Trackballs

This page should contain brief descriptions of various trackballs available, and details of their setup. If any one portion of the page starts getting a little too long, a seperate page may be started for that topic.

2 ¼" Trackballs

These 2 ¼" trackballs were used in games such as Centipede, Millipede and Missile Command Cocktail. Two and a quarter inches is the same size as a (U.S.) regulation billiard ball, and you can use a billiard ball in a 2 ¼" trackball assembly.

Available from Happ, Suzo, Ultimarc and others.

3" Trackballs

These 3" trackballs are the most commonly seen in modern arcade machines, and are widely used in peoples home arcade machines. They are used in Capcom Bowling, Crystal Castles, the Golden Tee games and Marble Madness. Users have discovered that juggling balls are commonly 3" in size, and make good replacement balls.

Available from Happ, Suzo, Ultimarc and others.

4 ½" Atari Trackballs (Missile Command, Atari Football)

4 ½" trackballs (w/o optical boards)

These giant trackballs are sometimes known as 4-inch, but are actually four and a half inches in diameter. They were some of the first trackballs put into use, and are made of machined aluminum; clearly designed to survive intense abuse. Putting one of these in your control panel is quite a commitment in terms of real estate. The metal frame is 6" square, 3 ½" tall, and the optical boards stick an aditional 2 inches beyond two of the corners, an effective 64 square inch footprint. Happ sells a 4 ½" trackball. This Happ trackball was used in the NeoGeo game 'The Irritating Maze' and can be connected in an identical manner to the Happ 3" trackballs. The ball itself is usable in an Atari 4 ½" (a 4 ½" diameter sphere is a 4 ½" diameter sphere), but the mechanism is a different, less industrial design. Any 4 ½" diameter ball, particularly a candle-pin and/or duck-pin bowling ball, is a swap-out replacement for the 25+ year old originals.

The original optical boards on these are fairly easy to interface with an Opti-PAC (and probably most other optical control interfaces). This is the pin-out for the 10-pin molex plug found on the optical boards: Pin 1 no signal 2 no signal 3 no signal 4 Axis 1 5 no signal 6 no signal 7 no signal 8 Axis 2 9 +5v 10 ground There were a number of slightly different boards with this same pin-out. On an Opti-PAC, the "A/HI" jumper should be set.

There are a few vendors, particularly The Real Bob Roberts, that sell replacement bearings and steel roller-shafts for these (they are often referred to as 4" or Maxi- trackball rollers).

Related Links: 'The Irritating Maze' on HardMVS