I have to say Iam coming around to the idea of using a joypad,just been playing a bit of the PS1 game Colony Wars.The game does not have all the features of pc space sim,but it playes very well,much better than the PS1 Wing Commander games did.

Keyboard/Mouse are my favorites

It all depends on the game to me.

I find that the more realistic games benefit from using a joystick or at least a joypad.

One thing I forgot about was the track ball. I used to have one of these for my miggy and used it to good effect in Frontier.

Never used a trackball are they any good. ❓

They can take a bit of getting used to and it's important to have a good quality one. I used to use an Alpha Data with my miggy until I wore out it's brass rollers. I still have it and it kind of still works, even changes colour when you move it. 😆 Anyways, with practice you could be as accurate with it as using a mouse, plus it was a good space saver. I wonder if I could get some new rollers made for it? 🙄

Personally I would say YES. I won't buy a mouse that isn't a trackball, but it has to be one with the thumb controlling the ball.

I would say with practice you can be even more accurate than with a standard mouse. But thats just me.

I would agree with you there S20dan, after mine started to fail (and I couldn't find a replacement for my miggy), it took me ages to get used to using a mouse again. Trackballs are better for accuracy once you get used to them. I did most of my flying in Frontier with one. One downside to them though (and it's just a little one) is that they needed to be cleaned on a regular basis. Apart from that little niggle, yes I would get another one again. Bet they have advanced quite a bit since the one I had back in the 90s.

I agree with you, Geraldine, about the convenience, space-saving, and accuracy of trackballs. As you say, it takes a bit of time to develop the muscle-memory for them. Once you do that, they really are a very nice controller.

The original designs were built like an upside-down roller mouse, so they have the same problem with needing to be cleaned as old-fashioned roller-ball mice have.

Sadly, trackballs have never become mainstream devices. They have been replaced by touchpads on most laptops and keyboards, and few manufacturers still make them (mostly Logitech and Kensington). One of Logitech's early claims to fame was their TrackMan trackball.

The most important improvement in technology is the use of optical technology to track movement rather than rollers which need to be cleaned.

Logitech makes at least one optical trackball, which is an excellent idea, and it eliminates the problem with dirty rollers. Kensington makes several optical trackballs. Microsoft also made a popular optical trackball that been discontinued. I checked on eBay and see that they still sell for over $100 US, which is an expensive experiment for the curious user who just wants to try one.

[hsimg] [/hsimg]

As a point of trivia, the tackball was invented for the Canadian Royal Navy in 1952, using a 5-pin (small) bowling ball as the ball. That was 11 years before the first mouse.

I was most fond of the older style of trackball that used a large ball, about the size and weight of a billiard ball. My reason for liking that style was that the size of the ball made it extremely precise, while the weight of the ball made it "coast" when you spun it quickly, so you could move across the screen instantly. It created a combination of speed and accuracy that is unmatched by other pointing devices. The Kensington Expert Mouse is the only brand that I can find that still uses those large balls.

Ah yes the cleaning, I'm used to it now though so I jsut forget about it... But it can be pretty damn annoying when your aiming for the head and your dirty mouse starts sticking 🙂

This is the newer version of my one:

I've been using the thumb ones for what seems like a very long time now.

Wow, they have come a long way, the one my miggy used looked a lot more primitive, still had 3 buttons though, so not bad for an early 90s bit of kit.

Well you can normally click in the mouse wheel on those, so thats sort of like a third button. But it hasn't ever worked for my mouse I probably need a driver or something.

Here you go S20dan 🙂 http://driverscollection.com/?V=Logitech&S=69 Now back to work with you on those cool Pioneer ships! 😆

Thanks Geraldine. I haven't been able to use that button for years 🙂

I must have tried once toget a driver but I suppose I couldnt find one.

DL-ing it now I hope it works.. 🙂

Edit, Well the driver seems to work nicely so thanks for pointing me toward it. It shows the correct name for my mouse, but I dont know how to test the middle button 🙂

Edit2, Seems I jumped the gun on that, it wasn't working and after my attempts to get it working I had to run windows recovery

Now that is odd, perhaps the driver is not compatible with your version of windows. Sorry it didn't work 🙁

I did some checking on the internet and it turns out that most of them just don't work anymore. Typical. Although there are sporadic reports from people with varous OS including win7 where it has worked, its just plain odd.

The Driver/software just does not see the mouse, the fix I tried was to force the software to find the mouse, but it obviously doesnt work for win7, The mouse is probably 10 years old 🙂

No worries, thanks anyway 🙂

Another option,

I had a look into this problem and like you said there is known problems with the drivers on more recent OSs, however I may have found a solution by way of Setpoint from Logitech. Here is a Wiki listing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SetPoint

And here is a link to a post I found were someone solved the middle button problem http://www.realgeek.com/forums/logitech ... 39112.html

But maybe you have already tried this? If you have then apologies again.

Setpoint 4 was the driver from that other site although they didnt make it very clear that its what you were downloading. I also tried the newer setpoint6.1. It is the software (setpoint) itself that doesnt seem to work correctly (it doesn't pick up the mouse) 🙁

Its probably either win7x64 or my mouse is too old. But my mouse is not as old as I thought it was. It is usb, has a laser inside/ir beam instead of pads/rollers so I would have thought it would work.

Thanks anyway. 😎

That's a shame S20dan 🙁 It is a nice trackball too. I was even thinking of getting one. At the moment I am repairing my old Amiga one, or trying to at any rate! 😆