Trackball or Spinner? -- Only room for one.

[Hoagie_one]

THe control panel only has room for a trackball, or a spinner but not both, because of the two controller 6 button setup im using, and i dont want my panel to expand beyond the original control panel deminsions.

I like the idea of the trackball for classics and golf games

but my love for ankanoid\tempest is great.

What are you guys perfered to?

[pcates]

It all depends on your perspective, not ours. If you can't live without playing centipede and others go with the trackball. IF Tempest or Tron is your thing, then go with the spinner. I personally have both set up, the decision was too difficult

[GGKoul]

Trackball, as you can use the trackball as a mouse.  I had a spinner on my control panel and never used it.

[Bgnome]

you "could" play arkanoid and tempest with a trackball.  you cant play trackball games with a spinner.

[Minwah]

you "could" play arkanoid and tempest with a trackball.  you cant play trackball games with a spinner.

What he said

[brained]

I had the same problem that you have and wen't with the trackball. You can play a couple of gun games with a Trackball too!! .

If you can't have them both, the trackball seems to be more useful.

[Xiaou2]

yes, but you cant play a spinner game 'well' with a trackball.  if you like doing good when you play - then youd never play a spinner game.

 the slikstik tornado has a very small footprint (2"*2"?).  i think you could manage to squeeze one in there : )

 as for spinners - there are many great spinner games... but also,  you can use it for nearly any driving games as well.

 you could however... make a small plug in box that had a spinner in it.

[Apollo]

Spinner for me. Tempest, Arkanoid and Pole Position.

[daywane]

build multi cabs. thats what I am doing.
yes i know very expensive. but who says you have to be in a rush.
you have the rest of your life.
buy a few pcs every now and then. have a extra $50.00 buy a MOBO
months later buy the memory ect... ect...
I have been building on my colection for 3 yrs now. I have 4 working but all are butt ugly right now... I am just now getting to the looks of them.

[Bgnome]

a modular or swappable setup may be a bit cheaper than that route..  that being said, you could always try going for a mini-trackball if you can find one..

[Jocu]

you "could" play arkanoid and tempest with a trackball.  you cant play trackball games with a spinner.

Not true. I like playing Kick with my spinner (it is a trackball game?).

I had no room in my controlpanel for a trackball so I added a spinner. I like playing Tempest. One bad thing is that I have to play Centipede with joystick  

Jocu

[maraxle]

you "could" play arkanoid and tempest with a trackball.  you cant play trackball games with a spinner.

Not true. I like playing Kick with my spinner (it is a trackball game?).

It is true.  Let's see you play Marble Madness with a spinner.  Or how about Quantum?  Shuuz?  Ok, now let's see you play Arkanoid with a trackball.  Oh wait, that one wasn't so bad, was it?

[Jocu]

you "could" play arkanoid and tempest with a trackball.  you cant play trackball games with a spinner.

Not true. I like playing Kick with my spinner (it is a trackball game?).

It is true.  Let's see you play Marble Madness with a spinner.  Or how about Quantum?  Shuuz?  Ok, now let's see you play Arkanoid with a trackball.  Oh wait, that one wasn't so bad, was it?

Yes I now. Kick is the only trackball game I have found that is playable with spinner. It would be best to add both trackball and spinner. But if there is no space, trackball/spinner should be choosen depending what games do you like. Even that spinner games are playable with trackball it is not that much fun and many trackball games are somewhat playable with joystick.

[Lilwolf]

The REAL choice is hotswappable... and have both.

Not sure if you could come up with a good design for just spinner / trackball swap....  But they are nice in times like yours.

I vote for Trackball because they are more universal.

but even then... I want a spinner (missed 3 tempest spinners on ebay for 15 bucks... man I'm STILL kicking myself on that one).  

They really are better for those games... And if it wasn't for centipede... I would prabably be happy with a spinner.  

[daywane]

The REAL choice is hotswappable... and have both.

explane hot swap in mame?
on my PCs if I start mame and then plug in any of my usb items it is to late .
mame never sees them.
I must turn off mame and then restart mame

[u_rebelscum]

explane hot swap in mame?
on my PCs if I start mame and then plug in any of my usb items it is to late .
mame never sees them.
I must turn off mame and then restart mame

Mame checks which devices are plugged in at start up.

Hot swapping mice devices (TBs & spinners) are much easier then you're getting.  As long as one mouse is plugged in at mame startup, due to windows automatic joining of all mice, no big problems.

You can hot swap controllers, too, under a couple conditions:

• At least the same number controllers you want to swap in are plugged in at mame startup
• They controllers use the same driver

Adding support for hot-hot swapping is not worth it, IMO (unless it's only done while paused... hmmm....)

[deadmoney5]

I like the spinner because you can play a lot of driving games with them..(awesome for Super Sprint)...

[daywane]

Mame checks which devices are plugged in at start up.

Hot swapping mice devices (TBs & spinners) are much easier then you're getting.  

You can hot swap controllers, too, under a couple conditions:

• At least the same number controllers you want to swap in are plugged in at mame startup
• They controllers use the same driver

Thats kinda what I thought. I never thought of one mouse to another. I just knew if I had 1 gamepad in and some one wanted to jump in as player 2 pluging in a second pad did not work.

[Doc-]

I have a USB hub for all of my analog devices and hot swap them with no problems using nonamemame (or analogmame+).

Each analog panel has a USB mouse hack on it, and then I just plug in the panel to the hub when I swap out modular panels.

See the link in the signature block for pictures/details.

Cheers!
Doc-