Idea: Foosball/Table Soccer controller

[Stiletto]

Let's use our imaginations here...

Disregard for a moment that there are no decent Foosball/Table Soccer simulations for the computer, and consider: How would you design a controller for a video/computer foosball game using arcade components?

You'd need some sort of spinners, like a motorcycle throttle really, but they'd have to pull in and push out...

I don't know of any games in development (The person who develops a 3-dimensional Chexx/Super Chexx/Dome Hockey simulator for the PC gets my firstborn) but I thought it was a neat idea... Anyone else with thoughts on how to do this?

Stiletto

[twist]

I have an awsome idea on how to do this, and hopefully you understand what I am about to say.
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What you do is buy/get an old cocktail arcade cab.

Get some foosball table sticks (those rods that control the players).

Make some holes in the cab, and insert the rods so you can move them in and out, without them being able to come out.

Find some kind of optics that can detect the movement of the rods, and have it sent to the cab.

Hopefully, that would work, but I have no idea.

[Stiletto]

Thanks... but I was looking for more particulars. In fact, I was hoping someone would have done one already, although I'm not sure why they would. I was thinking more along the lines of a controller you could clamp to a desktop, and have telescoping rods maybe. But what about the sensors??

Stiletto

[JustMichael]

I would guess that optical mice should be able to see the rod movements.

[Howard_Casto]

This is highly unlikely.... you could buy a brand new foosball table for what it would cost to build this thing.....  

First off a desktop controller wouldn't cut it.  It would be very hard to play without looking over the table.  That means not only are going to have to build a table, but find a huge monitor to put in it.... The only way i could see you doing it would be to stick two 25 inch tv's in it side by side on their backs.  This would be a problem in itself as most tv's don't like to be at such a drastic incline.  Also it's not true 3d so there would be some perspecitve issues involved.  

Secondly the optics involved are going to be expensive.  In order to pick up a round rod moving in and out and around at high speeds your going to need a dual optical mouse per rod.... Those aren't cheap as they are about 40-60 bucks a pop and the cheap one's won't do in this case.  So your going to need what, about 5 of those?  (It's been a while since I've played.) You couldn't use pots or mechanical devices as they would slow down the spinning.  You would also have to put weights on them so that they would be properly counter-balanced as the real thing spins kind of lop sided due to the little men attached.  Now also you have a rod going from one end of the playing field to another.....  you can't put it in front of the screen or it would block your view, you can't put it behind because of the picture tube.  

Now your final problem.  What all this means is that your going to need 5 independant mice.  u_rebelscum barely got a few running so I seriously doubt that you could program a windows graphics engine for a game that would also be fashioned in a way that lets you have 5 mice inputs.  The problem is to make a nice, modern game you really need opengl or directx and neither one like the multiple mice deal a whole lot.  

On a final note, I think this idea is technically interesting, but seriously step back and think about what your wanting for a moment.  A foosball table is EXTREMELY low-tech and your wanting to go to great lengths to make a simulation.  Isn't this project kind of like emulating a paddle-ball game?  I mean sure with a team of developers working for months they could probably come up with a vr glove and a physics engine realistic enough to make a convincing paddle-ball simulation, but dude for 2 bucks you can buy a paddle and tie a ball to it.  

What I'm saying is why not just build a real foosball table?  5 sticks, some men with holes in them, a table and your ready to go.  You could build one for next to nothing and get a much more realistic experience.  

Again, not trying to be the pessimist here, but I just though I would bring some common sense into this discussion.  

"My Bobby ain't gonna be a playin no foosball it's one of the many tools of the Devil!!!!"