Hi!
I'm new owner of trackball WICO.
I tried to programming it, but I'm not sure:
first - It's not like mouse, that's sure
2nd - I tried to read joy-port1, where was connected - it outputs values like keyboard keys, fire was same as joy-fire
3rd - the ball has 360° so , how to use directions?
Thanks for every reply.
Miro
So, I tried any joystick's programs and now I know that it's the same type of control to every degree...
Miro
Yes, a quick summary of how the trackball is really a joystick is at
http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue65/feedback_trackball_tricks.php (http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue65/feedback_trackball_tricks.php)
From Compute! magazine, no less,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug (http://videocam.net.au/fcug)
I had an Atari Trackball (I don't know what model number) until a few years ago. It was in storage until somebody decided it was garbage and tossed it :(
It had a standard Atari / Commodore female 9-pin D-Sub connector (DE-9 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DE-9) or DB9) with about a 1 ~ 1.5m (3~4.5 ft) cable. The base measured about 20cm x 40cm (8in x 16in). The "ball" was white; it looked like a billards/pool que ball. The "case" was dark brown (nearly black) with a button in both top left and top right corner.
Underneath, my model had a switch. In one position, the device would act like a joystick. In this mode, continous 0V would be applied to up, down, left, right joystick direction depending on direction ball is spinning. Both buttons will ground (0V) the fire line. On a C128 you can demonstrate with:DO:PRINT JOY(N):LOOP where N is 1 or 2 for controller port that device is plugged into.
As I remember from documentation (it's been 20+ years, so this is foggy), this was for Atari 2600 / Commodore (vic/64/128) compatibility mode. It worked pretty good with Crystal Castles on an Atari 2600. It worked so-so with most games on C64/C128 (never tested my Vic-20)..
When the switch was in the other positition, it was supposed (as I recall) to be in Atari 800/1200 mode. I forget if the two buttons were seperately detectable. Anyway you would get no direction reading with BASIC's JOY(N) function when spinning the ball.
I wish I still had the device, because I would like to testDO:PRING POT(N*2-1),POT(N*2):LOOP function when spinning the ball (where N is 1 or 2 depending on controller port where the device is connected). It would be cool if it operated similar to 1351 mouse with POT(N) function, but it seems like I would have tried that (and since I don't remember success, it may be failure).
I've attached a drawing I made. Does anybody know what model (number or other name) this Atari trackball could be?