From charles.sachs@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 18 14:06:33 2017
Recently noticed the player's gun in Centipede was moving a little slower than it should, so I removed the trackball assembly, gave it a good cleaning and some 3-in-1 oil for the bearings and reassembled.
It had been at least 8 years, so it was definitely due. The trackball itself was rolling smoothly in its housing and the entire assembly wasn't really dirty, it was probably just the oiling needing refreshing.
It's moving a bit quicker now, but it begs the question - what's the "proper" speed for the player's gun?
Right now it takes me three swipes of my hand to get from one side of the screen to the other.
Do I have it dialed in properly or should I look perhaps at new bearings to speed it up further?
Note that I have not played one in an arcade in the last 15 years (including the one I just played at Disney's Contemporary) where the trackball wasn't horribly in need of a complete rebuild... so I have no recent frame of reference.
I just can't shake the feeling that it should only take two swipes of my hand to get from one side of the screen to the other.