Building an Arcade Golf Trackball?

SparafucileMan writes "Ok, I'll admit it. I've spent way too much time at the pub drinking... er... playing these arcade golf games such as Golden Tee 2004. However I'm annoyed by the lack of features, graphics quality, and courses and figure that playing golf on my computer, where there are several outstanding titles available, would get me a lot more bang for the buck. However, what's the fun in playing arcade golf with a mouse and keyboard?! I want to invite some people over to hammer the bejesus out of a huge trackball, just like at the arcade. Anyone have any suggestions on where I can find such a contraption, or how I could build one myself (with USB hook-up, no-less)?" We've previously covered the cult of Golden Tee, and the inevitable injuries that result from the mixing of beer and trackballs.

Big trackballs.

[Anonymous Coward]

If all you need is a big trackball, there are two products that come to mind:

* Microsoft Easyball
* Crayola Kids PC Trackball
* Infogrip BigTrack [infogrip.com]

The Easyball would have been most suitable (as it was huge - I remember seeing one in the store, there are a few pictures here [google.com]), but that and the Crayola trackball are no longer being sold as far as I know. From pictures, the BigTrack looks like the exact same model as the Crayola one. Although both are smaller than the Microsoft trackball, you can still buy the BigTrack direct from the manufacturer for $80 (link above, although I think that's at least $30 more than the crayola trackball was selling for).

Of course, you might still be able to find an Easyball on Ebay [ebay.com] or Froogle [google.com]

However - neither of these might be suitable for the purposes you're thinking about. They're plastic devices made for kids, not necessarily designed to be smashed around by grown adults as the arcade devices are.

laser golf

[Anonymous Coward]

saw a fairly cool laser golf game at the australian game development conference this year.

Was pretty fun. You got to swing an actual golf club.

Have fun!
holepit.com [holepit.com]

For the lazy...

[GoRK]

For the extremely lazy, the X-Arcade [x-arcade.com] folks are taking preorders on their trackball unit, which I believe includes a 3" trackball. They have not traditionally used happ buttons and joysticks in the past, so it's doubtful this ball will have the same feel as the happ balls on most golden tee machines.

If you do want the "real deal" you can get a 3" trackball from Happ Controls [happcontrols.com] and to interface it you can buy an OptiPAC from Ultimarc [ultimarc.com], a usb interface from happ (a bit more expensive, though it supports 3 buttons unlike the OptiPAC) or you can even hack apart an old ball mouse and interface through that. Personally, I am using the Ultimarc OptiPAC with a Happ 3" ball on my own cabinet [blurbco.com].

Incredible Technologies (makers of Golden Tee Golf arcade machines) used to publish a version of Golden Tee for the PC [itsgames.com], though they themselves do not sell it anymore. You can get a copy from ebay for about 3-5 bucks, and there are some addon courses for sale also. The courses are from the arcade games Golden Tee 3D Golf and (the addons) Golden Tee Golf '97. The game supports network, modem, and internet play.

Though it's dated and the graphics are not as good as some of the newer titles, the price is right, and the experience is as close as you can get to the arcade if you want to practice your Golden Tee at home. I bought golden tee pc from ebay last week and have been having a lot of fun with it on the cabinet.