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Games for Atari Trackball


trucker_monkey

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Centipede and Millipede can also use the trackball.

Only in "Joystick Mode" like every other game.

 

There is a hacked 7800 Centipede version that works in TB mode, and it's fantastic.

I just tried both Centipede and Millipede using my WICO Command Control trackball and the games played fine. I didn't have to change any settings. I'm not familiar with a "Joystick Mode" setting.

Edited by seanhq
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well I don't think the trackball was officially made for the 2600, it's an accessory for Atari's computer line. It's like the Atari lightgun, was made for the XE computer, but has games for the 7800 and 2600, but no one took advantage of the trackball for the 2600

 

Really? 2600 Trackball

 

I have one of these and it has a switch on the bottom to select either Trackball mode or Joystick mode.

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well I don't think the trackball was officially made for the 2600, it's an accessory for Atari's computer line. It's like the Atari lightgun, was made for the XE computer, but has games for the 7800 and 2600, but no one took advantage of the trackball for the 2600

 

Really? 2600 Trackball

 

I have one of these and it has a switch on the bottom to select either Trackball mode or Joystick mode.

This. the CX80 and CX22 both had the switch on the bottom, although their circuitry was a bit different.

 

Teh only games that work with "Trak-Ball Mode" are Tom J. 's Missle Command 2600 hack, Ken Sider's 7800 Centipede TB hack, and a few Atari 800 games. Atari originally planned to release a few games to work with it, but never got around to it before the Crash/Tramiel travesty.

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Centipede and Millipede can also use the trackball.

Only in "Joystick Mode" like every other game.

 

There is a hacked 7800 Centipede version that works in TB mode, and it's fantastic.

I just tried both Centipede and Millipede using my WICO Command Control trackball and the games played fine. I didn't have to change any settings. I'm not familiar with a "Joystick Mode" setting.

 

The Wico trackball doesn't have a true trackball mode. It's hard wired to joystick mode.

 

I also enjoy 2600 decathlon in trackball mode.

 

Mitch

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Centipede and Millipede can also use the trackball.

Only in "Joystick Mode" like every other game.

 

There is a hacked 7800 Centipede version that works in TB mode, and it's fantastic.

I just tried both Centipede and Millipede using my WICO Command Control trackball and the games played fine. I didn't have to change any settings. I'm not familiar with a "Joystick Mode" setting.

 

The Wico trackball doesn't have a true trackball mode. It's hard wired to joystick mode.

 

I also enjoy 2600 decathlon in trackball mode.

 

Mitch

Well that would explain why I can play both games. I had no idea that the WICO was hardwired for joystick mode. I learn something new everyday :)

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You can play ANY game that uses the joystick with the Wico trackball

 

But the 2600 trackball has two modes (there is a switch on the underside)

 

In Joystick mode, just like the Wico, any game will work, but you can spin as fast as you want and it makes no difference

 

In trackball mode, with the hacked games, they behave depending on the speed of the ball and are very cool to play that way.

 

Now if only someone would do Centipede, Millipede and Crystal Castles for the 2600 as well.

Edited by godzillajoe
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atari advertised millipede and crystal castles as supporting their new trackball in trackball mode... and it was a 2600 item, i bought one from the atari store from their magazine back in the day, expecting to be able to use it in trackball mode in millipede and cc, which I had also bought from them. i've always wondered wtf happened there. there's gotta be a proto rom somewhere...

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Games I can recall that used a track ball in the arcade:

 

Centipede

Millipede

Missile Command

Crystal Castles

Reactor (use position A for slightly faster movement)

 

Of course, you have to put the Trak-Ball into Joystick mode for these on the 2600.

 

Game that was never meant to be used with a Trak-Ball:

 

Decathlon, just like Mitch says! :D :D :D It's actually easier to move the ball back and forth a little bit than it is to wiggle the joystick. Of course, for that to work, you have to have it on "Joystick mode". I can score close to 20,000 points in Decathlon using a track ball, but boy does that movement ever wear my fingers out! :D

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there's gotta be a proto rom somewhere...

I don't think so.

 

Reading a Trak-Ball requires a lot more CPU time during the kernel than e.g. reading a paddle (and even that hurts the possible visuals). Unlike the Missile Command kernel, the Centipede, Millipede and Crystal Castles kernels are very busy with drawing graphics, so I doubt the Trak-Ball was even a planned option ever.

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Game that was never meant to be used with a Trak-Ball:

 

Decathlon, just like Mitch says! :D :D :D It's actually easier to move the ball back and forth a little bit than it is to wiggle the joystick. Of course, for that to work, you have to have it on "Joystick mode". I can score close to 20,000 points in Decathlon using a track ball, but boy does that movement ever wear my fingers out! :D

 

Nah, put it into trackball mode and just spin the trackball smoothly either right or left (but not both), much easier that way.

 

Mitch

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[quote name=Underball' date='Tue Nov 3, 2009 10:30 AM' timestamp='1257262234'

post='1872938]

 

that's one way. You could also ask some one of the folks in the 7800 forum who make homebrew carts to burn you one for a nominal fee.

There is a hacked 7800 Centipede version that works in TB mode, and it's fantastic.

Do you need a Cuttle Cart 2 to run that? I'm still hoping for Centipede/Millipede TB for the 2600, although I understand the limitations that do not make it easy.

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Doesn't the 8-bit computer version of Centipede have an analog mode too? I know we're talking 2600 games, but the trakball works with the computers too.

 

 

The trakball is not analog.

 

Maybe I should clarify...I meant trackball mode...

