 2600 controller port. No permanent modifications are made to the trackball. Everything is 100% reversible. Works with the slate of 2600 games recently hacked to support actual trackball controllers. Following the success of one kit being installed by an end user, I'm just wondering if it's worth the effort to order in parts to make a few of these. PM me with inquiries.
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I was planning on picking up a CX80 Trak-Ball from Best Electronics earlier this week, but found that they were sadly out of stock. If anyone here happens to have a CX80 that's still new or in like new cosmetic condition that they'd be willing to sell then please do let me know. I can pay via PayPal. Edit: Trackball acquired courtesy of a very generous AtariAge member! That's all folks!
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I was just wondering if anyone around here knew what to look for to determine whether or not a CX-80 Trak-Ball had CX-22 internals? Is there any way to tell from the outside of the box if you were to buy one brand new and still sealed? If not, what should you look for when opening up the Trak-Ball housing to determine whether you have CX-80 or CX-22 internals inside it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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I have an Atari 5200 Trak-Ball that won't move the cursor UP...everything else on it works flawlessly, all the fire buttons, auxiliary buttons, keypad buttons, and the cursor movements of left, right, and down. It just won't move the cursor UP. I am looking for parts to fix this problem. Anyone with any ideas, any parts, a CX-53 Trak-Ball that has other problems but the cursor moves in ALL directions (I'd be willing to buy it from you for the parts), any of these would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. - rolccone (Ed)
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- Atari 5200
- trak-ball
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Before I jump to a downgrade to a 2600 Jr with short rainbow and an a/v mod (also being lured towards it by the wonderfully done Pac-Man 4k and due to a lack of a Yars' Revenge 8-bit port), my 2 5200 trak-balls (yes, I said it, two, trak-balls, model no. CX53) that I've had since 1983 (both purchased just a couple of months after taking delivery of my first 5200 unit on my 17th birthday (USA-Made 4-port, Serial No. 141101, now retired after getting an a/v/power-out modded 4-port unit just 2 months ago) in 1983 seem to have a serious issue going on with (yes, you guessed it!) the keypads and fire buttons not working at all, and I really wanted to use them with Tempest and of course the CX53 is also the ONLY one that will work with games like Missile Command, Super Breakout and Gorf, but alas these three games cannot be played with the 2600 trak-ball I picked up (the fire buttons are more responsive on it than the CX53) because it reads through my Redemption 5200 as a digital unit on these games (Missile Command, Super Breakout and Gorf all take advantage of the analog system the stock stick uses), but yet, that very same setup reads beautifully with games like Centipede, Millipede, and also Tempest. Does Best Electronics offer circuit-board and/or keypad/fire button upgrades for the CX53 trak-ball controllers like they have for the stock 5200 joystick controllers, as I have a gold-contact 5200 stick which is a thing of beauty, but I don't want to throw in the towel and sell a system platform that I have supported for 33 years and also spent thousands of dollars in games and accessories, including the 2600 and 7800-compatible Redemption 5200 units and almost all the great homebrews and finished prototypes over the years. I hope they do, because I don't wanna throw away such a great system just because of a mere snafu involving the CX53 Trak-Ball Controllers, somebody help!
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After having done some successful Trak-Ball hacks lately, I wondered if adding paddle support might be possible too. Both have (do they?) to be polled during the kernel, but I found that the Trak-Ball polling is surprisingly tolerant to irregular timing. E.g. if you poll every 8th scanline, no one will notice, if you skip some of those polls. And it doesn't matter where you skip them. So you can poll in 8,16,32,40 and then in 8,24,32,40. The intervals do not even have to be identical. A poll e.g. in 5, 14, 31 and 39 would work too. And since my hacks only poll during the main kernel, skipping a big number of scanlines is still not noticeable. I haven't tested this, but probably polling outside the kernel a number of times with not too large gaps between the polls would somehow work too. You do not have that flexibility for paddle polling. There the timing has to be very strict. And the kernel is the only part of the code, where you have such a timing over a longer period. I think most of the Trak-Ball flexibility results from relative positioning based on the previous position, where in case of a paddle, we start from scratch with each frame. So as of now, it seems that adding paddle support to an exiting game is much more complicated than adding Trak-Ball support. But maybe some of us can come up with some new ideas? E.g. can we do relative positioning with a paddle? Awaiting your input...
