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For the extremely lazy, the X-Arcade folks are taking preorders on their trackball unit, which I believe includes a 3" trackball. They have not traditionally used happ buttons and joysticks in the past, so it's doubtful this ball will have the same feel as the happ balls on most golden tee machines.

If you do want the "real deal" you can get a 3" trackball from Happ Controls and to interface it you can buy an OptiPAC from Ultimarc, a usb interface from happ (a bit more expensive, though it supports 3 buttons unlike the OptiPAC) or you can even hack apart an old ball mouse and interface through that. Personally, I am using the Ultimarc OptiPAC with a Happ 3" ball on my own cabinet.

Incredible Technologies (makers of Golden Tee Golf arcade machines) used to publish a version of Golden Tee for the PC, though they themselves do not sell it anymore. You can get a copy from ebay for about 3-5 bucks, and there are some addon courses for sale also. The courses are from the arcade games Golden Tee 3D Golf and (the addons) Golden Tee Golf '97. The game supports network, modem, and internet play.

Though it's dated and the graphics are not as good as some of the newer titles, the price is right, and the experience is as close as you can get to the arcade if you want to practice your Golden Tee at home. I bought golden tee pc from ebay last week and have been having a lot of fun with it on the cabinet.

Golden Tee has been around on one hardware platform going on 3 1/2 years now. That's pretty impressive, seeing that the arcade board is powered pretty much by a Voodoo 3000 card (no kidding- you can pull it out and replace it with any replacement PCI V3). The cash the game pulls in is amazing, but the cash it pays out is pretty amazing as well.

Here is a list of the prizes of the monthly tournaments that are held online (The cabinets are all connected via dialup to a master server. Have been for about 4-5 years). There are also live tournies where a bunch of us dorks hide in a bar for 2 days and play ;) Anyone who's been to a LAN party knows what that's like, and this is just, if not more, fun. EVERYONE at these live tournies is sociable and outgoing. It's a blast.

More info can be found at www.itsgames.com and www.goldenteeplayers.com

as an avid patron to arcades still today, i'll throw in my two credits. (don't mod me down for puns!)

this new strategy of Microsoft's is not going to work, and not because "the arcade is dead", but because they're going about it all wrong.

most successful arcade machines, today, are successful for one of two reasons: 1) it has an innovative playing style, 2) it has a classic, time-proven appeal. (one could argue, i'm sure, that this statements cover all possibilities, but that's not the case) a necessary foundation underlying both these requirements is that the game is FUN.

typically, the second category (classic gaming) is in a classic console, not a rehash. classic fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom, Street Fighter, MK, etc., etc. - racers - shooters. copy-cats are rarely as successful as the originals.

now - what's making the big money? fun innovation. and that's Konami, right now. consider the Cult of DDR - where i've witnessed at least $30 fly into the machine in the course of 2 hours. the game is fun, it's unconventional, it's SOCIAL, and a buck to dance to 3 or 4 songs (potentially 5 or more minutes of play) is fair - and the experience usually cathartic. Konami's also got the rest of the music game series, which is fairly successful. another of their big hits is Silent Scope - a simple shooter, yes, but unconventional and interesting gameplay.
another big success (in my observational experience) is Golden Tee - which looks, to me, to be the most boring arcade game of all time! but it's intended as a machine for a sports bar - where people enjoy golf. and this game, too, has an unconventional interface. the player spins a ball (think oldschool Centipede) to make the shot - thus putting physical skill (less than reaction-time) into the mix.

now - what does *not* make any of these said games successful? the underlying hardware! while, yes, the hardware makes everything run and look pretty - it's not the selling point. none of the games i'd mentioned above have ridiculously impressive graphics - it's the gameplay that matters. i play DDR because it's fun - i play pinball because it's fun - i play TMNT because it's fun ;p i might risk a dollar or fifty cents on a game with amazing UT2k-comparable graphics, but i won't play it unless it's fun! and i certainly don't play the game because i know it's got a certified IBM custom-built Gecko CPU! (Nintendo reference) and would not be drawn to a machine because i know Xbox's PC hardware drives the thing.

so, Microsoft can only really be doing this to try to get new developers, because only developers really pay attention to the underlying hardware. but really, then, developers already making arcade games already have their hardware and i doubt they'd switch to a glorified PC (Xbox) - Microsoft must be looking for new developers, who are only familiar with Wintel and therefore more likely to use that hardware.
unless they're stupid or self-aggrandizing enough to throw a big Xbox insignia on the title panel!

and even this is questionable... there aren't many up-and-coming game developers (though i'd like someday to be one myself) - and the arcade market is not what it used to be. if Microsoft *really* were looking to make money and compete with other coin-op companies, they'd start making gambling hardware. that's where the money is. even Konami, who is probably the most successful arcade manufacturer right now, makes Casino machines!

i really don't think Microsoft knows what it's doing with this. maybe Tux poked the octopus in the eye, and now it's just flailing about wildly?

I'm a little confused as to what you're calling "computer games". Granted you are in Belgium, and hence in a different market, but I'm guessing that what you're calling a computer game is actually a table-top touchscreen unit.

While some of these are PC-based, some even running Linux and BSD, I think they're a far cry from a computer, and the games on them are a far cry from what you would typically play on a computer.

FWIW, these things can make a whole boatload of money, and quickly. While they may not be your cup of tea, a lot of people enjoy playing them. And I say this as someone working for a company who will soon introduce one.

To digress from your response back to the main topic: As for pinball being on the ropes, I'm a little confused. It's been on it's deathbed since before the Williams pinball division closed (Pinball 2000 was their last gasp - Attack from Mars is a P2K-based unit), and that was a couple years ago... Stern is the only US manufacturer left, though they do seem to come out with a model or two each year. I played RollerCoaster Tycoon at a local megaplex a couple weeks ago, actually wasn't half bad...

Why not buy Win2K? For me, there is one stupid game I play that won't run on anything NT: Golden Tee Golf by Incredible Technologies. Come to think of it, I haven't played it in quite a while, but I know the minute I take Win9x off my hdd and boot menu, someone will come over and want to play it. I could play it on the kids' laptop, but it is so much slower than mine. Does anyone know if this game will function on WinXP?