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Live out your retro gaming fantasies with Elecom’s modern day trackball

Elecom HUGE Trackball

If you miss the ol’ arcade but your skin has fused to your gaming chair after years of intense WSAD action, you’re in luck – Elecom are poised to release the HUGE. It’s a bright red 52mm trackball in a mouse-style housing. Bring it on, Missile Command! 

For the best gaming mice out today (no trackballs, sorry), check out our rundown of the cream of the crop.

For some of our younger readers, this may look like some retro space-age weirdness, but once upon a time these spherical beauties graced arcades across the land. Elecom are bringing the tech up to date with mod-cons like a 2.4GHz wireless option, Omron switches, and a speed change switch, allowing you to choose CPI (counts per inch) levels of 500, 1000, and 1500. There is also a straight, wired version for the cable lovers.

According to Elecom, the colour and thickness of the ball’s coating layer has been analysed, allowing them to optimise the high-performance, gaming-grade optical sensor to provide ‘ultimate pointer tracking performance’. Ooh la la. What’s more, the ball is removable through a hole through the back, allowing you to perform emergency cleaning when you inevitably get food crumbs in the workings.

Elecom HUGE Trackball

The aforementioned Omron switches sit under left and right buttons situated to the thumb side, and strongly reminiscent of a mouse setup. The wheel between them uses a tilting mechanism too, allowing you to to scroll left and right, as well as up and down, ideal for you ultrawide monitor users out there. The body features ten buttons, each programmable with Elecom’s ‘Mouse Assistant’ software.

Is this going to kick the spritely young gaming mice of today off their perch as the gaming peripheral of choice when it’s launched in mid July? Almost definitely not, but it could certainly serve as a welcome companion, one to break out for retro games nights or even for a bit of lazy Sunday web browsing. Or just when the RSI gets too much…

What do you think, would you add this this to your gaming tech collection?