Opinions Wanted - re: Spinners

[oldskoolcade]

Hey gang!

   Okay so I've finished redoing my control panel last night, and the last thing I needed to do was the spinner.   I've built a homebrew spinner using a hard drive bearing, and an old microsoft mouse and it works pretty well I'd say.  My question is  -   is it worth getting a 'good' spinner from Oscar and will I notice a huge difference (and is it worth the extra money).

Just thought I'd ask the experts 

Cheers!
Mike

[rdagger]

I don't think you can get one spinner that works great for all games.

[Hoagie_one]

I don't think you can get one spinner that works great for all games.

[Lilwolf]

It depends on what other items you have on your system.

I love my Oscar spinner.  And I think its pretty good with everything.   And perfect for games I like (tempest, ect)....

One thing you might consider doing.  Trying to sell it on the B/S/Trade board.  ( ) .   You might find someone willing to buy it for a chunk to a new one... And it makes it worth your time.

Is your cabinet missing anything else that you might want to consider before upgrading?

[JODY]

As far as an Oscar...the spinners are great.  There are differences among spinners though that can impact gameplay.

Maybe it is time for a spinner with a quick change from free spinning to gear drive....

I don't think you can get one spinner that works great for all games.

[oldskoolcade]

thanks for the input guys!

I never realised that there were different types of spinners (i.e. gear driven) for different games.  What's the advantage of having a spinner gear driven?

[JODY]

thanks for the input guys!

I never realised that there were different types of spinners (i.e. gear driven) for different games.

[seanp]

I've never played Tempest that much... do people just spin the heck out of the knob and let it keep spinning?  What's the advantage of long spin times? 

I'm building a spinner from an old hard drive bearing, so soon I'll be able to experiment some. 

-Sean

[Hoagie_one]

the spin time thing has always made me laugh...when doyou actuallyneed to spin it for 5 minutes without touching it?

[whammoed]

I don't think you can get one spinner that works great for all games.

[JODY]

the spin time thing has always made me laugh...when doyou actuallyneed to spin it for 5 minutes without touching it?

When you want to hypnotize innoscent by-standers.

[Sasquatch!]

I have the OSCAR Vortex (v1) spinner, and I couldn't be happier.  You can tell that a lot more emphasis went into making sure it felt right for gameplay, versus "Ooo, lookit at how long it spins!"  If you like spinner games, buy one!

[ErikRuud]

My spinner is home made from parts I got at Ace Hardware.  I am very happy with it. Spin time is shorter than I have seen posted for many of the pre-made spinners, but I don't see how useful long spin times are.

[Lilwolf]

total spin time doesn't matter... but for some games... its that it has a spin time...

in tempest, you spin it... and the grab it to stop it... but you want it to move between spinning and grabbing.

geared spinners will stop nearly the second you let go.  But you can move edge to edge very accurately without doing a full turn...  1/2 turn edge to edge or so?  not sure have to check.  But on most spinners.. you don't have enough spokes in the encoder wheel to have a real resolution to make it useful... but put it on a gear... and now that gear on another encoder wheel... and your good to go.

The LONG spin times is just to show how smooth the action is... not ment to be used.

[oldskoolcade]

okay so Arkanoid is a geared spinner (and yeah it's one of those games that doesn't exactly work that well with my homebrew - just not enough accurate feel to it).  But are there more games that will benefit from a free spinning wheel (i.e. driving games like pole position, APB, etc)?

[JODY]

okay so Arkanoid is a geared spinner (and yeah it's one of those games that doesn't exactly work that well with my homebrew - just not enough accurate feel to it).

[tetsujin]

the spin time thing has always made me laugh...when doyou actuallyneed to spin it for 5 minutes without touching it?

When you want to hypnotize innoscent by-standers.

Of course!  It was so obvious, all along!  Now if only spinner knobs came pre-printed with black-and-white spirals...

[rdagger]

I have a tornado and don't have any problems getting through the levels in arkanoid.

[JODY]

the spin time thing has always made me laugh...when doyou actuallyneed to spin it for 5 minutes without touching it?

When you want to hypnotize innoscent by-standers.

Of course!

[JODY]

I have a tornado and don't have any problems getting through the levels in arkanoid.

[JODY]

Here's a link to a pic of an Arkanoid spinner with gears:

http://www.arcadeshop.com/pics/arkanoid-controller.jpg

With the big gear attached to the shaft turning a smaller gear which in turn spins the encoder wheel that encoder wheel is going to fly with little knob movement.

[PaulG]

okay so Arkanoid is a geared spinner (and yeah it's one of those games that doesn't exactly work that well with my homebrew - just not enough accurate feel to it).  But are there more games that will benefit from a free spinning wheel (i.e. driving games like pole position, APB, etc)?

Varies.  The absolute greatest benefit is to the Super/Championship Sprint games.  If you loved those, you'll love an Oscar spinner.  Obviously a free spinning wheel would be best, but it comes a close second.  And if you ever played those in the arcade, you'll remember how much you spun the wheel.  Those two get as big of twirls as any of my spinner games.

[seanp]

Since there are a few folk here using spinners for their 360 wheels...  Do you just use the regular spinner handle?  I'm trying to find (or BYO) a smallish wheel that I can connect to a spinner for Sprint / Offroad etc.  Anyone do something like this?

-Sean

[Zakk]

Since there are a few folk here using spinners for their 360 wheels...