Let's Design a Gaming Trackball!

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1

A long time ago, I used a trackball, a Microsoft Trackball Explorer.

This was a great mouse er, trackball. It had everything I needed at the time:

  • Extremely comfortable
  • Optical sensor
  • Scroll wheel
  • 5 buttons

I could surf the net, I could do general computing, I could even game with this thing! I played through Jedi Knight and Jedi Outcast with it, and it was just as natural as a mouse. Trackballs also encourage better computing habits, (less chance of RSI or carpal tunnel).

I haven't had a trackball since, and it was discontinued long ago. Logitech had a similar model, but it was wireless, (also now discontinued). I hate wireless.

I have had gaming mice since then, but I've always wanted to go back to a trackball. The problem is, there are no gaming trackballs. Trackballs are unfortunately, a niche market. But just for the hell of it, I thought we could design our own gaming trackball.

I think the a combination of the Kensington Expert Mouse Trackball

And the Kensington Expert Mouse Pro

  • Wired
  • At least 5 buttons (+2 sensitivity switching) - 4 around the ball, without the need to use the same finger to activate the majority of them
  • Scroll ring/wheel - I think the ring design would probably work better for a trackball
  • Make the ring clickable(?) - perhaps cardinal directions?

    • Or have the extra buttons as actual buttons like the Expert Mouse Pro, but maybe put some on the bottom, instead of all on top

  • RGB LEDs - because we need some way to identify different profiles, could use little indicators, if we want to go the low-key route

Thoughts, ideas?

2

I've always been a big fan of the Logitech Trackman Marble Plus.

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3

I don't think I would like one for gaming, but for general productivity stuff I found them to quite nice.

4

I never liked the thumb type trackballs. I much prefer having the option to use as many or as few fingers as I want to move the ball, but who says we can't design both kinds?

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5

You mean like this?

I use one of these every day......vintage but works flawlessly.

6

I have never seen that trackball ever. Was it around at the same time as the MS Trackball Explorer?

Why not? No need to worry about mousepads or desktop space, minimizes risk of injury...imagine the possibilities!

7

Is this really a problem that people have?

8

It's a Logitech Trackman Marble FX from back in the Win98 days, actually I have three of them that I have used for years, they go for big bucks on eBay and Logitech has introduced a similar trackball that looks like this....

http://support.logitech.com/en_za/product/trackman-marble-fx

9

Is this an old model? I've never seen that one before either. They only have two on their website right now. The design is interesting. It looks like a miniature version of the FX.

Yeah, RSI is a real risk that people can develop from computing, not just carpal tunnel syndrome.

10

I love trackball mice and have been looking for a good wired one for a while. Please let this thread explode

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11

Yeah the FX was discontinued years ago, I liked them so much I bought 3 of them when they were being produced, it has a rather large fan base as trackballs go which is why Logitech started producing the one I posted above, mine are all PS2 and require a adapter (PS2-USB) to work on a modern MB and of course driver support is non-existent but both Linux and Windows work fine with it I just don't have the ability to assign the buttons like I use to, but Win7 will let me assign one as a scroll button which is nice, I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to get full functionality in Linux with a little effort. And yes the second one has been discontinued also.....

13

Looks like you need to hold on to your ball more tightly then. ^_^

14

Have any of you tried the elecom trackballs? I'm trying to find a high dpi trackball for my 4k+2k display setup and this one looks like the only one but I haven't found any decent reviews yet.