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post-13896-0-57485400-1445916465_thumb.jpg

 

 

Slightly smaller than the Atari's and has a really nice ergonomic and quality feel to it. Honestly, it's been my go-to TB all these years while the Atari's sat in storage. Be great if it could ever be adapted properly, but totally understand if not worth the trouble. Seem to be a handful on eBay at the moment, but kinda pricey. :(

 

Never had a reason to open her up (she's built Tonka tough - pun intended), but if it comes down to it, perhaps I could assist in helping with tracing the leads, etc.

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If it works like a regular track ball then I could build a rom to read what it spits out. The test would work something like this. You spin (and keep spinning) in one of the corner directions (Up-Left, Up-Right, Down-Right, Down-Left). After a little while some values will appear on the screen and you can quite spinning. You then can take a picture of the screen, hit reset, and spin it in a different corner (repeating the same steps for each corner). When taking the photos just keep track of what corner they belong too.

 

If all works well then the bit pattern is there.

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I believe Sega had +5v on pin 5 while Atari had it on Pin 7.

 

Mitch

 

 

Could that be solved by rewiring?

 

Well the standard Sega pads work on Atari because the pullup resistor between Select and VCC passes enough current to allow the multiplex chip to function. Some six button models have issues with Batari Basic games that read the "C" button however. There is an easy fix for this: Connect a reverse bias diode between pins 5 and 7. The positive end of the diode connects to pin 7 and the negative end connects to pin 5. On a Sega system, this diode will do absolutely nothing, but on an Atari system, it will ensure that VCC never drops below 4.4V, ensuring proper logic operation.

 

That said, I have no idea how the Sega trackball works. If it uses standard gray code on the dpad inputs, then there is a good chance it may work with rewiring or the diode fix. However if it uses multiplexing like the Sega Genesis controllers, no amount of rewiring will fix it.

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I found this doc about the Sega Trackball.

 

No Gray code or anything similar.

 

BTW: Here is an instruction how to make a Wico Trackball Amiga mouse compatible, so that it would work with the above trackball hacks too. Converting to a CX80/ST mouse compatible one should be very, very similar.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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They both do. The sequence and controller pins they're connect to are different which is why you can't use an Amiga mouse on an ST and vice versa.

Thanks. That explains the specific software versions.

So, when I tap into the buffered output from the optical encoders in my old Wico trackball, it's just a matter of where I route the signals.

Thanks for the links. I skimmed around looking for that detail and managed to miss it.

 

Time permitting, I may try doing something with a semi-dead 5200 trackball.

Edited by BigO
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I found this doc about the Sega Trackball.

 

No Gray code or anything similar.

 

BTW: Here is an instruction how to make a Wico Trackball Amiga mouse compatible, so that it would work with the above trackball hacks too. Converting to a CX80/ST mouse compatible one should be very, very similar.

Okay so it strobes coordinate data for X and Y. Kinda like the SNES mouse. The Sega Trackball is pretty much useless then.

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For both games, the original PAL versions where converted pretty badly:

  • Both do not utilize the larger screen at all
  • Centipede does not adjust the speeds and even some colors are not converted
  • Reactor has only some speed adjustments

Therefore I strongly suggest using the PAL60 versions.

 

BTW: While the NTSC ROM shows traces of a Galaxian prototype (12-3.82) in the unused ROM space, the PAL version has RealSports Tennis code there.

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New conversion: The Challenge of Nexar

 

I fixed a minimal sound bug for the incoming beacons in all versions. The original PAL conversion was just two bytes for the timer changed. I also converted the NTSC colors in my hacks, but no speed adjustments. So I suggest using the PAL-60 versions.

 

The games becomes quite playable now, definitely much better than with a joystick.

Tip: Shooting the saucers increases the changes for a beacon. The initial beacon chance is 1/16, it increases by 1/256 with each saucer (or beacon) killed. So e.g. after 16 kills the chance has doubled to 1/8.

 

BTW: As always the ROMs (all nine :)) can be found in the first post.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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New conversion: The Challenge of Nexar

...

 

BTW: As always the ROMs (all nine :)) can be found in the first post.

Thank you!

I love The Challenge of Nexar!

Since I had it as a kid, I can't say if it is a good game.

 

I hope and will pay for Trak-Ball shooting gallery games like "Shootin' Gallery" Imagic; "Crossbow", Atari.

 

"Shooting Arcade" prototype Atari 1989 would need the light gun code replaced with a cursor, but with 6 scenes has potential, also since accuracy is horrible as reported by those that did play with a light gun.

Edited by iesposta
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What's next, Driving Controller support and your crosshairs relegated to the outer edge of the playfield? Would *really* feel like a Tempest clone then! :lol:

Yea, it definitely has some Tempest feeling to it. Problem with the Driving Controller is, that the resolution is very low compared to a track ball.

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I hope and will pay for Trak-Ball shooting gallery games like "Shootin' Gallery" Imagic; "Crossbow", Atari.

 

"Shooting Arcade" prototype Atari 1989 would need the light gun code replaced with a cursor, but with 6 scenes has potential, also since accuracy is horrible as reported by those that did play with a light gun.

Adding a new object to six existing kernels seems a bit unlikely. But I haven't look at it at all yet.

 

First I will have a look at Ixion. This game seems like a perfect choice.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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When you get it I'd be interested in a review. Also does it read as a CX22 in Atari mode. I assume it does...

The Alfa-Data TB reads CX80/ST-Mouse and Amiga.

 

I got one of those:

s-l225.jpg

 

 

Those are more common:

s-l225.jpg

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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When I got it, it worked, just felt a bit rough. I open it and cleaned it. Now one axis is perfect but the other one gets stuck repeatedly :(. I'll have to look at it again,

 

I am left handed so the design fits me well, only used the left button so far. Have to check what the other one does, but I suppose that's the right (mouse) button

 

The other model seems to have three buttons, probably two for the same function. And the ball is illuminated.

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Missile Command is available in the shop (section hacks) and I ordered it some years ago and still love to play it (with CX80 identical to CX22) ;-)

 

Will some of other games listed in this thread show up in the shop in the near future?

Ordering a custom cartridge with the binary should not be possible "without the original author's permission" (referring to a note in the shop).

 

It is a shame that no original game was released for 2600/7800 supporting TB mode of the CX80/CX22, as I really like this controller very much indeeed!

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