Using a mouse ball instead of a joystick?

[bacteria]

I have a couple of old PC mice which use a ball to detect movement instead of the newer LED method. This one shown is an old serial connection mouse (it is old!).







They seem to use a light beam to detect movement, which might be an issue.

So, can a mouse me made to work instead of a joystick, if so, how??

I'm sort of hoping that the four wires out of the mouse are just VCC, ground, H, V; but doubt it could be that simple?? I know the green wire = ground, just tried it.

[collinE]

sorry, it isn't as simple as sticking it in place of the joystick. It uses a different signal and would need the signal to be translated from that into something the console could understand. If that makes sense.

I know the PS2 has 3rd party controllers with a ball for the right analog. supposedly good for aiming in FPS's.

[Axaj]

Well, I suppose you could hook it up to potentiometers...

[snowpenguin]

The reason Bac wants it as a ball is so he can spin it indefinitely I think... Like one of those old arcade games. You couldn't do that with a pot, plus there is almost no way to hook it up to a pot anyway...

[bacteria]

Actually, the reason is that one of the main games I want to play on my DreamCast project is Quake 3, the joystick is not a good way to move a character about as you often end up looking at the sky or ground unintentionally when you just want to move left or right. I know you can adjust the sensitivity of the joystick in the game, however it certainly isn't perfect. In contrast, I have played that game on a PC for years now with mouse and keyboard, so it seemed a good idea to try and see if the mouse could replace the function for that game instead of the joystick; in effect, have a joystick, d-pad and mouse ball on the portable.

I could try and make a mechanical method but it probably won't be reliable enough and may be too big.

CollinE - you mention about 3rd party PS2 joysticks - can the mouse part of that do what I need please? Which third party joysticks do them please - I have never seen one.

[collinE]

HERE is the only one I've ever seen with the trackball on a basic controller.

and THIS one is tight, but probably a bit more complex they make one for the PS3 as well, but that's probably not necessary.

I don't think the reflex made it out of the prototype phase, but judging by IGN's video, it worked pretty well.

Edit: man, I basically failed. The second is an optical mouse.

[tom61]

Actually, the reason is that one of the main games I want to play on my DreamCast project is Quake 3, the joystick is not a good way to move a character about as you often end up looking at the sky or ground unintentionally when you just want to move left or right. I know you can adjust the sensitivity of the joystick in the game, however it certainly isn't perfect. In contrast, I have played that game on a PC for years now with mouse and keyboard, so it seemed a good idea to try and see if the mouse could replace the function for that game instead of the joystick; in effect, have a joystick, d-pad and mouse ball on the portable.

The Dreamcast version supports mouse and keyboard. Get a Total Control 5 and wire it to a small PS/2 trackball (older laptops sometimes had these for add ons, some industrial applications still use them), and you should be set if you attach the Total Control 5 to the correct port (not sure if Quake 3 needs the mouse in a certain port to work or not). To use the mouse you have now, with the Total Control 5, you'd need to invert the directions of the mouse(get the light choppers to spin in the opposite direction) to get it work right as a trackball, plus you'd need to support the ball properly, so just hunting around for mini-trackball would be easier and probably more durable.

[bacteria]

Stupid of me. Of course, the DreamCast had a mouse (forgot as I only recently got a DreamCast)!

Just bought an official Sega DC mouse off e-bay.