Rotory Joystick Question?

[AllisterFiend]

     Hello all,

     I finally decided to go ahead and start building my arcade cabinet after 3 years of thinking about it

     This website has been great with providing me with a lot of information I needed to get started.

     I am planning to have on my control panel

          2 Happs competition joysticks (still thinking about the Perfect 360s)
          2 Happs top firebutton super joysticks
          1 Happs 3" Trackball with ps2/usb support
          1 Spinner (have not decided on which one yet)
          1 Happs 4 way joystick


     My problem is that 3 of my favorite games (Ikari Warriors, Frontline, and Wild Western) use rotory sticks.   I can do without these games, (at least I think I can...but maybe not  ).

     1. Could I just use Happs 12 position 8 way rotory joysticks instead of the competition joysticks, are they decent 8 way joysticks, what are your opinions?

     2. And also, since I think Ikari Warriors is 12 way and Wild Western and Frontline are 8 way, will the rotory joysticks work okay with both games?


     Thanks for any info on this, I tried to search for this but could not find my particular situation.

     I will have many more questions in the future, be prepared  .


Thanks again,
AllisterFiend

[Tailgunner]

I was researching this yesterday, KLOV has the Front Line manual available for download and it shows an exploded view of the rotary controller both games used.

Wild Western and Front Line aren't rotary joystick games, they use a 8 position spinner that doubles as a fire button. That's not saying that a rotary joystick won't work for them, I don't have one so I don't know for sure. A top fire 8 way joystick would work though it wouldn't be the same as playing them with the proper controller.

[dphirschler]

I have a rotary joystick from Happs.  I believe it is actually called an optical joystick.  It's not installed yet, but I can tell you some things about it:

1. It operated just like a regular 8-way joystick.  I forget if it can be converted to 4-way.

2. The shaft rotates like a spinner except it has no free spin.  There is resistance.  Still one could play Tempest and other spinner type games on it.  You would just have to be more deliberate in your "spinning" since you can't just give it a whirl and watch it go.

3. It uses a standard optical board and encoder wheel just like the Happ (Atari) trackball.

4. There is no button on it and the shaft does not push down either.


Darryl

[Lilwolf]

Happs also sells a 12way rotary... non-optical.  This is closer to the original SNK versions..

Frontline didn't use 12way rotaries.  they used a special controller with a basic 8way joystick that is always pointing in a direction... And the trigger on top...

As far as I know.. nobody has a version of a mame driver that works with left right button presses (to get them working with either a optical rotary OR a 12way)....   URebel??

[Mugzilla]

I enjoyed doing the mouse hack to hook up my trackball...