What interfaces...

[gibble]

Ok, I want to have a 4 player cab, each player with 6 buttons, and 2 players with spinners.  I also am going to have a trackball with left right mouse buttons so I can control the PC and play games with it.

What do I need to interface all these controls properly?

I hear of IPacs Optipacs etc but what do I actually need to do all this, I don't want to buy things and then find out they can't handle everything, or I bought to much for what I need.

Thanks.

[Dink]

The information you seek is at http://www.ultimarc.com/

[gibble]

I know the site, what I'm asking is what do I actually need.

I'm assuming I need the I-Pac4 for the 4 joysticks and the buttons (6 each).  Is that all?  Will that be enough to cover them?

As for the trackball (with mouse buttons) and 2 spinners what do I need?
I was thinking about just getting a 3" trackball with the PS2/USB interface from Happ (http://www.happcontrols.com/trackballs/565600xx2.htm)

If I do that what do I need to get the two spinners working as well? Just an Optipac?  Is there a better way to get the trackball and two spinners working?  Should I not get that happ trackball and use something else so it works better?

I'm new to this, help me out here?

[HeadRusch]

You'll need the IPAQ4 for sure.  Will it be enough? Well, its got
"slots" for 4 joysticks(U/D/L/R x 4) with I think 6 or 8 buttons each, plus all of the necessary buttons for mame (player start 1,2,3,4) and player coin 1,2,3,4.  

That ought to cover it.  Since I can't think of any game that is 4 player with 6 buttons.

Your spinner/trackball issues are more complex, but only because you have more options.

You can use OscarControl spinners and use his USB interfvace, or wire them through an OptiPac (which has inputs for 4 spinners or 2 trackballs....(2 x axis, and 2 y axis), or buy the happs thing I guess with their interface.

Just remember in order to have more than 1 trackball or more than 1 spinner you have to use Mame Analog and not regular mame.  

You can go with a Happs or Wico trackball, using the optipac or their own interfaces...or you can get a PC trackball (serial or USB or PS2 mouseport) and just use that.....cheaper, but you lose some of that arcade feel I guess.


Good Luck.  There are lots of ways to skin this particular cat.  
Dont forget about rotating joysticks for Ikari Warriors and such!!

[gibble]

Good Luck.  There are lots of ways to skin this particular cat.  
Dont forget about rotating joysticks for Ikari Warriors and such!!

DOH!

So far I have allready bought 2 Happ 8way Competition joysticks so I'll use those for P3/4 then.

What are good rotating joysticks that will still work well in regular 8 way games?

I want to make this CP as useful as possible without having to change things often to play different games (I'm not concerned about trigger joysticks or steering wheels...I'll make another CP for those).

[HeadRusch]

Wrong joystick.  You have two choices here.

A spinning joystick is just half joystick (wire to IPAC) and half spinner (wire to Optipaq or custom interface).

If you want free-spinning (IE: Just like a spinner) joysticks you need to pick up some Happs Optical Rotating joysticks.  $50 a pop or so.
This you wire into an OPTIPAC just like any other spinner....

OR you can go with MECHANICAL spinning joysticks......ie: the SNK ones that actually had notches..like 12 "steps" left and right.
In order to use those (you can get those joysticks from Happs or get originals from www.videoconnection.com for about $15 each), you'll need to wire these to a custom interface (currently available, search the forum here for recent posts the addy is listed), that interface then plugs into an IPAC....and you're golden.

Pros and cons to using each........

[gibble]

ACK! I'm getting more confused  
Ok so now I suppose I want the following

Player 1 & 2 each get
8-way joystick that also works as a rotary???
6 buttons
1 spinner

Player 3 & 4 each get
8-way joystick (allready have)
6 buttons

I also want a trackball with 2 buttons for use like a mouse.

If you were doing this, what would you buy including spinners, joysticks, the trackball and interfaces.  And how would you make it work?

Maybe if I get a complete break down I'll catch on.

Thanks.

[hyiu]

just a suggestion....

I think it would be better for you to put the rotary stick as player 3 & 4.... and use competition as player 1 and 2...

cos you only have a hand full of games for rotary stick....
and depends on which rotary stick you use... (if you use the Ikari Warrior yellow ones... its hard to play fighter games with those sticks....)

so... install rotary as player 3 & 4.... usually... when you have like a 4 player game.... its mostly like TMNT, Simpsons kinda game.... should be better this way.....

ps: This is just what I think, I do not currently own a rotary joystick.....

