Playing games that use spinner,joystick and fire button? Yikes

[tagnetti]

Hello all, Thanks to Birdtales, I got my cabinet all setup. It has 2 control panels and Once I finish the CPO artwork. I will post a purdy picture.

SO now I am actually playing the games. Loving it, however I have a few questions regarding controls in some games.

My one control panel has a spinner, 4 way w/2 buttons, trackball with L/R mouse buttons. When I try to play Ikari warriors for example you need to move and spin directions and fire. How are you guys doing this? The only thing close I got was to put my finger on the indent of the spinner and try and spin and move and shoot, ahhh. I guess in time my reflexes will catch up.

Also Arkanoid, yikes what are you guys finding as a happy medium with the spinner settings. I think I set sensitivity to 60 but still it seems off. Maybe because of wider spinner. DOn't know thought I'd ask.

Thanks

[Hoagie_one]

you have two options with ikari warriors and the like.  Either get a joystick with fire buttons on it, like a flight stick or a joystick with rotation controls like the SNK LS-30 rotary joystick

[Aceldamor]

Or, you can get an optical rotary from happs. It has basically the same handle as the other happs sticks and you can use it like so, but you also get the benefit of the rotary controll for games like Ikari 1,2,3 , Midnight Resistance, Heavy Barrell, Caliber .50, ect.

[Birdtales]

For Arkanoid try to set Speed to "1" and Sensitivity to "150". And also make sure you turn off mouse acceleration in Windows. There is more info at Oscar's Website http://www.oscarcontrols.com under the support section. Good luck!

[Hoagie_one]

Or, you can get an optical rotary from happs. It has basically the same handle as the other happs sticks and you can use it like so, but you also get the benefit of the rotary controll for games like Ikari 1,2,3 , Midnight Resistance, Heavy Barrell, Caliber .50, ect.

Do you still need a druin interface to use that controll or does it work with mouse control boards like the optipac or a mouse hack

[spidermonkey]

Yep, optipac or mouse mouse hack.

[Aceldamor]

Or, you can get an optical rotary from happs. It has basically the same handle as the other happs sticks and you can use it like so, but you also get the benefit of the rotary controll for games like Ikari 1,2,3 , Midnight Resistance, Heavy Barrell, Caliber .50, ect.

Do you still need a druin interface to use that controll or does it work with mouse control boards like the optipac or a mouse hack

Yeah, spidermonkey is right...can be wired either to optipac or a mouse hack. It's basically a joystick with a spinner on the end    I've got mine hooked up via a mouse hack and they work great for all the rotary games. You don't get the authentic "click" for Ikari and other SNK rotary games, but it works well. You've just go to adjust the sensitivity for each game so the spin is comperable to the mechanical rotary.

[tagnetti]

Thanks a million! So are most of you using this in place of an 8 way? Are you using it as your spinner too? That would probably seem really odd I guess. SO USB mouse hack it plug into USB and I'm good to go.

BIRDTALES- Thanks for tips on arkanoid. For some reason I love that darn game.

[Hoagie_one]

Does the spinning top of the stick make it difficult to play other games like fighter games?

[SirPoonga]

To clarify for you n00bs
Two types of rotory joysticks:  Optical and mechanical.
Mechanical is Ikari style.  I can't think of an optical off the top of my head, I don't play many:)

Optical is just like a mouse axis.  So an optipac or mouse hack will work.

Mechanical (SNK) only has one interface, Druin's.  I hear Happs works with druins but with little to no modification.

[Aceldamor]

Poonga,

Caliber .50 used an optical rotary stick.  

Tagnetti,

I don't use the stick as my spinner as well, however if you want to use both and only want to use 1 mouse, rig a rocker switch....Oscar has a tutorial on how to do this with a spinner and a trackball, but it can be modded to work with any similar devices.

Hoagie,

I was concerned with this as well, however the joystick doesn't spin "freely" as a regular spinner does. It does have decent resistance and you actually have to "spin" the controller to get it to rotate....


Personally I don't use the rotaries as primary sticks, I'm using them seperatly (sp?) but someone else on the forum was going to use them as a primary stick.....

[Hoagie_one]

Have you played a fighter game with them then, even though they are not primary stick?  I am thinking about making them my primary sticks if they are stiff enough to not be a big pain with fighter games

[soslo]

I haven't played with these sticks yet, but I just got mine and they are pretty stout pieces. Very high quality.

[b3atmania]

Another way to go is to replace your existing spinner with a DOT-type spinner. This will allow you to fire by pushing down the spinner knob. Or pull the spinner to launch a grenade.

[grafixmonkey]

My top-fire-button joystick is working really well for me.  It's easy enough to smack a button to the side for grenades and stuff, because you use those more occasionally.  I don't play Ikari Warriors much though.  Works great for Tron, which is what I usually use the top button for.  I don't think there are very many games that had a spinner/joystick/button combo.

Another thing to consider - Battle Zone.  Having a top-fire joystick makes that game a lot more fun.

[KevSteele]

I've the spinner surrounded with a 4-way joystick to the left, and a top-fire to the right, which allows for great Tron and Battlezone action.  

Kevin