Ultimarc rotary Joystick upgrade kit opinions

[jhonny_d]

Hello, I would like to read some comments about the rotary upgrade kits from ultimarc. Is the mechanical one as good as the ls-30?

[haynor666]

There are now two rotary kits on Ultimarc. Which one You are interested ?

I have optical - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,147040

[jhonny_d]

The mechanical one, but I would like to read your impressions of the optical one

[haynor666]

I don't have mechanical one, only optical for now and I don't like like for SNK rotary games. Firmware was improved but still there isn't any mechanical restriction so You by accident switch direction during play. Software should be some solution for this but this does not working for me. Another problem are big plastik screws that hits parts inside joystick. You have to cut those a bit to get rid of this problem or mount upside down. Generally it's good for real optical rotary games like Caliber 50 but not too good for old mechanical SNK games.

Sadly we don't have to much optical rotary games in MAME so for people that plays mostly SNK games 12 positional rotary will be better choice. It is also cheaper.

There is also one important thing - optical upgrade is only for U360 stick but 12 position rotary is only for servo stick and j-stick.

For a future I'm planning U360 (without rotary) for left side of joystick and j-stick with 12 position rotary for right side of panel so I could play normal games on left side and SNK games when I need on right side. This way I could also play games that needs two joysticks.

[jhonny_d]

Thanks, I’ll get the mechanical one and later maybe also the optical one for  caliber 50

[Sky25es]

I did buy a pair of Servostiks + Mechanical Rotary Kits some weeks ago as a replacement of my Happ Rotaries.
They work great and are totally worth it, BUT I had to make some tweaks and modifications to make them feel right:

- The spring feels too loose for my taste in comparison to an american stick (put a nylon washer between the spring and the base to make it a bit stiffer).
- The microswitches are way too clicky and hard, making contact only at the end of the actuator's travel. The reason behind this choice is to avoid hitting diagonals in 4 way mode before the actuator reaches the restrictor plate, but playing any fast-paced games (i.e. schmups) with this configuration is very frustrating.
I fixed this, replacing them with cherry microswitches and bending the switch actuator just a little bit for a longer travel (but not as long as the other ones)

The rotary kit is not too dificult to install but I had to cover the lower part of the handle with a piece of heat shrink tube, cause there was no way to fix the handle to the collar just with the screw (at least for me).

Keep also in mind that the kit is ONLY for the Ball-top version, not for the Bat-top. The replacement handle is smaller in diameter. Andy has updated this information recently on his web page as soon as I pointed him out about the smaller handle, but I already received my Joysticks and had therefore to buy later a pair of suitable handles.

After the above mentioned tweaks they feel far better than my old Happs-rotaries.

[KenToad]

Aren't rotary controls still mapped to analog inputs in MAME? I'm running MAME .201 and the analog controls for rotary functions still basically sucks.

It would be great if Mamedevs would convert rotary controls to simply be button presses, because analog controls suck, even with the recommended settings.

The only game that used Analog controls for "rotary" functions was Caliber .22, IIRC.

Maybe mamedevs have never played Ikari-style games on real hardware???

[PL1]

Aren't rotary controls still mapped to analog inputs in MAME? I'm running MAME .201 and the analog controls for rotary functions still basically sucks.

It would be great if Mamedevs would convert rotary controls to simply be button presses, because analog controls suck, even with the recommended settings.

Here are the five settings to properly control rotation via buttons/keystrokes.

MAME Settings for Mechanical Rotary Joystick games
Input (this Game) menu
    Positional Analog = none
    Positional Analog Dec = left turn button/keystroke
    Positional Analog Inc = right turn button/keystroke

Analog Control menu
    Positional Digital Speed = 0
    Positional Sensitivity = 100

The only game that used Analog controls for "rotary" functions was Caliber .22, IIRC.

The wiki (backup copy here) lists four games that used optical rotary sticks.

Optical Rotary Joystick Games (Loop-24 or Happ Optical Rotary Sticks)
    Caliber .50
    Exterminator
    Touchdown Fever
    Touchdown Fever II


Scott

[KenToad]

Have you actually tried those settings? On Mame .201 at least, they don't work.

If you hold down the button, you continue to rotate. It's really difficult to rotate one notch at a time. It's just crap, really. And it's been that way for over ten years.

I just don't see why Mamedev won't change at least the SNK and Data East classics from analog to digital controls.   

*Update* I just tried it again and actually I have to eat my words. It magically works. Thanks, PL1 and mamedevs!

I must have had it set wrongly all along because I could have sworn that I had the settings set up previously.