SlikStik Tornado Spinner Poll!

[SlikStik-Christian]

All,

We want to see what sort of interest there would be to add Up & Down functionality to the Tornado Spinner. This particular type of control would mainly be used to play the game Disks of Tron properly, but may prove useful in other games as well. If there is enough interest we will put on our thinking caps once again...

The poll can be viewed and voted on in our Forums at http://forums.slikstik.com/ under the "News & Announcements" topic.

[GroovyTuesdaY]

The forums won't load. as of  12:44 am central time on 1.29.04

groovy~

[SlikStik-Christian]

FYI, the SQL error has been resolved and the board is working again, apologies for the delay

[Zakk]

"Going by "the other company" what they produce and the huge amount of room needed to install their version of it, I can tell you that if we do decide to add up & down to our Tornado spinner, it would be fantastic to say the least."

-quote from your site.

Not to be overly critical, but if the rest of your 'forums' are filled with this style of commentary, I think I'll stick to the BYOAC community.  Thanks.  

[shmokes]

Well...now, I've criticized things Christian has said here before, but you can't exactly expect the forums on the Slikstik website to be neutral and objective afterall.  They are, if he is running his business like he should be, an opportunity to advertise and sell more of his product.  But if you don't think that kind of commentary belongs on BYOAC you always had the option of not bringing it here.

[Zakk]

I suppose, but it's the first thing I read when I followed the link from here, and I was just looking to find the poll thingy.  Plus, I couldn't comment there, because you have to sign up to post, and well that led to my comment

[SlikStik-Christian]

"Going by "the other company" what they produce and the huge amount of room needed to install their version of it, I can tell you that if we do decide to add up & down to our Tornado spinner, it would be fantastic to say the least."

-quote from your site.

Not to be overly critical, but if the rest of your 'forums' are filled with this style of commentary, I think I'll stick to the BYOAC community.  Thanks.  

Zakk,

   No problem at all. I stand behind what I said in the SlikStik Forums 100%. Its simple, it has a huge installation footprint, did I lie? This is America right, hell with some of the negative comments made here in the BYOAC boards I wouldn

[Zakk]

Well, don't want to get into any kind of drawn out silliness, I only wanted to see the results of your poll and maybe vote....Perhaps a direct link right to the poll would have been better?  Anyway, I surely don't want this to degenerate, so I'll just bid you good night and good luck on your exceptionally good new product.

[SlikStik-Christian]

Well, don't want to get into any kind of drawn out silliness, I only wanted to see the results of your poll and maybe vote....Perhaps a direct link right to the poll would have been better?  Anyway, I surely don't want this to degenerate, so I'll just bid you good night and good luck on your exceptionally good new product.

Good!

[SirPoonga]

As long as the footprint is small I'd think it would be great competition.  That's the reason I am not going to get the Oscar DOT.  I just don't have the control panel space.  I'm not going to register on the forum just for this poll though  I'd also have to have a job too  

[GroovyTuesdaY]

Im  a little surprised that not many people have went and voted.

Hey christian, I thought you said a long time ago there wasn't a need for a DOT spinner? LMAO.  You decided to give in huh? I AM SHOCKED MISTER!  Go to your room - YOUR GROUNDED! No MAME tonight! heeheh

groovy~

[SlikStik-Christian]

As long as the footprint is small I'd think it would be great competition.  That's the reason I am not going to get the Oscar DOT.  I just don't have the control panel space.  I'm not going to register on the forum just for this poll though  I'd also have to have a job too  

SirPoonga,

  Thanks for the feedback!


GroovyTuesdaY,

   There have been so many requests for us to add the DOT functionality that we are giving serious thought of implementing it into the Tornado. It will surely be Groovy......

[Lilwolf]

Are you planning on using your current footprint / design?  I am wondering if your current frame would be strong enought to take the additional torque.

It seems (and I'm going on 100% uneducated unfounded speculation) that when you grab up and down... 90% of the time you will not be doing it in the proper up and down, but trying to do it quickly at a slight angle and could cause some slight bending if it base isn't strong enought.

I'm not saying that you couldn't do it and make it strong enought.  But if you are looking at making one that is as smooth as the tornado for spin time... I think adding up/down will problaby make the spin time (after some use especially) decrease.

So... I guess after rambling..

Are you trying to make a super long spinning time DoT spinner (tornado spinner + dot functions) or a good solid DoT spinner?

[NoOne=NBA=]

I've got the Oscar version, and absolutely love it, in spite of the fact that there are only two games that I know of that use it natively--Discs of Tron and Zwackery.
I haven't tried the Tornado; but, based on others comments, assume that it works equally as well.
I think that people who don't have one may not realize what they are missing; but I couldn't go back to a standard spinner, now that I HAVE had a DOT version.

Given that I have swappable control panels, and plan to go to a modular system soon, I actually LIKE the large footprint.
The reason for this is that the large footprint is necessary to have that big, heavy encoder wheel underneath.
The inertia from that wheel creates a really solid feel that I like for playing spinner games.
I can't think of any games I've played where "length of spin time" has been a real issue.
Most of the games that I have played require repeated side to side movement, rather than a long spin in a single direction.

