wilmott@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ray Wilmott) (03/26/89)
Hi all! Just a quick question...does the old Atari Trackball work as an upside-down mouse? (ie - the new desktop OS's, GOE and Diamond will work with the ST mouse. Am I correct in assuming that they'd also work with the trackball?) Also, on the same note...are there any third party manufacturers selling a higher quality, ST-compatible mouse??? -Ray wilmott@topaz.rutgers.edu
slackey@bbn.com (Stan Lackey) (03/27/89)
In article <Mar.25.17.46.54.1989.23294@topaz.rutgers.edu> wilmott@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ray Wilmott) writes: > >Hi all! Just a quick question...does the old Atari Trackball >work as an upside-down mouse? And now, a quick answer: Yes BTW, have you used your trackball a lot? I was using one as a mouse. It worked OK, but is not really a one-hand device; I found it hard to push the button with the same hand. Also, it was starting to get jammed sometimes; you would have to wiggle it a little to get past the rough? part. I now use the Commodore mouse. It has a proportional mode (with analog outputs; apparently, it can be read using the Commodore pot reading circuit, but for some reason can't be read through the Atari. I tried both normal and fast-pot-scan modes.) and joystick-simulator modes. I converted my software to track the joystick mode. (In simulated joystick mode, the second mouse button is read through a pot input.) -Stan
njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM (DiMasi) (03/29/89)
In article <Mar.25.17.46.54.1989.23294@topaz.rutgers.edu>, wilmott@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ray Wilmott) writes: > > Hi all! Just a quick question...does the old Atari Trackball > work as an upside-down mouse? (ie - the new desktop OS's, GOE > and Diamond will work with the ST mouse. Am I correct in > assuming that they'd also work with the trackball?) The Atari (and presumably any other compatible) Trakball controllers (there were at least 2 different Atari trakballs) do _not_ work exactly like an ST mouse. I tried the old GOE demo disk with an ST mouse and it worked as it was supposed to. But with my (CX22 I think is the model number) trakball, the cursor moves to the upper left corner of the screen and is stuck there (in trakball mode), or moves, "flakily," 90 (or is it 270?) degrees from the intended direction (in joystick mode). As far as Diamond goes, I can't say. (At the last meeting of my users' group, we saw Diamond respond to an ST mouse, but we couldn't get it to do anything - we had no manual - and I didn't have my trakball with me anyway.) However, I have (at home, not here) some instructions on modifying an Atari trakball (at least for the type I have, I may have saved the other instructns.) to act like an ST mouse. I got them from DELPHI, which means they must be all over the place since (except for stuff from ANALOG magazine) DELPHI is about the last place to get anything (if it gets there at all). If you can't find these instructions on whatever BBSs and/or pay services you have access to, I will dig them out and (especially if I have them in a disk file) and mail or post them (depending on the level of interest here). Disclaimer: I have not made any modification to my trakball. It is often all too easy to destroy a device while trying to modify it (although this is much more likely with the computer itself, I believe). Caveat Hackor. Nick DiMasi njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM ...att!ihlpm!njd DELPHI: TURBONICK Uni'q Digital Technologies (Fox Valley Software subsidiary; ^ working as a contractor at AT&T Bell Labs in Naperville, IL) ( | this is an accent mark, supposed to replace the dot over the 'i')