Tony's Arcade

TRACK-BALL! (Or is it “trackball” or “trak-ball”?)

From what I’ve read in various sources, Atari Football was the first arcade game to use a track-ball. At least it was the first Atari video game to use one. (A side note — Atari Football uses the same trackball that was used in Missile Command so this article applies to you Missle Commanders, too.) On my Atari Football, when rolling the Player 1 track-ball, there were problems. Putting the game into test mode, player 1 could move horizontally left and right but vertical movement was a problem. Rolling the track-ball forward and backward would only move the player (“X”) in one direction (backward).

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Now that I had the Atari Football all cleaned up, it was time to install the Bob Roberts capacitor kit for a Wells Gardner V1000. Football has a huge 23″ black and white picture tube and I wanted to make sure those Xs and Os looked their best. The monitor can be removed in one of two ways. The monitor is bolted to a piece of plywood that can slide out of the cabinet. You just open the control panels, loosen some wingnuts, and the monitor and plywood monitor mount slides out. I opted for removing the glass and cardboard “stadium” bezel, then unbolting the monitor from the plywood mount and lifting the monitor out of the top. What a pain. I did this because I didn’t realize you could easily slide out the monitor from the side until later… That’s what I get for not bothering to read the manual.

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This has got to be the nastiest game I have ever cleaned.

I can only imagine how many Pabst Blue Ribbons and Rheingolds were accidentally knocked over and poured into Football’s trak-balls and offense/defense play charts. What makes me say this, you might ask? Well, my first tip off was the grime on the play charts as they were coated in some kind of yellowy film. Upon removing the monitor bezel, the back of the cardboard audience shroud had liquid stains. Once I opened the control panels and removed the trak-balls, I could see what these machines endured 25-30 years ago. Each trak-ball had a generous amount of black plastic chaff (from the trak-ball), hand grease, and beer residue on the bottom of the trak-ball harness. Fantastic! I broke out the Mean Green de-greaser and went to work.

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