Trackball Mice

Do you use a trackball mouse?

  • Yes

    Votes: 11 32.4%

  • No

    Votes: 21 61.8%

  • Sometimes

    Votes: 2 5.9%
  • Total voters
    34
Z

Zalbag

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 24, 2002
Messages
330
So one of the appraisers in the office complains that he hates the mouse that he is using (an old 3 button no scroll wheel mouse). Being such a nice guy I go out to our "graveyard" of parts and find him a standard 2 button + wheel mouse, in the process I stubmble upon a Microsoft IntelliMouse Trackball. I am pretty crazy/stupid so I took the beast and plugged it into my machine to mess around with....It is actually kind of decent, but my precision has dropped a little (I am not sure if it's because using the ball is less accurate or if I just haven't used a trackball mouse in forever).

So what's the purpose of this thread? Well, the mouse got me thinking....Do people actually use trackball mice anymore? How about you gamers, do any of you use a trackball mouse for playing games? Does it take practice to actually be as percise as a standard mouse or is it not possible?
 
I used a trackball for a couple years back in the HL/TFC days. I was a pretty good sniper with it. It does take some getting used to. I would say that it is every bit as precise as a mouse given practice.
 
I currently use a Logitech Trackman Wheel. My thumb moves the ball. I've used a trackball for some time now, I definitely prefer it over a mouse. I play a lot of return to castle wolfenstien with mine and don't have any problems. You just have to get the sensitivity right. You don't want the cursor flying off the screen when you get excited. You don't want it so slow that you get clobbered either. :)
 
Trackball user here....matter of fact, I've used one since they became available....started out with a Logitech and when I couldn't get a decent replacement from them, I switched over to Microsoft and still use several of them. When I started using laptops, the touchpad was an easy transition because of the trackball interaction. I guess it's an acquired talent...I'm much faster and accurate using a trackball than a standard mouse
 
I used to use those realy big trackballs that you rub your palm over to play Missle Command and Cenepede on my old Atari. I remember it being halfway decent. But everytime I've tried to use these current trackballs that you controll with your thumb, my experiance just sucked.

I think the reason I liked the larger, "in the palm of your hand" ones was that since the ball was so large, you could get some momentum with it to swing the pointer/cursor/crosshare across the screen quickly, and the hand movements you used to rotate the ball with your palm were vary similar to the hand movements to push the mouse around. But, it still was a two hand job: one for the ball, and the other for the buttons. :p

In short... I like large balls!!! :D

(quote me, I know you want to... you sick bastards)
 
I've been using a trackball at least part time for at least six years. My favorite is the Logitech Trackman Marble+. I currently have two of them sitting on my desk at home. Before I had my main system die, I had one attached to each of the two computers that could use a pointing device. (For some reason Foldix doesn't seem to include mouse drivers ;) )

The trackball was my choice for gaming until recently. I've actually gotten to the point where I seem to be better with my MX700. I might try the trackball again tonight for the hell of it. I'll have to raise the sensitivity up a lot to be able to use it, though. That's the only thing I have a problem with. I like the lower sensitivity for being more precise.

alphanumeric: Do you play RTCW or Wolfenstein: ET? I've gotten into ET a bit too much lately but at least it's fun.

 
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