Review: X-Arcade Trackball

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The thing is fucking enormous. It's bigger than my laptop. I mean... I got a small laptop, but this is ridiculous!!!

Like a bra, it functions really well when you have both hands on it. The buttons are designed that way and it easily fits a leftie as well as a right-handed person.

But... the SIZE!

X-Arcade says that their items are "indestructable" and I can certainly believe it.

Installation was a snap on my laptop, but I think I have driver issues from my long legacied "programming" computer, where I put it. Actually, I'll probably be redoing that one when the official WMF exploit patch is released. But yeah, on the (modern) laptop, it was plug and play. It's got a PS2 port as well as a USB one and I was able to use the third button (which functions in the same way as pushing down the scroll wheel on a Microsoft mouse does) in PS2 mode.

Haven't tried it out with any games yet, though it does come with the Atari Anniversary CD.

It's $99... but I was looking at that for a new Kensington trackball (and I sorta hate Kensington at this point). I'm going to go ahead and say it's worth it.

[Vitriola]

I'm going to go ahead and say it's worth it.

Worth what? You haven't done anything but laugh at it since you got it home.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I'm going to go ahead and say it's worth it.

Worth what? You haven't done anything but laugh at it since you got it home.

There was a software problem. It's because the system I was trying to use had been through five previous software drivers, thanks to Kensington needing to install a whole suite of software. That PC is forever fucked! In the mouse driver department.

Anyway, I meant it was worth lugging it up the stairs. Or clearing out a square acre to find room for it. Or changing Planck's constant to allow it to fit in this universe.

[Jethro Q. Walrustitty]

It's got a PS2 port as well as a USB one and I was able to use the third button (which functions in the same way as pushing down the scroll wheel on a Microsoft mouse does) in PS2 mode.

That is probably the worst thing you've ever written.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

It's got a PS2 port as well as a USB one and I was able to use the third button (which functions in the same way as pushing down the scroll wheel on a Microsoft mouse does) in PS2 mode.

That is probably the worst thing you've ever written.

Right. Why?

[Jethro Q. Walrustitty]

Because what it says to me is that:

1) you have no idea that there are three-button mice (popular in the pre-scroll wheels days)
2) you think that said mice had what's called a "middle button"
3) you think that scroll-wheel mice "emulate" the middle button by having you press on the scroll wheel
4) you think that only Microsoft makes scroll wheels (when they, in fact, make the worst ones, and I'd say that even if I loved everything else they do - their wheels are balky and it's way too easy to accidentally press the button because the wretched wheel barely rotates)
5) you think that PS2 mice don't always support the middle mouse - which, of course, they always do. You don't need USB for that, nor for many other extra functions.

Surely, you already knew all of that, and you just did a poor job of writing that down.

[pinback]

Because what it says to me is that:

1) you have no idea that there are three-button mice (popular in the pre-scroll wheels days)
2) you think that said mice had what's called a "middle button"
3) you think that scroll-wheel mice "emulate" the middle button by having you press on the scroll wheel
4) you think that only Microsoft makes scroll wheels (when they, in fact, make the worst ones, and I'd say that even if I loved everything else they do - their wheels are balky and it's way too easy to accidentally press the button because the wretched wheel barely rotates)
5) you think that PS2 mice don't always support the middle mouse - which, of course, they always do. You don't need USB for that, nor for many other extra functions.

Surely, you already knew all of that, and you just did a poor job of writing that down.

That is probably the worst thing you've ever written.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I can't remember if I wrote a post stating that I truly know how mice work, seeing how we had them on PCs when your precious Ataris were still running programs where the protagonist was a 4 pixel square block, but either way I do and you did.

Here... WHAT SYSTEM AM I?

[Jethro Q. Walrustitty]

Pretty ballsy, to try to trash Atari in the same thread where you're crowing about a trackball. Like used in ATARI GAMES. Like Crystal Castles - an ATARI GAME.

For the record, I had a mouse on the Atari 8bit, and of course, the ST had a GUI and a mouse was standard - and, in fact, I hacked together a big-ass trackball back then to use instead of a mouse. In fact, I have never had a mouse as my primary input device, just trackballs.

And c'mon, comparing an IBM CGA or even EGA display to the Atari computers? Get real. Those IBM graphics were shit until VGA came along.

I win! I win!

[Jack Straw]

hahhaaa i can totally picture you saying in court "FOR THE RECORD, I HAVE NEVER USED A MOUSE AS MY PRIMARY INPUT DEVICE YOUR HONOR!"