Stan's Trak-Ball Adventures!

[StanJr]

Ok, so I cleaned the Trak-Ball out, man was it rusty. And then got it working, rather well if I do say so myself, so I thought I would see what games it worked with (in joystick mode of course) and whether it was worth having or not. Here is what I found:

 

As suggested Centipede, Millipede, and Crystal Castles all played very well with the TB. Millipede played better than it does with the actual stick (psychosomatic?)

 

However, I also made some other discoveries!

 

Missile Command works great with the Trak-Ball! I knew Thomas made a hack so that MC supported the TB, and I'm now interested to see just how it is different.

 

Adventure is GREAT with a TB! Who knew! The movement is smooth and other than a few jitters, played flawlessly!

 

Decathlon, well, hit and miss. Certain events played very well, others horribly. If you have lots of room to build up a run, the TB is ideal, otherwise, its a loser.

 

Reactor: Better than the stick, hands down. You have more control over your "star" thing, and you can move very smoothly around the reactor without getting smashed about or overcompensating!

 

Gangster Alley is made for the TB. The scope moves very fluidly and has a pretty natural feel to it!

 

Fast Food is also made for the TB. I'll never use the stick for this game again! When you really get going in the faster levels, the TB makes you feel like you're mind-linked to the game!

 

Kool-Aid Man, not so bad. A little jerky in spots but its playable.

 

Now for the downside:

 

River Raid is a no. Don't even try it.

 

TRON Deadly Discs, you can move very well, but aiming your disc is a loser.

 

Venture suffers the same problem as TRON

 

Ice Hockey, it seemed like a good idea, and a natural fit, but its not. The player just moves too slow to make the TB a useful tool.

 

 

 

So there you have it, is the TB good? Heck yeah, I highly recommend it! It gives a new twist to some old favorites! Very cool thing to have!

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Missile Command works great with the Trak-Ball!  I knew Thomas made a hack so that MC supported the TB, and I'm now interested to see just how it is different.

Don't you have a SC or CC to try it? IMO the difference is really huge.

[ATARIPITBULL]

Wow Stan !! you are like a mad scientist. I will try out the Adventure tonight.

 

:wink:

[Big Player]

Missile Command works great with the Trak-Ball!  I knew Thomas made a hack so that MC supported the TB, and I'm now interested to see just how it is different.

Don't you have a SC or CC to try it? IMO the difference is really huge.

 

He has a SC but after repeated explainations, I can't get him to use it to load bin files. Heck, I even posted a wav file of one the of the bins and it was no help.

[StanJr]

I'm a big chicken when it comes to screwing around with old technology that is not easily replaced. I LOVE my SC and I would hate to screw it up trying to mod it so I can play things off the interweb.

[Stingray]

Stan did you happen to take any pictures of the inside of your trackball? I'd like to convert an arcade trackball for use with the VCS, but I don't know if they use a similar mechanism. Is it just optics & encoder wheels or is it something else entirely?

 

-S

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I'm  a big chicken when it comes to screwing around with old technology that is not easily replaced.  I LOVE my SC and I would hate to screw it up trying to mod it so I can play things off the interweb.  

Ok, I'll have a look at the code. Maybe I can make it SC compatible.

[joeybastard]

I'm a big fan of using the trak ball in place of a joystick. I used to do it all of the time on my CV until I got a VCS trak ball. Now I usually use the SMS "sports pad" trak ball with the VCS games, it just feels better than the Atari one to me.

 

I tried it once with Thrust+ - bad bad idea I'll stay with a CX-40 for that.

 

Turmoil can be fun with the ball too even if most of the movement is up/down.

[Big Player]

I'm  a big chicken when it comes to screwing around with old technology that is not easily replaced.  I LOVE my SC and I would hate to screw it up trying to mod it so I can play things off the interweb.  

 

No modification is necessary to play the homebrews. In no way have I altered mine. I'm an idiot with a soldering iron and I searched too long to find my SC.

 

I've been playing the different versions of Climber 5 on my 2600 all through its development.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Stan did you happen to take any pictures of the inside of your trackball? I'd like to convert an arcade trackball for use with the VCS, but I don't know if they use a similar mechanism. Is it just optics & encoder wheels or is it something else entirely?

 

-S

 

Encoder wheels. The schematic is in the AA archives. (But I thought it was suspicious that I couldn't find the TB mode switch on those schematics.)

[NE146]

I'm  a big chicken when it comes to screwing around with old technology that is not easily replaced.  I LOVE my SC and I would hate to screw it up trying to mod it so I can play things off the interweb.  

