so what would be the best set up for a driving arcade to play the most games?
Well, to play the
most driving games, you'll have to use emulators other than MAME. (see the driving cab info thread)
When I considered a driving cab, my main focus was on the 3D games from the early 90's (Cruisin' USA/World, Daytona USA, Ridge Racer, etc)
Cruisin' USA/World is the only one of those supported in MAME. The emulation is incomplete for most 3D driving games in mame, making them unplayable.
Personally, I don't think that any driving cab should be without Nebula's Sega Model 2 emulator. It can accept input from multiple controllers/interfaces, but I'm not sure about the 360 wheel if it's seen as a mouse. I'll check if I get a chance.
If you're content with only games from the 80's, MAME will do just fine and your 360 wheel will work without much hassle.
The flexibility of input options in mame is brilliant. Set up your software first, so you can see what games work and how well they work.
Here is a list of the 360 wheel games:
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Spinners_and_Dials#360.C2.B0_Steering_WheelThere are probably only a dozen or so potentiometer wheel based games. Making a list is on my "so do someday" list.
If I can find a quick way to export the game list on my driving cab, I'll post it.
At the risk of making it overly complicated....
The
ideal setup would be to have a wheel that can function as both a 360 degree encoder wheel & a 270 degree potentiometer wheel, with the 270 degree wheel having force feedback and being seen as part of a single controller. That way it will work for PC games & other emulators. The next incarnation of my driving cab will be this way and will use arcade controls with a hacked logitech wheel as the 270 degree interface. I've been too busy with other projects to work on it though. I also really enjoy my driving cab the way it is, so I'm in no hurry to tear it apart.
I did find time to figure out one thing you might be able to use. I placed an optical mouse on the backside of the steering hub as the interface for a 360 wheel. It's cheap, easy, seems to work fine and doesn't take up much space.