That said, I think there is a good market for a DOT version of the Tornado.
There are alot of people out there that, due to CP real-estate constraints, would buy the Up/Down Tornado version if it offered a smaller footprint than the Oscar version.
I think you would probably gain some customers who don't have room for the Oscar version, in addition to being able to upsell customers who would otherwise buy the existing version of the Tornado.

One bit of advice I would offer with regard to the design of this version is to pay special attention to getting the backlash in the wheel to an absolute minimum.
That is my only complaint about the Oscar, as shipped.
I had to modify their design slightly because I didn't like the amount of backlash it had when I installed it.

[Stingray]

I can't think of any games I've played where "length of spin time" has been a real issue.
Most of the games that I have played require repeated side to side movement, rather than a long spin in a single direction.

I think you might be missing the point (or maybe I am). I think that when Christian quotes the long spin time it's more about how smoothly the Tornado spins than it is about spin duration. I could be totally off here though.

In any case I think a spinner with up/down is fine, as long as the regular spinner without this function isn't discontinued. I personally would rather have a standard spinner.

-S

[Edgedamage]

I ganked this from the slikstick forums:
"Currently we do not have a Canadian distributor (and have no plans for one in the immediate future), which you already know but we do ship world wide including Canada. If you would like a shipping quote, email us at info@slikstik.com with you full address including zip/postal code". Why is Oscar the only mame parts company that sees a market in canada?
Say what you may about Oscar's products. But you gotta give him kudos for setting up a Canadian distribution channel. Some people don't feel comfortable ordering products outside of their country.

[SlikStik-Christian]

Snip* One bit of advice I would offer with regard to the design of this version is to pay special attention to getting the backlash in the wheel to an absolute minimum.
That is my only complaint about the Oscar, as shipped.
I had to modify their design slightly because I didn't like the amount of backlash it had when I installed it. Snip *

=NoOne=NBA=,

    Our spinners have 0 backlash.

I can't think of any games I've played where "length of spin time" has been a real issue.
Most of the games that I have played require repeated side to side movement, rather than a long spin in a single direction.

I think you might be missing the point (or maybe I am). I think that when Christian quotes the long spin time it's more about how smoothly the Tornado spins than it is about spin duration. I could be totally off here though.

In any case I think a spinner with up/down is fine, as long as the regular spinner without this function isn't discontinued. I personally would rather have a standard spinner.

-S

Stingray,

   You are correct. I mention the extended spin times because it is very smooth. let face it, if it spun for 2 hours it wouldn

[Edgedamage]

Well seems to me that Oscar's products are made in the USA. And he has the good business sense not to see any invisible walls in Canada.

[Sasquatch!]

I don't feel like going through the registration process just to vote, so I guess put me down for a "No, I wouldn't buy it".

[crashwg]

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with, but just like everything else there is when it comes to arcade cabinets, I won't buy it unless it's been reviewed and the review I read is good.  So I say, go for it.  Whip up a batch of these and send em out for review and then ask me if I'd buy it.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Our spinners have 0 backlash.

Christian,

Your current spinners have a 1-piece shaft that screws to the encoder wheel, thus keeping it from having backlash.
(You knew that already, but maybe someone else didn't).

I was just making sure that keeping the zero backlash was a high priority for you when you design the 2-piece shaft necessary to allow the shaft to move independently from the encoder wheel.
(Unless you have some new way of doing this in the works, that would let you keep the 1-piece shaft-to-encoder wheel system).

The backlash in the Oscar DOT is not in the shaft-to-wheel connection; but in the two pieces of the shaft.

[SlikStik-Christian]

Our spinners have 0 backlash.

Christian,

Your current spinners have a 1-piece shaft that screws to the encoder wheel, thus keeping it from having backlash.
(You knew that already, but maybe someone else didn't).

I was just making sure that keeping the zero backlash was a high priority for you when you design the 2-piece shaft necessary to allow the shaft to move independently from the encoder wheel.
(Unless you have some new way of doing this in the works, that would let you keep the 1-piece shaft-to-encoder wheel system).

The backlash in the Oscar DOT is not in the shaft-to-wheel connection; but in the two pieces of the shaft.

Who said the shaft was going to move independently

[NoOne=NBA=]

And it took me about 3 seconds to come up with the solution to this, after spending 5 minutes or so thinking about it during the last post.

[Tiger-Heli]

Like others, I'm not going to register just to vote, but I did see that there are all "yes" and 0 "no" votes in the poll.

I'd be interested in the product as well, depending what final price ends up as.

[Xiaou2]

 As a designer..  I had thought about making a dot spinner long ago who's optics moved with the units up/down motion... however,  I thought about how much more friction and complications that would cause and decided against it.

  After winning a real DOT spinner off of ebay, I realized the Genious design that makes for such a cool and functional controller.   The kinda thing that you say... 'man, i never would have thought of that!' , but it becomes so easy to see why its one of the best ways to solve the problems.

  My thought was to try to improove the spin though... by making the spinner use a Huge ball bearing set instead of the brushing.   However... I didnt know where to find such a large bearing, so let it go...

  I think you may want to post your design ideas and let people see what you may have in mind for producing.  It may help in gaining interest... as well as producing a better product.