Rotary controller question

[patm95]

Hi all. I am in the development stages in planning my cabinet and I was wanting to consider rotary controls on my 1 and 2 player (love heavy barrel!).  My question is how do these controllers feel or operate on games like street fighter where you want tight controls for quick movements?  Is there a way to lock the rotary mechanism for play in these type of games? 

[EvilNuff]

If you mean the mechanical rotary sticks then they're (IMO) pretty terrible for non rotary games where you need a good range of motion.  No you cannot lock the mechanism but regular sticks can rotate too so this shouldn't be an issue.  I love the rotary stick games so I struggle with needing the separate stick just for them as well.

[patm95]

Thanks.  That is kinda what I was thinking.  As a followup question.  If I am building a 4 player cabinet, would it be possible to use rotary controllers on players 3 and 4, but use those as primary controllers when playing the rotary games?

[bkenobi]

I guess it depends on what your goal is.  If rotary games are important to you, then you have little choice but to include a rotary joystick.  If you are demanding about the arcade accurate feel during fighting games, you will probably not enjoy using rotaries (depending on the joystick you go with).  I have LS-30's in my 2-player CP and they work find for many games.  I do not like them at all for some games that require hitting the diagonals.  They feel a bit stiff to me.

But, I'm not one for perfect arcade original controls.  I knew that I would be allowed one cabinet in the house, so I chose to use them anyway since it is definitely possible to use them in any game.  I never played that many fighters in the arcade as a kid, so although the LS-30's surely underperform better quality sticks, I'm not the right person to make that call.  I'm happy to be able to play Ikari, so I give the rest a pass on accuracy.

HOWEVER, I did just upgrade the restrictor plates to round from square.  This has made a big improvement to the feel of the stick during fighting games.  Ideally I'll be able to build my own octagonal restrictors at some point.  I haven't had the time yet, but at some point I'm hoping to get them done.  I made a quick and dirty prototype which felt pretty good, so I just need to finalize at some point.

[EvilNuff]

Thanks.  That is kinda what I was thinking.  As a followup question.  If I am building a 4 player cabinet, would it be possible to use rotary controllers on players 3 and 4, but use those as primary controllers when playing the rotary games?

Yes you can just go into mame settings for the rotary games and re-define what the p1 and p2 signals are to your rotary stick options.

[isucamper]

Thanks.  That is kinda what I was thinking.  As a followup question.  If I am building a 4 player cabinet, would it be possible to use rotary controllers on players 3 and 4, but use those as primary controllers when playing the rotary games?

That's exactly how I have mine set up.  See my sig for the layout I used. 

[patm95]

That's great!  I think I will do that then. 

[DrFrag]

I have Happ optical rotaries on my cab, and I find them fine for non-rotary games.  They're not so good for games that require 4-way sticks though - I keep hitting diagonals by mistake.