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Gerry Block wrote:http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/12/e3-2006-bodielobus-hands-on-report

BodieLobus is a young company with a pretty new take on the traditional console controller, and we got a chance to go hands on with the Reflex Control unit. The controller is, at its heart, fairly similar to a standard looking PS2 controller. The big difference, of course, is that the right analog stick has been replaced by a large optically tracked track-ball that performs the same function.

The critical difference I discovered between playing an FPS with the BodieLobus Reflex Control and a standard analog stick is the fact that the BodieLobus' track ball directly controls the speed of view movement, as opposed to the variable acceleration applied by an analog stick. Moving the track-ball a little moved the view a little, but at the same speed at which I spun the ball, as opposed to a little movement on an analog stick moving the view at a slower pace than a full push to a corner. Once my brain learned not to compensate for an analog stick's acceleration, I attained a level of accuracy I had never experienced without a mouse and keyboard combination.

The BodieLobus Reflex Control controller is currently in late-prototype stages while its designers work with manufacturers to bring the product to market. Challenges facing the controller include the fact that console games must support mouse input options in order to work with the Reflex Control, or get a small patch for direct support.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2007/03/trackball_ps2_c/

When it comes to first person shooters, it’s hard to deny that a mouse provides more pinpoint accuracy than the average console controller, but using a keyboard for movement can prove difficult for some ham-fisted players (like me). The possible solution? The Paradox, from Reflex, which puts a trackball where the right thumbstick on a DualShock would be. The Paradox also has a USB port so that you can use it on your PC.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=M860



General Features:
Orange and charcoal design
4D optical mouse
PS/2 interface
3 programmable buttons
Scroll wheel acts as third button
Two side buttons, five total buttons
Zoom in function
Includes two blue and beige replaceable covers

wip3outguy7 wrote:How do games like Mercenaries and Ghost in the Shell: SAC work? I am especially interested in Ghost in the Shell as the look speed seems very slow.

hellgate wrote:I bought the SmartJoy Frag for my modded Xbox. The goal is to use a Trackball for games like Centipede. So I have a PS2 keyboard and a Kensington Expert Mouse model #64215

I am plugging it into port one. The keyboard works fine and I can program the mouse buttons, but I can't get the trackball to work.... I don't know if I am doing something stupid or what. I chose this mouse because it was mentioned on this thread, so hopefully it is compatible.

CRTGAMER wrote:Press F11 for custom programming on keyboard with PS/2 cable plugged into Smartjoy Frag
The mouse will default to the RIGHT analog stick. Unless an FPS, most games use the LEFT Analog stick as the main control. You will have to reprogram to set the ball tracking to the LEFT analog stick.