Need help hooking up a Tempest spinner

[t3design]

I am toying with the idea of using an original Tempest spinner on my cab. I have the ability in my shop to redo the bushings and get the thing to spin smoothly and quietly. I have two questions?

First: Is the Opti-Pac from Ultimarc the best way to hook this up? I haven't bought one yet, but the web site makes it sound simple. How will I know which wires from the spinner go where?

Second: Is the resulting input and game control going to be good? I have a Turbo Twist 2 that I was planning on using until I got a hold of the original Tempest optical spinner. Something about having that in my cab appeals to me, but I don't want to degrade my game playing.

Any help or advice is appreciated....

t3

[RandyT]

First: Is the Opti-Pac from Ultimarc the best way to hook this up? I haven't bought one yet, but the web site makes it sound simple. How will I know which wires from the spinner go where?

Second: Is the resulting input and game control going to be good? I have a Turbo Twist 2 that I was planning on using until I got a hold of the original Tempest optical spinner. Something about having that in my cab appeals to me, but I don't want to degrade my game playing.

If you have a TurboTwist 2 already, you can connect the Tempest spinner to the interface board (using the Y axis) to compare the performance.  For permanent installation of the Tempest spinner, you can get an Opti-Wiz, which is essentially the same board.

For Tempest, the original control will be great.  But, if you plan to play games which used a dial (potentiometer) based control, or games which require high resolution, like Arkanoid, you will no longer have the optimal resolution for accurate gameplay.

RandyT