Question about Omega-race spinners

[PetitMorte]

Hey.

Does anyone remember if the Omega race spinners spin freely, or are more of a dial kind of thing.

I'm thinking about using one as a poor-man's tempest spinner, but I can't remember if they were spinny spinners or not.

Thanks.

[Witchboard]

The spinner on my Omega Race cabinet is not spinny and is POT based.

[PetitMorte]

Thanks.  That's pretty much what was bugging me about the idea.

[ErikRuud]

I don't think it is POT based.

KLOV lists it as an rotary optical control.

The owners manual at: http://www.arcadedocs.com/vidmanuals/O/OmegaRace.pdf seems to back that up.  Look at page 64 of the.pdf

As I remeber it, the control can turn in either direction as far as you want, but It doesn't spin freely like a Tempest spinner.  It feels like a pddle control but it is not POT based.

[Kremmit]

My understanding is that some Omega Race games came with pot-based spinners, and some came with regular optical spinners.  They both have the same knob, but they look different underneath.  Both the pot and optical version spin freely, the full 360 degrees.

Check these pics, both are from the undersides of Omega Race control panels for sale at www.quarterarcade.com:




So far as I know, the pot-based ones are of little use.  You can inteface them the same as any other pot-based device, but MAME doesn't know what to do with a 360 degree spinning pot.  Unless I'm wrong about that.