RAM Controls - 720 Controller question

[AzureKnight]

Does anyone know if the RAM Controls 720 controller can function as a spinner in other games?  I'd really like to add a 720 controller but I only believe I have the space/money for either the controller or a spinner, and to be honest I don't play too many spinner games. 

If the 720 could function as a spinner I think that would suit my needs perfectly.

Thanks!

[Xiaou2]

720  "IS"  a spinner, and should work fine... provided the resolution is
high enough for the game you are playing.

 The only major electronic difference between 720 and a typical spinner is
the additional encoder wheel for calibration.  That would not be needed on
other games, and just ignored.    In fact, sadly, AFAIK, mame still does not
have an Option to enable the 2nd encoder... so playing 720 will not work
with a real controller... unless you hack mame yourself.

[bkenobi]

720  "IS"  a spinner, and should work fine... provided the resolution is
high enough for the game you are playing.

....

 so playing 720 will not work
with a real controller... unless you hack mame yourself.

This is contradictory.  Do you mean that the 720 controller won't work correctly in MAME, or it won't work at all.  Your first statement says it will work...the second indicates it won't.  Just curious.

[MikeDeuce]

Side question: Does 720 play ok in MAME with a spinner? (I don't have one installed)

[RayB]

720  "IS"  a spinner, and should work fine... provided the resolution is
high enough for the game you are playing.

....

 so playing 720 will not work
with a real controller... unless you hack mame yourself.

This is contradictory.  Do you mean that the 720 controller won't work correctly in MAME, or it won't work at all.  Your first statement says it will work...the second indicates it won't.  Just curious.

Read carefully. He said it will work as a spinner, but it will not work for 720 in the way that it is supposed to work. You're supposed to be able to "point" in the direction you want to go. MAME can't do that because it does not take input from the calibration encoder.

[bkenobi]

Ahhh, ok.

[MikeDeuce]

I didn't think about the whole not-being-able-to-aim aspect with a normal spinner... d'oh.

[AzureKnight]

So if I understand this correctly, the RAM Controls 720 joystick will currently work as a spinner in MAME but will not currently control 720 correctly in MAME?

[jerryjanis]

You might want to think about some of the following possible drawbacks of using the 720 joystick on your control panel:

1) The 720 joystick is massive compared to a spinner and might not fit on a control panel next to other controls conveniently.

2) The 720 joystick is good for one good game.  A spinner plays lots of good games.

3) The 720 joystick will not play 720 in Mame properly without a good amount of work (including modifying the Mame source code).

4) Imagine rotating a joystick clockwise and counter-clockwise in order to move something back and forth across the screen.  This is what it would feel like to use the 720 joystick to play a spinner game.  I would personally find it clumsy and awkward to play any spinner game like Arkanoid or Tempest this way.

[AzureKnight]

Thanks for all the feedback. I have the room on my cp, and as I said I personally don't play any spinner games so that aspect was less important to me. 

Let me state that this is my first cabinet and I'm in the design phase right now.  My original plan was to put in a spinner and buy two tops for it.  One top I was going to modify to insert a joystick handle into it, then when I want to play 720, pop off the standard spinner knob and pop on the custom one (most likely the modified one would just stay on most of the time). 

I did some research here and found that topic had been considered with several drawbacks.

1) Breaking the spinner due to the leverage of the joystick.
2) It wouldn't work for Mame 720.

I was hoping that #2 was corrected by the new joystick, apparently not.  Which leads me to my next thought....

If I take the spinner route, does anyone know if the speed of rotation lines up for 720 in Mame?  In other words if I was to start the game, align my player to "Up" then adjust my spinner/controller to "up" also.  Then do a 180 degree rotation to "down" would the player move to "down" in the game?  Is it simply a matter of lining it up once to start the game or is the entire speed of rotation messed up, where you have the situation that when the spinner rotates 180 degrees to down the player rotates 270 degrees or something similar?  That is one thing I couldn't find on the forums anywhere....

[mark shaker]

Umm...

I don't think that Ram Control's has released the 720 Controller.

At the moment, you can just buy some of the parts...



I have the Ram Control's Major Havoc controller. It's great.
I passed on the Star Wars Yoke, as I have an original.

I'm patiently waiting for the Lunar Lander Controller and the Assault Joysticks.

   - Mark

[HoopstarsGarage]

Sadly we might all be waiting - seems Dave has not delivered PAID FOR yokes, despite saying they're shipping weeks ago..

You can read the mess starting about half way down over at KLOV..


Hoops

[JustMichael]

Sadly we might all be waiting - seems Dave has not delivered PAID FOR yokes, despite saying they're shipping weeks ago..

You can read the mess starting about half way down over at KLOV..


Hoops

Extremely sad,   :'(
I was hoping to order a yoke someday but will not with Dave saying the orders are all packed and ready to ship next week (is that like "tomorrow, always a day away"?) and people still not have not gotten anything weeks after the yokes were supposed to have shipped.

[jerryjanis]

If I take the spinner route, does anyone know if the speed of rotation lines up for 720 in Mame?  In other words if I was to start the game, align my player to "Up" then adjust my spinner/controller to "up" also.  Then do a 180 degree rotation to "down" would the player move to "down" in the game?  Is it simply a matter of lining it up once to start the game or is the entire speed of rotation messed up, where you have the situation that when the spinner rotates 180 degrees to down the player rotates 270 degrees or something similar?  That is one thing I couldn't find on the forums anywhere....

The way Mame 720 worked several years ago, you could use a spinner, and try to line everything up, but I'm pretty sure that even if everything was aligned perfectly that over the course of a few minutes, it would quickly get out of whack again.

Since then, however, the controls for Mame 720 have been recoded to map joystick directions to the skateboarder direction instead of using a spinner.  If you use an analog joystick, then this does a good job of behaving like the original arcade game.  I have tried it with a gamepad with an analog thumbstick and it has worked pretty well as long as it has a round restrictor.  If the Ultimarc Ultrastik 360 has a round restrictor, then I think it might work pretty well although I haven't tried it myself:

http://www.ultimarc.com/JShopServer/section.php?xSec=10

[AzureKnight]

Well, since I am definitely putting a U360 with a restrictor on it, I guess I will find out eventually then.  My original plan was to install the 4 way/8 way restrictor but I think I'll end up trying the round one first now,  720 is a pretty high priority game for me.

Thanks for all the info guys.

[I/O]

Yes, some time after .69 (maybe right after it) the controls for 720 were mapped to 'ADstick'. So a spinner can not be used. It is sort of a toss-up anyways, as even using an analog stick doesn't have the same feel because the shaft is vertical.

[mikeporter2000]

I'm building a new arcade pedestal and I have strong interest in playing 720 on it.  Based on this post it seems the calibration issue with 720 would be addressed with an Ultrastik 360 analog with the round restricter.   Can anyone confirm 720 plays well with this setup?  Are there no calibration issues or do I need to map a button for recalibration?   Thanks.