[vox-tech] Classic Atari Trakball as input device under X-Window?

[Bill Kendrick]

So I've got three great tastes that I think can taste great together:

1. Linux & X-Window
2. Stelladapter
3. Atari Trakball

All of us here know what #1 is.  #2 is a device for PCs that allows you
to connect Atari video game controllers (joystick, paddles, driving
controllers) to a modern PC's USB port.
(See: http://www.pixelspast.com/products/ )  And #3 is the trackball
device for the Atari 2600 (VCS) and Atari 8-bit computers from the 1980s
(See: http://www.atariage.com/2600/controllers/con_AtariTrakball2.jpg )

The Trakball works similar to ball mice, just upside-down
(See: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mouse2.htm ).  On the Atari,
you had to use machine-language to read the bits coming in from
the joystick port -- BASIC was too slow to read the pulses in such a
way to make any sense.

On a PC, I imagine using Stelladapter + Trakball and then converting
USB joystick input (which ends up being an analog interpretation of
the Atari's digital joystick up/down/left/right bits).

Anyone feel like helping me code this? :)  (read: coding it for me)

OTOH, I suppose I could look for a good trackball for PCs.
It'd need to be arcade-quality, not some tiny Logitech thumb-controlled
thing.  Something like this: http://www.xgaming.com/trackball.shtml
Not like this: http://pan1.fotovista.com/dev/1/3/46410031/l_46410031.jpg

But it's even larger than my Atari Trakball, and relatively expensive ($60).
Worse, it'd be Yet Another Device to have hanging around the house...
whereas I already HAVE the Atari Trakball and Stelladapter. :)


Along with using it to demonstrate Tux Paint, I've got another classic
game I'm planning to clone -- an arcade game that played with a trackball.

-- 
-bill!
"Tux Paint" - free children's drawing software for Windows / Mac OS X / Linux!
Download it today!  http://www.tuxpaint.org/