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As some of you may or may not know, Thomas Jentzsch and I have converted some 2600 games to use a Trak-Ball controller. Thomas originally converted Missile Command to use the trackball over a decade ago. More recently Thomas converted Centipede and Reactor. I joined the fun and did Millipede. The thread we posted the ROMs in wasn't really related... it all came about kind of spontaneously. That thread does contain a whole whack of routines if anyone is ever interested. It all starts on page 4 and goes for several pages. Here in this thread are the latest ROMs, organized, for easy finding. Note for CX80 Trak-Balls: Atari CX80 Trak-Balls work the same as the CX22 Trak-Balls. However, some retailers modified the CX80's to be compatible with the ST Mouse (Atari Mouse). If you have a CX80 then you will have to try both the Trak-Ball and Atari Mouse ROMs to see which one works with your Trak-Ball, or try the detection ROM. It is believed only a small number of Trak-Balls were modified. Note for CX22 Trak-Balls: An early version of this controller only works in joystick emulation mode and cannot be used with these ROMs unless modified. Check for the presence of the "joystick/trakball" switch on the bottom left side to ensure that you have the later compatible version and set it in "trakball" mode. Wico Command Controller Trackballs: These trackballs don't work with these ROMs as is. However, the Wico Trackball can be converted to work. See modification guide below for details. Bob Colbert's Homebrew which can use an Amiga Mouse, Atari Mouse, Driving Controller, or Joystick! Link: Stell-A-Sketch (Bob Colbert) Link: Trak-Ball/Amiga Mouse detection (TJ) Roms: Trak-Ball Detect v1.0.zip Link: Missile Command TB (TJ) Roms: Missile_Command_TB_(TJ).zip Roms: Missile_Command_CX_22_v1.3_(TJ).zip Link: Centipede TB (TJ) Roms: Centipede_TB_(TJ)_v1.4.zip Link: Reactor TB (TJ) Roms: Reactor_TB_(TJ)_v1.3.zip Link: Millipede Amiga and ST Mouse Info (Omega) Millipede(Trakball)v6.5.zip Link: Challenge Of Nexar, The (TJ) Roms: Challenge_of_Nexar_TB_(TJ)_NTSC_V1.1.zip Roms: Challenge_of_Nexar_TB_(TJ)_PAL_V1.1.zip Roms: Challenge_of_Nexar_CX22_(TJ)_v1.2.zip Link: SW_Arcade (Omega) Roms: SW_Arcade(Trackball)V4.zip Roms: SW_Arcade(Trackball)V4__Inverted_Y_Axis.zip Link: SpaceMasterX7_(Omega) Roms: SpaceMasterX7_(Trackball).zip Link: Missile Control (TJ) Roms: Missile_Control_TB_(TJ)_NTSC_V1.15.zip Roms: Missile_Control_TB_(TJ)_PAL_V1.15.zip Link: Marble Craze (TJ) NEW: Marble_Craze_TB_(TJ)_NTSC_V1.0.zip NEW: Marble_Craze_TB_(TJ)_PAL_V1.0.zip Trouble Shooting Guide: 1) Trakball only moves Down or Right - Fix Modifications Guide: 1) Convert a CX-22 for ST Mouse (Atari Mouse) - Here 2) Wico Command Controller Trackball Conversion - Here
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- trak-ball
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Hello. Hoping some one can help me get my "New" 5200 trakball working right. I just got it in the mail from eBay. It says it is new, out of box, and it appear to be new, still has the plastic on the metal plate and no signs of wear. When I plugged it in the first time, using centipede, the character automatically went all the way to the right and would not move. I took it appart, and tied to clear any dust that could be on the sensors where the wheel spins. It was very clean inside too, but it did get the left and right axis working. Now it will sometimes travel up, but not back down. I have tapped the up/down sensor an sometimes it will go up, sometimes it won't. Wondering if anyone know what is wrong and how to fix it? It was packaged pretty poorly (in a shoe box with one piece of bubble wrap placed on top) and may have taken some hard knocks in shipping.
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Just got a 5200 trak-ball, got home and tried it on centipede, the left side fire button doesn't work. Also, the trak-balls movement is shaky. My original joysticks even work better. It looks like it has been used a lot before, I am hoping to be able to restore it to working order.
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1) Is anyone aware of a version of Castle Crisis that is compatible with the trak-ball? I mistakenly assumed it would be compatible since it seems perfect for it. 2) Since Tempest is no longer for sale in the AA store, is there a way to purchase the .bin? 3) My final dream - Crystal castles with trak-ball support? the A8 conversion is fun but desperately needs this support added!
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From the album: Hardware
Size comparison of Dan "The Trak-Ball Man" Kramer's famous Atari 5200 Trak-Ball Controller with my SNK NeoGeo Arcade Joystick modded by Grips03 to work with the Atari 5200.© Lynxpro
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Hello, new forum member here. I was perusing the 2600 Controller list, and I happened to notice that the listing for the Trak-Ball is really lacking. There is no info whatsoever about that particuler controller, and not even a picture. I happen to have a Trak-Ball that came with a small collection of 2600 stuff that I believed belonged to my mother(I'm not entirely sure who really owned it...). As an owner of a Trak-Ball, the appalling lack of info left me confused. Does that mean its rare? Hard to find? A complete mystery? What? Also, I would be quite glad to submit pics of it that can be added to its listing for completeness.
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Over $200 Value, selling for $140 ($60+ savings) + $30 shipping = $170 TOTAL Atari 5200 128-in-1 USB Flash MultiCart; Like New in Perfect Working Condition; ready for immediate use! Atari 5200 NTSC Console - Used (missing controller cover in back) in Perfect Working Condition RF adapter (replaces switch box); Like New in Perfect Working Condition Atari 5200 Trak-Ball - NEW in box! Packed and shipped safely and securely. PayPal accepted. eBay Seller ID troy_whelan Troy
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- Atari 5200
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I got this from ebay yesterday. It was listed as untested so I'm not really surprised that it has an issue. After taking everything apart and thoroughly cleaning the inside, I've determined that the issue is most likely the vertical photo sensing module. Does anyone know a good source for buying one of these? This site seems to be out of stock. Better yet, is anyone here able to do this for me? I'd mail you the PCB only to keep shipping down and you would replace the vertical photo sensor, test, and ship it back to me? That would be awesome. I am a terrible solderer. Thanks!