The TurboBall comes with Kensington's MouseWorks software, which lets you customize your TurboBall's functions like Nobody's business. And let me tell you, Nobody runs a tight ship. Not only can you control cursor speed, you can tweak acceleration as well. You can change the functions of every single button on your TurboBall and even set it up perfectly for a left-handed user. If certain programs need special care, you can change what each button does just for that program or for a set of programs. You can also set a warning to go off every half-hour of uninterupted work, which is great for those worried about repetetive stress injuries (and you should be). The screen shots are from the Mac version but we tested both and the software is almost identical for PC and Mac.
MouseWorks does all that and more, and it definitely provides a big plus to any Kensington product, but we do have a couple concers. First, on the Windows side, there is a useful application menu button that, if you accidently hit it in a game, will switch applications and leave you on the desktop. You can disable it for specific applications, but it is a pain to do so for one game, let alone several. We'd like to see some default sets for common games on the PC.
Second, on the Mac side, we were unable to use the TurboBall in Unreal Tournament. It worked fine in other games, so this was hopefully just a game specific problem. It may also have been due to the fact that we were using an XLR8 USB upgrade card on a Mac without built-in USB, which could have confused the software.
But can you game with it? I admit, I was a bit skeptical about how well the TurboBall would do with gaming. Sure, Marble Madness would be great with it, but Quake would be painful. After pulling off three head-shots with the sniper rifle in Unreal Tournament, my skepticism left the building.
The TurboBall's response is quick and smooth in first-person shooters. The feels is comparable to any mid-range mouse. If you've only played with mice before, it probably will take you a little bit to reach your old level of proficiency, but that's just a matter of what you're used to. The TurboBall is accurate, quick and makes a great gaming controller. Though whether or not you'll like it for games is a matter of personal preference.