I've been pretty reticent to commit to making this thread because it's probably not going to last very long and almost certainly won't inspire any interesting discussion, but I'm at the end of my rope and if anyone can solve this issue, it's Retro. On another, non-Sonic forum, I've got a thread going where I'm playing (almost) all of the Sonic games (worth talking about) in chronological order, providing a kind of review on each as I go (it can be found here for anyone interested, but I figure such a thread has pretty limited appeal to a board of people already playing Sonic anyway). I have now reached SegaSonic the Hedgehog in my list, a game I've honestly been quite looking forward to writing about, but I've been having some difficulties actually getting the game to play in viable manner. In particular, I'm having difficulty with control settings. For reference, I am using a Switch Pro Controller in MAME via Steam Input. Despite tinkering with various settings and attempting to use the configuration supplied by Tracker_TD at the bottom of his almost decade old playthrough of the game, I'm experiencing very frustrating behaviour where the player character just will not accelerate beyond a certain point, one that isn't nearly fast enough to allow the game to be properly playable. I can go slower than this speed, so it's not as though my inputs aren't being read as analog, but I really don't have the technical experience to diagnose the issue beyond this. As such, I am hoping someone on these fine boards will be able to talk me through one of two things: Correcting whatever issue I'm having with my current controller so I can access Sonic's full range of movement - tutorials on using an analog stick as a trackball in MAME are surprisingly scant, and the few I've managed to find haven't helped. Or... Providing instructions on how to use my laptop's touchpad to emulate a trackball. I must stress that I want a very specific thing out of this one. I'm already aware that MAME natively supports using mouse devices as a trackball, but this functionality is more akin to a point that drags the player character around. My ideal for this route would be to use specifically my touchpad to replicate trackball functionality via swiping on the touchpad. This would allow me to get as close to the authentic experience as possible without having to purchase a physical trackball that I would probably never use again after this (not to mention needing to deal with the logistics of setting that up on Windows, as well as the ergonomic issues of not really having a good way to hold such a device in places during gameplay). Hopefully I've been thorough enough in my explanations one of the savvier users here can help me out. If needed, I can attempt to provide additional information, but as of right now I'm placing the fate of this little blog in your hands, Sonic Retro!
Ooh this has been a bone I've been picking with for years. So SegaSonic is a analog game as you already know, and using arrow keys won't let Sonic and the gang walk properly into some angles. However because of the way SegaSonic's analog control is programmed, actual analog control is very fiddly i.e. deadzones and how sensitive it is. I've tried my damnedest to play with a Xbox controller, but the sensitivity just doesn't work right (if most games control with a curve like _..~`` then SegaSonic's is more like √`````` just full pedal with no way of slowing down). The best results I've had is by setting it to mouse mode, getting a large table and manhandling the ever living crap out of the mouse like a mad man across the table for 10 minutes straight. For a game that's quite popular, SegaSonic surprisingly seems to have little on the emulation UI front. Ideally, there should be a mod that allows you to adjust the curve of your analog stick's control to better calibrate how SegaSonic controls. Somehow, I actually managed to beat the game twice this way, but like... there's gotta be a better way.
Do standalone USB trackball units exist? Also, if it wasn't so janky and oddly placed, theoretically a PS4 controller touch pad could function as a thumb based trackball simulator.
USB trackballs do exist, generally for the purpose of homemade cabinets running on Raspberry Pi, but I don't really want to drop upwards of £20 on something I'll probably only use once and that I can't even be guaranteed to get working. Further, there's logistical issue of the device moving around during play, since having one hand on the ball and another on a keyboard button for jumping means I'd have no way of securing the trackball housing itself.
There are also regular mice with trackballs that you can use with one hand. Supposedly they're better ergonomically, too.
I recommend the CST trackball, I’ve used one for many years. I can also say the Elecom ones are nice too, but cleaning the ball bearings can be a tad annoying, the CST is much easier to clean (but you have to open the whole unit up).
So I looked this up on a whim (even though my preferred outcome would be figuring out how to get analogue control stick inputs working properly) and uhhhh £145???? For a thing I'm only going to use once to try and get a semblance of authenticity? I think not...
Managed to get this figured out in the end to a degree. The solution is so blindly obvious I'm stunned it didn't occur to me earlier, that being to just use Steam input to have my controller analog stick act as a mouse, and then set up the trackball controls in MAME to be mouse based (while also setting the mouse input provider to dinput). With that said, I'm still not thrilled with the results - even after tweaking sensitivities, there's a degree of jerkiness to the whole thing to the extent that I wonder if it's actually baked into the game's movement code. This is further aggrevated by the game's movement seemingly not being a true 360 degrees. That or the discrepancy between the mapping of the original hardware trackball and the emulator's interpretation of that introduces such quirks as not being able to comfortably move within the game's suggested straight lines. Is there anyone on these boards who has played the game on real hardware? I'd be really interested to hear if the controls are as crappy as they are in emulation or whether it's a revelatory experience having the real thing. While I understand my experience can't really be an authentic representation in this scenario, my impression of the game after having played it is that it's ultimately just a bit of a gimmick, with the trackball existing to give players something to wrestle with that disguises how lacking the game really is, given that gameplay boils down to slamming your character in the opposite direction of whatever's chasing you and hoping you can pick up some rings along the way without flinging yourself off the edge of the stage.
Isn't that level of depth basically the norm for arcade games? Simple gameplay that emphasizes fast action and graphics over depth and variety.
