TRACKBOLLS

SuperExcel · June 22, 2018

I just bought an Elecom HUGE. I grew up on trackball mice, my first was the original logitech trackman, but my favorite was the (now cult classic) Microsoft Trackball Explorer. I loved it. Is it weird to love a mouse? I could do crazy stuff in Quake 3! I'll always be convinced that finger tip precision aiming in a FPS will beat out crude wrist jerking, everyone has bought into a great lie. But what happened? In the late 90s laser mice became something fancy and advanced. Suddenly, anything with balls seemed old and antiquated. Even though my trackball was using optical sensors! Something modern high end mice are just now starting to advertise as superior to laser mice!

About 6 years ago I gave up on my Microsoft trackball explorer and picked up a Logitech G600 mmo mouse since my gaming preferences changed and I wanted to play FFXIV efficiently. I needed more buttons, much more. I'd still play FPS off and on but it never really felt right with the G600. It's a more than capable mouse but certain movements seemed a bit to extreme or just outright harder to manage with the mouse without having to constantly adjust for DPI.

Well, I'm finally taking a bit of a break from FFXIV and I've been playing a lot more overwatch with my friends. I finally had enough and went to brush off my microsoft trackball explorer. It was dead. I started looking into possible replacements, but a new Trackball explorer is going for $600 on amazon. I think I bought mine originally for $40. I was at a loss. Seemed everyone has pretty much stopped making trackballs, at least not index middle finger controlled. I was fortunate enough to run across a reddit post talking about Elecom making some amazing modern trackballs.

I've been eyeing them for a few months and I've finally decided to pull the trigger and get the HUGE since it seems the most similar to my old trackball explorer. Does anyone have experience with this mouse? Any issues or praise for it? For everyone else what stopped you from getting into trackballs? Too weird/hard? Did you even know it was an option?

kelvinhall05 · June 22, 2018

I probably speak on behalf of most people on this forum when I say I'd rather use a controller or trackpad instead of a trackball for gaming, especially FPS games.