Oscar Vortex vs. Tornado Spinner

[tonmazz]

Ok guys, I can't wait anymore.  I need a spinner and from all of my reading, the Slik Stik Tornado Spinner seems to be a good alternative to the Oscar Vortex.  Before I dive in I would appreciate some personal experiences.  I have reviewed the comparisons listed previously but they don't difinitively say one is better than the other.  Any advice is appreciated.

[Timoe]

I've never touched and oscar spinner but when I got my tornado I set it on a coworkers desk and amazed him with how long it kept spinning off of just one turn.  Literally THREE FULL MINUTES.  This means nothing to game play mind you its just cool.


On the other hand it is WAY TOO expensive.  I would much prefer a homemade hack for my next spinner.  There's a guy here who can make one out of parts from a hardrive.  He calls em "nasty spinners"  I cant remember his username or website but they were like $20 or something.

Oscars spinners might be the perfect middle ground 

[CJK]

The Tornado is a great spinner -- good feel, smooth as silk, tiny footprint. The two major problems with it, in my opinion, are that (1) it is too expensive and (2) it uses its own encoder so it won't work with the OptiPAC unless you change the encoder for one of Kelsey's (or build your own).

-- Chris

[RTSDaddy2]

I suppose it's all just a matter of personal preference...

I just recently purchased the Tornado for much the same reasons you listed.

[CJK]

Do you have any issues with a trackball and the Tornado connected at the same time? I liked the idea of the OptiPAC handling that (potential) conflict for me by ignoring one or the other, depending on what was used in the last 10 seconds.

-- Chris

[Minwah]

Do you have any issues with a trackball and the Tornado connected at the same time? I liked the idea of the OptiPAC handling that (potential) conflict for me by ignoring one or the other, depending on what was used in the last 10 seconds.

I found I prefer having both trackball & spinner active at the same time.  Sounds stupid but I found occasionally 'waiting' for the other control to kick in a pain.  Admittedly I don't have a lot of patience

[Lilwolf]

There is also a strength issue.  For me anyway... NOT an issue unless you have hot swappable control panels.

I've heard that tornadoes use aluminum bases.  And can be bent out of place.  Not a big deal for most people, but the bottom side of my control panels get hit often.

Oscars are very very strong and can be used to support the weight of the control panel without even thinking of moving.

But Tornadoes have a HUGE advantage right now... you can buy them.  I'm getting emails from people who see I bought a V2 on ebay 8+ months ago... (the initial ones). 

[Buddabing]

Ok guys, I can't wait anymore.

[Cronos]

I've heard that tornadoes use aluminum bases.  And can be bent out of place.  Not a big deal for most people, but the bottom side of my control panels get hit often.

IMO because of the metal density and frame design, they are a lot stronger than you'd think. In fact when I first got mine I gave one a sort of a strength test... Put it like this, they aren't going to bend like a Coke can. Maybe if you took a 5+lb deadblow hammer and whacked the frame with that, you could crush it.... But I've never had any concerns in that department for day to day arcade cab useage. And I've owned these Tornados for almost two years now.

There's also one other possible advantage I'd like to mention... The mounting footprint is much smaller than the Oscar models available at the time I purchased. This was probably the biggest factor in my choice of spinner when considering the CP layout I planned. 

However, as I stated in an earlier thread... I have had a problem configuring DUAL spinners in the newer MAME builds using the current input scheme.  You could go the oscar board swap which seems way feasible. But I simply use an earlier Analog+ (Pre v.83) build which works fine for me, as most if not all the games that use or could use that setup, are emulated quite nicely.

[RTSDaddy2]

CJK, you were asking about conflicts with spinner and trackball...to this point, I've had none of note.  The only thing to mention is that I find the left trackball / mouse button will work as a fire button for the spinner, though the two are not connected in any way, shape, or form on the underside of my panel.  Guys, I thought I was computer savy, but I have to admit I have NO idea how that one worked out.  It's not in an Opti-Pac or IPAC, this "just happened" as far as I can tell. 

Oh, I know there's a reason for it, but I have no idea what! Again though, that's been the only thing I've encountered so far!

[Lilwolf]

btw, I don't believe most people should worry about it.  But for hotswap control panels.   Where they are laying around often.  I'm was worried.  I don't know if it was justified... but I overbuild everything just because I don't know how to figure out the breaking point

I've heard that tornadoes use aluminum bases.

[CJK]

Thanks for the info, Minwah & RTSDaddy!

-- Chris

[rdagger]

I bought the Tornado because of size.

[CJK]

Two other minor complaints are the actual spinner color doesn't look at all like the color on the SlikStik website and the aluminum construction make the spinner very sensitive to static electricity.

You might need to adjust your monitor. I have one of their anodized aluminum knobs as well, and mine looks precisely like the example on their web site. (Maybe it's because my monitors have all been calibrated with a colorimeter for my photography work.)

-- Chris

[Tiger-Heli]

CJK, you were asking about conflicts with spinner and trackball...to this point, I've had none of note.  The only thing to mention is that I find the left trackball / mouse button will work as a fire button for the spinner, though the two are not connected in any way, shape, or form on the underside of my panel.  Guys, I thought I was computer savy, but I have to admit I have NO idea how that one worked out.  It's not in an Opti-Pac or IPAC, this "just happened" as far as I can tell. 

Oh, I know there's a reason for it, but I have no idea what! Again though, that's been the only thing I've encountered so far!

Windows bug um, "feature".  Windows lumps all the mice together as SYSMOUSE.  Thats why the trackball and spinner both control the cursor in Windows and MAME.  Same with the buttons.  If you use MAME Analog Plus, you can map each player to either SYSMOUSE, MOUSE0, or MOUSE1, which should eliminate the "cross-talk", if it bothers you.

[rdagger]

You might need to adjust your monitor. I have one of their anodized aluminum knobs as well, and mine looks precisely like the example on their web site. (Maybe it's because my monitors have all been calibrated with a colorimeter for my photography work.)
-- Chris

Here is a photo from the SlikStik website.  The spinner looks very red on my monitor.   Unfortunately, I don't have a close up of my spinner, but I'm looking at it now and it's dark pink/maroon.  Does the picture below look pink/maroon on your monitor?  Like I said, this is a minor complaint.  I was a little disappointed when the spinner arrived, but the color has grown on me.  When you anodize aluminum every run is going to have slightly different colors and I figure I just got a light batch.

[dabone]

I've got a tornado and have owned a real tempest machine.

My complaint about the tornado is that it has too much momentum, i.e. it's harder to stop one direction and shift back to other way as quickly as compared to original tempest spinner. (That the vortex is comparable to).


Other than that, it's a great spinner, and DEAD easy to mount.


Later,
dabone

[CJK]

Here is a photo from the SlikStik website.

[rdagger]

I'd have to agree then that you got a funny-colored spinner -- I'd bet they would exchange it for you if you didn't like it enough.
-- Chris

I'm going to keep the spinner knob because I don't mind the color and a found a volume knob that is an exact color match.  It was also sold as red:

[krick]

For those adventurous souls looking to connect a tornado to an Opti-Pac...
http://mame.3feetunder.com/tornadomod/

[Cronos]

Two other minor complaints are the actual spinner color doesn't look at all like the color on the SlikStik website and the aluminum construction make the spinner very sensitive to static electricity.

Yeah! That WAS one thing that irked me! That the knob colors are way "off" compared to the website pic. Probably wouldn't be a big deal but since they sit next to red buttons... The color mismatch is rather obvious. I need to get some lower pro knobs than the skirted anyways, and I DO plan on getting a different color that still goes with my cab theme to offset that.

No probs with static electricity on my end though.