Logitech to the rescue?

http://www.labtec.com/press_room/index.cfm

I, like alot of other people, started playing games like Doom and Descent with the keyboard only. As time went on people started to sense the need for more accuracy and speed in thier aiming and migrated to joystick/keyboard and mouse/keyboard combos. I, however, went straight from keyboard only to a Spaceorb only configuration when they first came out(for a very short time a joystick for Descent.) This is how I played all 3D games for 3 years, up until my 3rd one broke, at which time I, like most other people, used mouse/keyboard for most games except Descent. I tried Joystick/keys for Descent for awhile, however, because joysticks are controlled with one's arm and wrist, they are not as fast or as accurate in terms of aiming as an orb.

A major limitation with the orb was that it required 2 hands, the hand not manipulating the ball was mostly keeping the contraption steady with only 2 of its fingers pressing buttons. A desktop is much better suited at keeping human interface devices steady. The Spaceball is basically a Spaceorb that uses a desktop for stability, freeing up a hand. This free hand can either use a keyboard or mouse at the same time, or yet another Spaceball. Even after Labtec's aquisition of the Spaceball technology from Spacetec, it still has not adopted a USB interface(still uses the old serial interface.) With a USB interface, a device can be used with most modern computers and consoles: PC, Machintosh, Xbox, and Indrema.

What does this mean for games? Well, for one, it can mean not fighting with camera control in games like 'Homeworld', 'Ground Control', and 'Evil Islands'. It is as natural as moving one's head. Like one's head, it does not have problems when looking straight up or down. For example, when one looks down with thier head then wants to look to the right they don't have to yaw around then pitch up like a tank turret(like controlled with a mouse), they simply twist thier head to the right. It would also mean that one doesn't have to take turns in these game moving the camera with the mouse then selecting/ordering units with the mouse. Instead, one can have complete camera control with the Spaceball at all times while simultaneously selecting/ordering units with the mouse, something that is already done in Computer Aided Drafting. Another thing it would do is make the Descent types games more popular, which publishers seem to be turning down lately due to lack of sales.

Since Logitech already has alot of thier Human Interface Devices with a USB interface, I am very hopefully they will do so with the Spaceball. I got my fingers crossed!