Help: spinner for driving games on my new project?

[Cynicaster]

After a year with my first MAME cabinet and seeing how much use it gets, I’m contemplating a second project.  I want to build a 2-player control panel and a simple pedestal to mount it on so that it’s at a comfortable height (similar to an upright cabinet) and sturdy when in use.  I was originally just going to build another full cabinet but one of the main drivers of this is that I really want to be able to easily move it between my garage, friends’ houses, etc.  I’d just buy an X-Arcade and call it a day, but unfortunately I don’t like them very much (my brother has one).  Not only that, but just plopping a control box on a coffee table sucks—especially when you’re accustomed to playing on a cabinet--because it slides around when you play, you’re always hunched over in an awkward position, etc. 

This setup, if successful, will provide me with a sturdy and versatile control panel that exists independently of any particular PC, monitor, etc.  I know it’s kind of red-neck but it just needs to be utilitarian and reasonably portable.   

Anyway, I’m very happy with the control panel on my current cabinet and the cross-section of games it allows me to play so my first thought was to take an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach and just dupe that layout, but it’d be nice to at least have a token “new feature”.       

Since I already have 4- and 8-way sticks and a trackball, and I couldn’t care less about Tron, the first thing that came to mind was a spinner.  What I’d be interested in drawing from the collective wisdom here is thoughts (good or bad) on using the spinner in non-conventional ways (I mostly mean driving games).  I’m not really interested in “that sucks, it’s not authentic” because that’s an incidental observation—what I want to know is, does it work, can it be fun, and what games have you successfully or unsuccessfully used it with.  I’ve actually played Pole Position and Championship Sprint with my trackball and enjoyed it, but other racing games are unplayable that way because it’s almost impossible keep the trackball centered to drive in a straight line.  I’m assuming the general rule is the trackball is passable on games with “free spinning” steering wheels, but no good on games with partial-turn steering wheels.

So, should I go for it or skip it? 

[Mysterioii]

Well I always liked Tempest in the arcades, so I had to have a spinner in my cab.  Yeah I guess the breakout style games are a plus, but I really got it for Tempest...     Don't really play the driving games, but I believe the spinners from both Ultimarc and Groovy Game Gear have optional mini-steering wheel attachments to maybe make things feel a LITTLE more authentic... or maybe they're just cheesy.  Haven't personally tried them, just seen them.

[BadMouth]

I've only done a little testing with pole position, so I can't really comment on how well they work for serious play.
I can tell you it works much better on the 360 degree games than trying to use a 270 degree potentiometer based wheel.

For the 270 degree wheel games, bkenobi worked out a way to limit the travel via software to make the games much more playable:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=92363.0

Groovygamegear sells a mini steering wheel attachment for the turbotwist spinner.
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=86&products_id=268
I'm not sure how quick it detaches.

In the driving cab info link in my sig, there's a link to a spreadsheet of driving games and what kind of wheel they used.
It will give you an idea of how many extra games you'd end up with.
 

[Cynicaster]

I've only done a little testing with pole position, so I can't really comment on how well they work for serious play.
I can tell you it works much better on the 360 degree games than trying to use a 270 degree potentiometer based wheel.

For the 270 degree wheel games, bkenobi worked out a way to limit the travel via software to make the games much more playable:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=92363.0

Groovygamegear sells a mini steering wheel attachment for the turbotwist spinner.
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=86&products_id=268
I'm not sure how quick it detaches.

In the driving cab info link in my sig, there's a link to a spreadsheet of driving games and what kind of wheel they used.
It will give you an idea of how many extra games you'd end up with.
 

Wow thanks dude, that's exactly the kind of info I needed to make an informed decision.

In case you care, that decision is that driving games should not be the deciding factor for whether or not to include a spinner.  I'm just gonna skip it.

Cheers