15 Sep
2006
15 Sep
'06
6:12 p.m.
And thusly were the wise words spake by David Griffith
On Fri, 15 Sep 2006, Robert Feldman wrote:
There's a line of gizmos with names that include the string "ipac" which
are intended for interfacing arcade controls with PCs in various ways.
But I would like to use the same trackball or spinner directly hooked
up to my Commodore 64... (and then other times to my PC to play
Centipede or Arkanoid)
Cheers,
Bryan
From:
bpope at wordstock.com (Bryan Pope)
<snip>>
P.S. Speaking of "different"
controllers, has anybody wired up an
arcade quality spinner or trackball (by themselves) to use with
a C64 or other similar system?
About 15 years ago I wired a number of Happ Control Atari arcade trackballs
to generic PC mice to use in exhibits at the Field Museum of Natural History
in Chicago. These trackballs use a pair of optical sensors on both the X and
Y axes, like the mice did, so I desoldered the sensors from the mouse
circuit board and ran wires to the sensors on the trackballs, bypassing the
rest of the circuit on the trackball. Worked fine. Happ now sells interface
units for PC's.
I kept the "prototype" unit for myself, and used it for 10 years before
having to clean the rollers and lube the bearings for the first time. I
don't use it now because the laptop I have does not have a serial port.