 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Re: If he's lifting his mouse for a circle strafe... by Ice Cream Jonsey 11/04/2005, 12:58pm PST | ||||
 |
 |
|||
Here's the biggest problem with deciding that you're going to use a trackball for all your FPSs: you get good at a trackball. What does that get you? Now you're tied to using a fucking trackball. You are ... OK, I am also tied to the trackball industry. They're really doing some great things. The Kensington Expert Mouse 8.0 is a trackball that is called a mouse, brought to you by the same people who called tuna fish "Chicken of the Sea." The ball inside doesn't have any clips holding it in and it takes roughly two days before your co-workers decide that the Mount Everest of business comedy is putting your free-rolling ball in totally off-beat places. When the local fraternity puts it on top of the Dean's house (how did it they get it up there??) it means no classes during the day and free food at night! Not that you know the precise details or anything - by definition you can't operate your trackball and read your e-mail. The "marble" devices out there are great fun, too. Now instead of being able to control your big trackball with your index, middle and ring finger it's all down to your thumb. Sometimes they configure the buttons so that they are near your other fingers, but the one I have at home, that I hate, has the left button to the left of the "marble." Evolution hasn't given us similarly-lengthed fingers yet, but we already have input devices for when we do. Here's what I don't understand, though. If you build a MAME cabinet and really go all out you can buy a trackball from Happ or something and install it into your control panel. How come nobody makes a USB compatible, arcade-style trackball with multiple microswitched buttons? The Expert Mouse 8.0 ran me $90, so obviously I don't care if a nicely-made arcade-style one is expensive. Are there schematics for such a thing? Can I get it to light up like the one on my CC machine does? Can I put four buttons there? The trackball peaked in 1982 (when they called it a "trakball") and has been getting worse every year since. Also - I'm in no way saying the trackball is better, I just can't stand cleaning out mouse balls or lifting my mouse off the table constantly. I'm sure even the weakest mouse-based FPSer would clean my clock, I fucking suck. the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey! |
||||
 |
 |
|||
|