 

No modification is necessary to play the homebrews. In no way have I altered mine. I'm an idiot with a soldering iron and I searched too long to find my SC.

 

There ya go Stan.. you don't need to modify your supercharger so what are ya chicken about?

[jsoper]

I'm glad other people like playing the 2600 trackball in joystick mode, because I can't stand it. Spin the ball faster, the game character still moves the same speed. Want to move in a certain direction? Gotta break that direction up into sections made up of the 8 primary joystick angles.

 

Why did Atari make a 2600 trackball, but not any games supporting trackball mode?

 

The 5200 and PSX trackballs are fun though.

[NE146]

I'm glad other people like playing the 2600 trackball in joystick mode, because I can't stand it.  Spin the ball faster, the game character still moves the same speed.  Want to move in a certain direction?  Gotta break that direction up into sections made up of the 8 primary joystick angles.

 

What is your opinion then of Thomas' Trackball hack for Missile Command then? Just curious because I have yet to try it myself (my trackball is pretty far away at the moment)

[jsoper]

What is your opinion then of Thomas' Trackball hack for Missile Command then? Just curious because I have yet to try it myself (my trackball is pretty far away at the moment)

I haven't tried it either, but I'm sure I'd like it just as much as 5200 Missile Command, Thomas's hacks are always great. It's having to play something in joystick mode that makes me gag.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Try that dang game! Now!

 

 

BTW: MC TB should work perfect with an unmodded SC (unless you try the EE )

[+Mitch]

Decathlon, well, hit and miss.  Certain events played very well, others horribly.  If you have lots of room to build up a run, the TB is ideal, otherwise, its a loser.

 

Play this one in trackball mode, makes a big difference.

 

Mitch

[StanJr]

Decathlon, well, hit and miss.  Certain events played very well, others horribly.  If you have lots of room to build up a run, the TB is ideal, otherwise, its a loser.

 

Play this one in trackball mode, makes a big difference.

 

Mitch

 

thanks for the tip, I will!

 

Thomas, so what do I need to do, burn the ROM onto a CD and hook that up the SC?

 

I'd LOVE to try it.

[NE146]

Why don't you just snag playbin then plug the audio from the pc into the cuttlecart. And hit play! Forget all that cd stuff

[StanJr]

Why don't you just snag playbin then plug the audio from the pc into the cuttlecart. And hit play! Forget all that cd stuff

 

That would suggest that I have some knowledge about where the audio comes out of my computer and that I know how to use playbin. You forget NE146, I am a buffoon. Technology scares me. I'll ask Aimee, she knows about this kind of stuff.

[NE146]

That would suggest that I have some knowledge about where the audio comes out of my computer and that I know how to use playbin.  You forget NE146, I am a buffoon.  Technology scares me.     I'll ask Aimee, she knows about this kind of stuff.

 

You just run playbin after installing it.. click "browse", then choose the rom, then hit "play". Of course you should also have "supercharger" selected in the box. And that's about it! You can't get much simpler than that There are other settings you can tweak but at default it's generally fine.

 

And as far as audio coming out of your computer... the first place to check would probably be your speakers Try not to have them on when using playbin as you'll hear some awful screeching In all seriousness though, isn't there some kind of headphone jack on your pc? Or maybe in your speakers?

 

Notice I have Zelda2600.bin in there....

[StanJr]

 

Notice I have Zelda2600.bin in there....

 

As well you should.

 

Ok, I'll get with Aimee and see what she says about all of this. She can make sense of what all this means. Thanks.

[Mindfield]

I tried the trakball thing back when I got my CX80s. I also found that Spitfire Attack runs great with it! Very smooth control!

[StanJr]

Haunted House does NOT work well at all.

[Big Player]

Why don't you just snag playbin then plug the audio from the pc into the cuttlecart. And hit play! Forget all that cd stuff

 

That would suggest that I have some knowledge about where the audio comes out of my computer and that I know how to use playbin. You forget NE146, I am a buffoon. Technology scares me. I'll ask Aimee, she knows about this kind of stuff.

 

Put Supercharger in your 2600 and turn it on.

Plug the Supercharger cord into the headphone jack on your computer.

Run PlayBin

Select ROM file

Click play

Enjoy

[gulag picture radio]

Are we talking about the all-black trak ball that Atari made? The kind of sucky one? SO did you grease it up to make it actually work? I got mine for 25 cents at an electronics surplus place years ago. Boy, I wish you could still do that...