 

Looked around and discovered that it was Missile Command, not Centipede on the 8-bit computers that has true track ball support. You hit CTRL-T to enable it.

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  • 5 years later...

I'm bumping this thread because it's one of the first that come up when searching "Trak-Ball" in the 2600 forum.

 

I'd like to clear up some misconceptions.

 

The consumer Trak-Ball Controllers were spearheaded by Dan Kramer as an after-hours unofficial side project at Atari Inc. He specifically designed the CX-22 for the 2600 and the CX-53 for the 5200. The CX-80 was based upon the CX-22 but w/o Dan's input; that was all the Home Computer Division's doing because they wanted their own Trak-Ball to match the XL line's styling. There's 2 different versions of the CX-22: the common one and the follow-up that specifically has "Atari 2600" added to its labeling. There's 2 versions of the CX-80: one that's compatible with the CX-22 and the other that isn't. Apparently, Atari Corp modded a bunch of leftover CX-80s to make them more compatible with the ST for use as a mouse replacement since ST and Amiga owners were already buying them up cheaply through stores and modifying the Trak-Balls themselves.

 

GCC took the CX-22 design, added a bunch of circuitry - which Dan Kramer thinks wouldn't have made it cost effective - and declared it the 7800 Trak-Ball Controller. It was never released but code for it resides in the commercial 7800 Centipede release. This is why it takes the 7800 Centipede-TB hack to offer native Trak-Ball support for the CX-22 [and possibly the CX-80] with 7800 Centipede.

 

Dan Kramer and others back at Atari Inc also built their own custom Trak-Ball controllers. Dan brought his custom 3-fire button version to the 2015 Davis Atari Party so that we could play the Atari Inc in-house 3-Base Missile Command game that they themselves played back at Atari but was never commercially released for the Atari 8-bit computers. Dan has the only surviving copy on 5 1/4" floppy disk. He's looking for interested parties to release it commercially for A8 as well as convert it to the 5200 for use with his favorite CX-53 Trak-Ball Controller. Obviously, some modding would have to be done to the code for use to use with CX-22s, CX-80s, and CX-53s since none of them have 3-fire buttons. Dan has mentioned using a wiring harness and supplies from the 2600 Keypads in his custom Trak-Ball. On the CX-53, the Numeric Keypad could be modded for use just as the recent port of Missile Command+ has done. Or…perhaps modding the code further to use a 2600 Track & Field Controller, the Starplex Controller or even something like the unofficial prototype 5200 Asteroids Controller could be used in conjunction with a Trak-Ball via a Y Connector Cable Adapter.

 

As it stands, the 5200 and the Atari 8-bit computers are the Atari platforms with the most games with native Trak-Ball support built in [i'm not bringing up Atari STs or Amigas with the mouse controller here]. The only A8 game I'm aware of that uses the Trak-Ball that hasn't yet been ported over to the 5200 is Slime but if anyone else is aware of any, please reply in the comments.

 

In another thread, I asked Thomas Jentzsh about porting his 2600 Missile Command-TB code over to other 2600 titles that used Trak-Balls - or trackballs - in the arcade originals like Reactor, Centipede, Millipede, and Crystal Castles. He reported that the Trak-Ball uses up too much of the kernel to allow for native Trak-Ball support in those games. However, if those 2600 games' code - whether via source or binary hack - were modified to offload the Trak-Ball tracking duties to say a DPC+, it would be doable. A lot of work...but probably doable. Just a thought.

 

CPU/kernal usage is apparently an issue for both versions of Crystal Castles on the Atari 8-bit computer platform. It's unknown to me whether an A8 - or 5200 - could access a DPC+ for such a theoretical solution. Certainly the 5200 couldn't use a DPC+ via the cartridge port; it would have to be added hardware-wise to the motherboard. The 7800 could but there's no known copy of 7800 Crystal Castles currently. Despite not having commercially released versions of Millipede or Crystal Castles in its library, there are other 7800 games that could definitely use Trak-Ball support… all of the light gun games [Crossbow, Baryard Blaster, Meltdown, Alien Brigade, Sentinel…did I miss any others?] plus Hat Trick and Crack'ed of the top of my head.

 

As for the Wico trackball, it's not a real trackball; it's merely a joystick with a trackball gimmick. And beware, according to Dan Kramer's research back at Atari Inc, it can damage the 2600 power supply.

 

Hope this helps.

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As for the Wico trackball, it's not a real trackball; it's merely a joystick with a trackball gimmick. And beware, according to Dan Kramer's research back at Atari Inc, it can damage the 2600 power supply.

 

Hope this helps.

As someone who adores his Wico trackball and uses it 4 or 5 hours a week on average, I'm curious to know if there has ever been any confirmed cases of the Wico trackball damaging an Atari 2600 power supply?

 

I am aware that it doesn't have a true trackball mode like the Atari trackballs, but the overall build quality of the Wico trackball is just so much higher than the Atari ones that I vastly prefer the Wico trackball for all the original production Atari 2600 games like Millipede, Missile Command, Crystal Castles, etc. that don't have a true trackball mode programmed into them. To me the Wico trackball feels like a real arcade trackball when it's sitting in my lap, and the CX-22 and CX-80 just feel like cheap plastic toys in comparison.

 

Given my strong preference for the Wico trackball and how much I use it, I'm wondering if there is any real risk of damaging my 2600 power supply with it? I've heard people say that it could happen, but I've never seen any reports of it actually happening. Has anyone here ever had a Wico trackball damage their power supply?

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