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POLL: "All-In-One" Joystick

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ubiquityman:


--- Quote from: CheffoJeffo on March 21, 2010, 04:48:49 pm ---Both variable resistance spinners and sticks with optical rotation (that could be used as a spinner as people have suggested) have been available for quite a while. I am not seeing anything particularly new here (other than the variable "clickiness", which poses several practical problems and I would LOVE to see how that would work because it could be rather cool) and wonder how combining those two would amount to an improvement over what already exists. I have to wonder about patents on the existing equipment and how they would come into play, if at all.
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I'm somewhat familiar with the patent process.  I have some that I've previously filed and have had one previously granted, but none for joysticks, so this is somewhat new territory for me.
I have been searching existing patents to make sure there is no prior art on my concept.  So far, it looks clear.  I did find a lot of interesting ideas though.


--- Quote ---Add to that the inevitable discussion about spinner resolution ... how hard is it for dedicated spinners to get things right for a wide variety of games ? I know that we now have spinners that seem to handle Arkanoid, but it seems to me to be a really bad example to use for where gameplay would be improved by a lower resolution spinner.
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A software programmable resolution or scaler would be the best approach IMHO. 


--- Quote ---We've already seen rotation added to a digitally-restricted stick and, while I think it is a totally cool idea (and something I would use if I was unfortunate enough to be limited to a single CP on a single cab), I don't see people raving about them.
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For me, if there was a good analog stick with rotation already available, I probably would have used that, but I am not aware of one that exists.   The idea for an "all-in-one" was borne out of my desire to have such a product.


--- Quote ---So, tell me why this device would be so cool ... actually I can already see that it would be cool ... tell me what would make it marketable and special.
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The selling point is getting as much coverage of MAME games as possible.  Maximum compatibility!
- Analog is convenient due to MAME's automatic mapping
- Analog is "required" for some games out there.
- Rotation is required for some games.

The spinner functionality and the ergonomics impact with push-down trigger is what I'm not sure of. 
Why would people want this?  Well, it saves real-estate.  The spinner itself doesn't take up much real-estate, but the area below the spinner required for a palm/hand rest does take up quite a bit of space.  If the CP real-estate was big enough, I believe that having a separate spinner is going to be better for spinner games.  The question for me is whether the compromise have having spinner with joystick will make a good enough joystick (and good enough spinner).  I consider spinner [free spin] and rotation [coarse resolution with indents] two different functions.  Having one doesn't necessarily meet the requirements of the other.


mimic:

ubiquityman are you planning on building something completly new from scratch or is it going to be based on ultimarks' U360?

CheffoJeffo:

At this point, I'm going to stop playing devil's advocate and just wish you the best on this.

Every product I mentioned does exist and has been available for years (in very obvious places). The lengthy discussions about spinner resolution are required reading. Whether you can find a way to do it better remains to be seen and I look forward to your efforts.

 :cheers:




ubiquityman:


--- Quote from: mimic on March 21, 2010, 09:26:48 pm ---ubiquityman are you planning on building something completly new from scratch or is it going to be based on ultimarks' U360?

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I have no affiliation with Ultimarc, but I do think Andy currently has one of the best joystick products that I've seen for MAME.
I did come across a patent (#5160918) that appears to have some similarities to his U360, but has rotation.  This patent is expired so anyone can use this concept in the US with having to obtain permission or pay royalties.

Keep in mind that "Patents" don't always work.  Anyone can patent an idea or concept.  It's another thing to make it work.  So I can't say for sure if that patent was useful or not.

What I have in mind is not going to be based on that and I think in the end, it will be quite different in sensing mechanism.



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