Results were favorable. The trackball provided a 60.1% increase in throughput over the standard controller for novice participants. More impressively, it was shown to provide a 58.7% increase in throughput for participants already adept with the use of a standard controller.
Setting aside the “trackball as a better analog stick for some given game” question — better performance may not actually be desirable, if the goal is to get the experience intended by the game designer — there are some arcade games that have had trackballs, and playing those games with a trackball is probably nice, to get a similar experience to the original:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trackball_arcade_games
I just realized how trackballs on gamepads would change the landscape of fps on consoles.
And then every 2 months release the dust lint on the rollers. I never thought this action would need to return.
