Atari 2600 Trak Ball Games

[Scoots]

Anyone know which games will work with the Trak Ball? I noticed AtariAge sells a Missile Command cart with Trak Ball support, so I'm assuming it can't just be used on *any* title...?

[Sniderman]

See, this confuses me. The Atari Trakball was compatible with any game that normally used a joystick or paddle. You flipped a little switch on it and it could be used for either. I do remember playing Missile Command with it before Thomas' hack, so I'm a bit befuddled. (I also remember playing Kaboom with it too. That also sucked. But Crystal castles was AWESOME.)

[Scoots]

Now I'm really confused.

[NE146]

The deal is, the trackball COULD normally be used for any 2600 game (which is how you played it with Missile Command Sniderman). But basically all it was doing was sending the digital signal with the 8 directions as if it were a joystick.. i.e. if your roll up, it's just like holding the joystick up. roll up and to the left, it's like holding the joystick diagonally left. It worked great.. but the deal is though that there was no real ANALOG control.

Now what Thomas' Missile Command-trackball hack does (correct me if I'm wrong), is add true analog support. So in other words, you can control the SPEED of the cursor movement with the trackball. So spin slowly, you move slowly, spin fast, you move fast. Also this allows for more directional control rather than the standard 8 directions. I could be wrong on this but that is my understanding.

Anyway, here's an old thread I had along these same lines:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14391

[Sniderman]

Ah. That DOES clear it up. Thanks NE1. I *knew* I wasn't insane.

[Scoots]

Thanks for the help, guys.

[chadtower]

The main ones I remember using it for were centipede and (I think) millipede.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I could be wrong on this but that is my understanding.

No, you are absolutely correct.

And the MCTB hack is the only 2600 game that supports the "real" TrakBall mode.

[Pantechnicon]

The deal is, the trackball COULD normally be used for any 2600 game (which is how you played it with Missile Command Sniderman). But basically all it was doing was sending the digital signal with the 8 directions as if it were a joystick.. i.e. if your roll up, it's just like holding the joystick up. roll up and to the left, it's like holding the joystick diagonally left. It worked great.. but the deal is though that there was no real ANALOG control.

That's good information. I never really thought about it that way. This probably accounts for why I generally despise playing games with my Atari trackball controller.

Actually I've never been very good at any trackball game, analog or no. My first exposure to Missile Command, for example, was on the 2600 with a joystick. For me, the stick stuck, so to speak and whenever I've tried to play MC on a coin-op with a trackball it usually ends in frustration and a miserable score. Ditto for Centipede. I have to grant an exception for Crystal Castles. That game is properly played with a trackball and I can't see it any other way.

I imagine that the like-minded anti-trackball contingent is a minority in this forum, but "to thine own self be true".

[bargora]

Anybody who likes trackball games ought to pick up Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1, AGH:AC2, and a Nyko Trackball for your Playstation some day and give those old Atari trackball classics another chance. The emulation is pretty much spot on, and the trackball works the way it was intended to.

I had always suspected that the 2600 trackball didn't give true trackball control, but merely emulated an 8-way joystick. The 2600 Missile Command hack sounds cool, though.

[RJ]

If you can find it, an old "catalog" of Atari 2600/5200 games which was silver & unfolded into a giant movie ticket showed what games were playable (in their opinion) w/ the trackball. After the description it had a special symbol, kinda looked like a tiny Death Star.

Actually you can find it at Atariage.com under catalogs.

[Vice Guy]

As far as I know, it works best on shooters like Megamania, Space Invaders, Asteroids and so on.

However, I don't recommend it for games that don't involve rapid movement from side to side.