Re: Trackball and Flight Stick combo? Please share your thoughts about this idea...


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Posted by AUX on 22, 2001 at 5:15 PM:

In Reply to: Trackball and Flight Stick combo? Please share your thoughts about this idea... posted by Bill Connolly on 22, 2001 at 3:25 PM:

You might be able to get away with a rough centering procedure of holding the stick-ball centered until MAME started the game up.

You'd also have to make sure the max range of movement on the trackball with the stick in it would match the max range of movement of the crosshairs in MAME-Star Wars. Since the trackball will no longer be able to move as far as it did before you put the stick in it, you have to make sure when you push the stick all the way Up, Down, Left, or Right, that you can reach all the way correspondingly on the in-game screen.

You also have to make sure the trackball keeps as good calibration as a pot-based controller would.

Maybe you could test these things by making a mark on the trackball and pretending that's where the stick would go. Then center the 'stick', start Star Wars, and play, checking to make sure the 'stick' mark doesn't roll underneath the lip of the trackball base, and after playing a while, the 'stick' mark stays centered.

: I was using my trackball to play Star Wars, which is somewhat difficult but better than nothing. Then I thought about an old gravis pc game pad that had a small stick that screwed into the movement pad. What if I drilled a small hole in a track ball and placed a nut in there?

: I could use the trackball for trackball games and then when I needed the flight stick, move the trackball so the nut is centered, screw in the shaft, then start a game. Does it sound like it would work or be worth the effort?

:
: Thanks for your feedback.




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