Cheap USB Spinner or Paddles

[bismark0610]

Having spent so much money on the xarcade stick and my dynamic marquee, I think the wife is getting a little upset about my MAME arcade.  However, I really want to be able to play some of my Atari 2600 games the right way (Warlords is my favorite 2600 game, 4 players!).    Do you know of any cheap spinners or external paddles out there?  My original paddles appear to be busted because my Atari flashback didn't work with them, so I would hate to get a Stella adapter and waste money.  I know many of you are purists, but I am ok with getting close enough.  It would be nice to control some arcade games and that would be a bonus, but I really want that 2600 experience again.

Thanks for your help and suggestions!

[Titchgamer]

Depends what you call cheap really

You could mod a mouse for a cheap method.
But I use and rather like ultimarcs spinner (spin trak)

[StefanBurger]

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2021152

[Mike A]

Sell your dynamic marquee and buy quality controls. Having a pretty marquee and crappy controls makes no sense.

[yotsuya]

Sell your dynamic marquee and buy quality controls. Having a pretty marquee and crappy controls makes no sense.

Oh my God, so much this....^^^

[DeLuSioNal29]

Just buy this for $25 and be done with it:
http://www.2600-daptor.com

DeL

[Cynicaster]

I tried playing Atari 2600 via emulation with a Turbotwist spinner and it was terrible.  Maybe I could kinda sorta play a slower pong type game but Kaboom was unplayable.   Granted, I probably could have improved the experience by spending some time tweaking settings, etc. but some things just need to be done on real hardware, IMO. 

I am a huge advocate of emulation in general, and 95% of my gaming is done via emulation of some sort, but if you really want to play 2600 paddle games, your best bet is to just pick up the real thing.  I have to believe you could get a 2600 in perfect working order, a few paddle games, and some paddles for under $30.  I’ve got a 2600 with Harmony cartridge set up right next to my MAME cabinet, and it’s great. 

[RandyT]

I tried playing Atari 2600 via emulation with a Turbotwist spinner and it was terrible.  Maybe I could kinda sorta play a slower pong type game but Kaboom was unplayable.   Granted, I probably could have improved the experience by spending some time tweaking settings, etc. but some things just need to be done on real hardware, IMO.

Just out of curiosity, do you have the AccuTwist option on your spinner?  It can slow things down a bit for these kinds of games, and provide a more "potentiometer-like" feel.

FWIW, one of my favorite games with the TurboTwist2 is Avalanche, which is the game Kaboom was based upon.  I do well enough to get a "free play" just about every time I play it.  Just like any game, the sensitivity needs to be tweaked to suit the games original control resolution, knob size, etc...

[Cynicaster]

Just out of curiosity, do you have the AccuTwist option on your spinner?  It can slow things down a bit for these kinds of games, and provide a more "potentiometer-like" feel.

No AccuTwist option. 

The problem wasn't so much the feel of the physical control--which is great, by the way--it was the translation of my movements into action on the screen that was wonky.  The emulation of the paddle handling, in other words. I probably could have tweaked settings to improve it, but it felt like my buckets were lagging behind where they would be on real hardware, and I couldn't get past the 4th or 5th screen. 

[DarthMarino]

I've had the same experience. I originally tried using a TurboTwist 2 for 2600 paddle games but it's just not worth it.  The responsiveness is fine. The issue comes in when you rotate past the edge of the screen.  When you change direction on the knob it doesn't immediately react that way on screen.  There is a bit of a dead zone when you over turn it.  Even if you don't hit the edges, as you constantly change direction, the center starts to shift slowly to one side.  The whole thing just feels off.

The solution, of course, was just to use my original paddles. I got the 2600-daptor and it works great.  I don't think it feels 100% the same as the original but it's close.  I was easily able to break 3000 in Kaboom which would have earned me an Activision patch back in the day.

[1500points]

I've had the same experience. I originally tried using a TurboTwist 2 for 2600 paddle games but it's just not worth it.  The responsiveness is fine. The issue comes in when you rotate past the edge of the screen.  When you change direction on the knob it doesn't immediately react that way on screen.  There is a bit of a dead zone when you over turn it.  Even if you don't hit the edges, as you constantly change direction, the center starts to shift slowly to one side.  The whole thing just feels off.

The solution, of course, was just to use my original paddles. I got the 2600-daptor and it works great.  I don't think it feels 100% the same as the original but it's close.  I was easily able to break 3000 in Kaboom which would have earned me an Activision patch back in the day.

Here is how I am solving the Kaboom equation. Waiting on graphics to be printed.

To the original poster, The potentiometers can be fully disassembled and cleaned rather easily.

Junk atari's with busted switched but working are rather cheap, too.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RandyT]

No AccuTwist option. 

The problem wasn't so much the feel of the physical control--which is great, by the way--it was the translation of my movements into action on the screen that was wonky.  The emulation of the paddle handling, in other words. I probably could have tweaked settings to improve it, but it felt like my buckets were lagging behind where they would be on real hardware, and I couldn't get past the 4th or 5th screen.

I had to test this out, and in doing so, it jogged some very old memories.  After about a half dozen games, I was able to hit 1700+ points with the TT2 and the sensitivity in Stella set to 15 (all the way up).  After that it gets a bit unwieldy because this particular game has a somewhat "cheap" play mechanic at higher levels, where it comes down to how fast one can sweep the buckets back and forth, without much regard to where the bombs are falling.  I now clearly recall playing this way when I was a young'un, and it was the main reason I lost interest in the title. When a friend and I played, we found that we could literally play for as long as our stamina held up .   Unlike Avalanche, the falling objects are rather large, and where hit detection is concerned, the buckets act as a "block", with no space between them.  So "clacking" the controller against the stops as fast a possible was all it took to keep the bombs wiped.

So yes, I would agree that a spinner is a poor choice for this particular title, at higher levels.  The control emulation issues are also a bit odd.  I found that the buckets were linked to the cursor, and when the buckets hit the edge and stop, the mouse cursor keeps moving to the extents of the screen.  In my case, my dynamic marquee is a logical extension of the desktop to the left.  So I could literally move the cursor so far off the playfield that I would need to traverse a whole screen before the bucket would start moving again.  So yeah, not the best way to handle the control emulation.

If you like this kind of game, and want to play with a spinner, try Avalanche under MAME.  It's a better experience, but be prepared for a challenge. 


*EDIT* 

I went back to this, to analyze some more.  There is something very wrong with the mouse/spinner control emulation in Stella.  When moving to the left, the buckets move smoothly and accurately, even when moved very slowly.  When moving slowly to the right, however, I turned the spinner a quarter turn, and the buckets didn't even move.  When I turned it faster, it jumped several positions.  I'm sure the spinner would work well for this title, if the emulation wasn't so thoroughly borked.  I'm surprised I could do as well as I did

**EDIT 2**

If you are having the difficulties I was above, update your Stella to the latest version.  I found some posts describing the exact issues I was having, but without any indication that it was resolved.  So I checked out the Stella page, read through the change logs and found that the paddle emulation was improved the beginning of last year.  But it still doesn't update fast enough to use the tricks we used on the VCS and paddle control (and I'm a lot slower than I was then .)  The sensitivity can now be increased to 20 and control is definitely better.  Managed to hit 1900 after a few more games.  Also didn't feel like I was losing center.  If you are on an older version, get the new one and play with the sensitivity settings.  I'd also recommend a large, light knob and no flywheel (ESC) on a spinner.  And if using a smaller knob than the original paddle control, be sure to reduce the sensitivity for finer control.