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UPDATED w/ pics: Mystery spinner... [Wico Red Housing...?]
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lharles:
So, I'm not in possession of my digital camera at the moment, (my wife has it), and as a result spent a lot of time finding this:



This is the one and only time I've seen this old school spinner...so I bought one.  Turns out there's another one I can buy...if it's still there when I go back.

I'll take pictures and post them when I've got the camera back.

The housing on the item says it's a 'WICO' so I thought I'd be able to find info from that.  No dice.

I spent an hour searching the US Patent office to find info.  :)

Anyway, this seems very sturdy and spins well.  From the diagrams and the device itself it looks like it can be mounted as a left-right device or a spinner.  I don't know how else to describe it.

Has anyone seen one of these before?  A web search turned up one post that seemed to reference this...back from 1997.  http://www.arcadehelp.com/archives/vectorlist/archive/9708/0090.html

Why isn't anyone makin' somethin like this?  [I know there are spinners out there!  :)  I've bought one of the commercial offerings...]

Just looking at it, it looks like it might be fairly easy to mount, (two bolt holes for either direction of securing the device), and if you put some springs at the top and the bottom of those bolts I bet it would be pretty easy to make it act like a push/pull spinner...but I'm just a moron so I wouldn't really know.

I got another spinner too from the place I was at.  It's an old school spinner, the optic board on it says 'Atari '80'.  Looks like the Vortex from Oscar Controls which apparently is modeled after the Tempest spinner.

...so I'm babbling now.  Sorry, it happens.  8)

UPDATE stuff...










Video footage of the thing spinning: [Not done 'processing' at the time of the post update]


Second source for video:

http://www.archive.org/details/Old_WICO_Spinner_Red_Housing
Timoe:
That thing is Freagin' Sweet.  Good for you!  

Go buy the other one and donate it to RandyT or someone.
lharles:
:)

I thought it was slick!  I actually got it in the hopes that someone could replicate it, (I'm not sure how and/or if I can/will use it).

I have no intention of selling it or anything of that nature.  I'd just like to see if there's a common use for it.  You know, perhaps a way that others can make one similar/identical for use.

Having already done business with Randy, I'd willing to send him the item for use in replicating it.  However, I don't know if there's any interest in that sort of thing at all.  :)

...and I added a second link to the video of the thing spinning, (BYOAC porn?), at archive.org.  :)

I'm addicted to this place.  I'm SO close to diving into building my final control panel and I check the forums here every 8.2 seconds for ideas/suggestions.  I'm quite certain that I'm clinically insane at this point.  ;)

Timoe:
There are a few games, I believe that used the side to side (spinner on its side) action.  I remeber reading a post about someone selling the rare control for a ridiculous amount of money on ebay.

If I remeber correct the picture of that control looked as though it was in far worse condition than yours.
lharles:

--- Quote from: timoe on April 15, 2006, 01:53:05 pm ---There are a few games, I believe that used the side to side (spinner on its side) action.  I remeber reading a post about someone selling the rare control for a ridiculous amount of money on ebay.

If I remeber correct the picture of that control looked as though it was in far worse condition than yours.

--- End quote ---

Well, as much as I wouldn't mind having a 'ridiculous amount of money', I didn't get it for that purpose...I swear!  :)

It seemed like just about the most versatile option for a spinner that I'd seen.  I thought that the thing would be a pretty cool option for a spinner and I was surprised that, after I bought it, there seemed to be no information about it at all.

Finally, while I'm not good at fabrication, conceptually I can see how this thing could easily be modified to fit just about every use of a spinner imaginable - at least in the context of arcade controls.  ;)
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