[gibble]

here is the layout of controls I plan to use, it's a matter of what sticks and interfaces that's giving me headaches

http://www.geocities.com/gibblech/caffeinator_cp1.0.gif.txt

[SirPoonga]

IPAC4 for the joys and butons.

You have two choices pretty much for the spinners and tball.
Other use the optipac.  There will be a USB version sometime.  But the serial one should work.

Or get a tball and use a mouse hack.  You can get usb spinners from www.oscarcontrols.com.  You might have to use analog mame with those then.

[HeadRusch]

My .02 cents of fellow n00b advice for you:

You're biting off too much, trying to put too many controls on one panel.

DONT try and put every control known to man on one CP, you'll wind up with a franken kit that wont be any fun to use, as your elbow or forarm will always be whacking into something you dont want to hit.

The ideal solution would be to have six sticks on your board.  Two happs supers, two happs tulip-heads or any stick with a button/trigger on it, and two rotatings.

But thats alot of sticks on one CP.

Granted, you wouldn't *need* spinners with the spinning sticks, but I don't know if it would really feel the same to play Temptest or one of the other spinner games without..well..a spinner.

Also, driving games would be using the spin of teh joystick and not a spinner, which can act as a small wheel.........the feel of the game is what will ultimately decide if its a good idea or not.

[SirPoonga]

My .02 cents of fellow n00b advice for you:

You're biting off too much, trying to put too many controls on one panel.

DONT try and put every control known to man on one CP, you'll wind up with a franken kit that wont be any fun to use, as your elbow or forarm will always be whacking into something you dont want to hit.

The ideal solution would be to have six sticks on your board.  Two happs supers, two happs tulip-heads or any stick with a button/trigger on it, and two rotatings.

But thats alot of sticks on one CP.

Granted, you wouldn't *need* spinners with the spinning sticks, but I don't know if it would really feel the same to play Temptest or one of the other spinner games without..well..a spinner.

Also, driving games would be using the spin of teh joystick and not a spinner, which can act as a small wheel.........the feel of the game is what will ultimately decide if its a good idea or not.

On a 4 player panel, he isn't putting that much on, 4 joystick, buttons, trackball, spinners.  I have 2 joys, trackball, spinner on my 1 player panel.  I addess the interfaces already.

One, rotating joysticks are also 8ways, that takes care of that.

If you want everything under the sun on a 4 player panel make it modular.  make it so you can removable.  There are many ways to do this.  It's a cretive thing.  

You forgot to mention analog joysticks!!!

And it depends on the rotating joysticks you get.  if you get 12way then forget it for spinner games.

[gibble]

You have two choices pretty much for the spinners and tball.
Other use the optipac.  There will be a USB version sometime.  But the serial one should work.

Did you forget something here?  Or are you saying that an optipac can handle 2 spinners and a t-ball?  what about the two rotating sticks?  How do I hook them up properly.

[mikenotbob]

Did you forget something here?  Or are you saying that an optipac can handle 2 spinners and a t-ball?  what about the two rotating sticks?  How do I hook them up properly.

From what I'm aware of, you can hack up Two trackballs and 4 rotary devices up to one optipac, but don't quote me on that.  I'd really send an e-mail over to andy at ultimarc for an exact answer, but this is what I read on his site:

The input connections are labelled Player 1 Trackball, Player 1 Rotary and Player 2 Trackball, Player 2 Rotary. There is no difference in functionality between a Trackball input and a Rotary input. The different terms are used only for convenience. Each of these four inputs has two axes. This means each of these four can handle one trackball or two spinners or two rotary joysticks. There are also power connections. Multiple power connections are provided for ease of wiring, they are actually commoned on the board.

That sounds like you can have two rotaries, two spinners, a trackball, and room for another trackball (or two rotary devices) left over.

[gibble]

Ok that makes sense now...I think.

So an Ipac4 and an Optipac should be all I need.  Now I just need to choose a trackball and two good rotaries and I'm set.

[SirPoonga]

You have two choices pretty much for the spinners and tball.
Other use the optipac.  There will be a USB version sometime.  But the serial one should work.

Did you forget something here?  Or are you saying that an optipac can handle 2 spinners and a t-ball?  what about the two rotating sticks?  How do I hook them up properly.

Also, you can wire up more than one hardware to a single port on the optipac.  Are you going to use a spinner and a trackball at the same time???  if not you can wire them to the same place.


Actually, this is essentially what the optipac does.  rotory 1 is like the x axis of the trackball1 port.