Who's got the 720° or similar rotary stick?

[Donkey_Kong]

Is there anywhere to buy a 720° arcade game type rotary stick currently that would work for mame? It appears as though Ram-controls is trying to do one but they don't answer e-mails...At least not mine.

Also, if you do have a 720° rotary style stick, have you ever tried using it for any console game, Tony Hawk in particular? That could be cool.

720 degrees arcade version is one of my favorites. The tony hawks are probably my all time favorite console games.  

[u_rebelscum]

In current mame, you get very good control with an analog joystick, if mapped correctly.  The original controllers won't work at all in current mame, or any official mame.  Nor will it work with any console game, AFAIK, since it's a spinner and (AFAIK) all console skate games use joystick controls.

I have an original controller with a broken sensor board that I want to get working at some point.  (Which also would mean I'd need to update mame:analog+.)  But with current mame 720 working so well with analog sticks, the drive isn't there for me to lose sleep working on it. 

[Donkey_Kong]

u_rebel Thanks for the reply!

Before I knew about BYOAC and stuff I of course was buying all the cheesy commercial stuff out there and I ended up buying one of those Logitech Flight sticks thinking it would be good for Tron. (Which by the way works OK for Tron, it has a little spinner at the base too). It could suffice a big tron fan for awhile thinking they may do it right someday?? That is where I am at with it...

Anyway, turns out this stick wasn't exactly horrible for the game 720, much to my surprise. I was actually having fun with it. I of course couldn't quite peform as good as the original. Fast forward a couple months and I find myself buying Ultra Stik 360's from Ultimarc. I thought that these could possibly be decent for 720. Once I got these sticks I could never figure out how to get my mapping setup within Mame for some reason for 720. It was one of them deals where you keep going in to try different scenarios and you come back out and you push up and your guy goes down or to the side...So yea, I never did even get my control configured correctly for that game.

 

[RayB]

videogameparts.com

[Donkey_Kong]

https://videogameparts.com/displayProductDocument.hg?productId=16&categoryId=6

Nice Find RayB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That thing is sweet looking and priced accordingly I might add. What the heck though, I spent $150 on a keyboard...Whats another $300 for a stick right?

Somebody please tell me I can hook this up to MAME? This might be what I want for christmas...

[Wade]

I have a spare one I will probably sell eventually, but I have to restore my 720 first. :/

IMO, no other controller is going to be "right", although the game may be playable with certain other sticks.

Wade

[Donkey_Kong]

I thought it would be cool to get my own version of 720 going in my house to the point of considering a dedicated 720 from scratch. I'm to the point where I think I'm having so much fun making this stuff and I don't really know why I would ever want to own an original arcade cab anymore. (Note: I have owned original cabs in the past)

However statements like this...

"IMO, no other controller is going to be "right"

make me wonder if I should. I need more opinions on this subject if at all possible. Where are the people who are replicating these sticks? or re-buliding them? or whatever it is they are doing. I definately think the stick can be replicated close enough to the original for me to be happy with it. Second thought, maybe it could be made even better? I suppose the problem would be cost + small market = not enough qualified people willing to try it! I mean we are talking about one single title. I basically just need someone to come on here and tell me whether or not the stick at videogameparts.com is compatible with MAME. As soon as I hear a definitive on that...I'm sold.   

or...

I might know a guy who has one original 720 cab that is in pretty dang good shape, should I just say heck with it and pursue that or what?

[ahofle]

As u_rebel stated:

The original controllers won't work at all in current mame, or any official mame.  Nor will it work with any console game, AFAIK, since it's a spinner and (AFAIK) all console skate games use joystick controls.

[Donkey_Kong]

Dang! This is hard to swallow. I MUST find the orginal 720° cab to play it like it is suppose to be played.

SKATE OR DIE!!

End of story...Game Over.

Would you like to continue?
        INSERT COIN

[Kremmit]

As u_rebel stated:

The original controllers won't work at all in current mame, or any official mame.  Nor will it work with any console game, AFAIK, since it's a spinner and (AFAIK) all console skate games use joystick controls.

But it will work with an older version of MAME Analog+.  You can make it work.

If you don't want to drop the cash, though, the best alternative I've found is a Williams 49-way with the centering spider removed.  Set your 49-way interface (GP-Wiz 49 or SJC) to full-analog mode.  The ball pivot mechanism allows the stick to spin around the outside of the circle quite well.

[Donkey_Kong]

But it will work with an older version of MAME Analog+.  You can make it work.

Kremmit, This is GREAT news but I would probably need some serious BYOAC life support to get it to breath. That could get ugly...

http://www.happcontrols.com/joysticks/a219391.htm
Please tell me more about this 49-way williams stick though anyway...Can it be had with a balltop by chance?

[Kremmit]

If you go the MAME Analog+ route, that U_Rebel guy that posted above is your expert.  Or JerryJanis.

As far as the Williams 49-way option, it only comes in a balltop, unless you find one with a Blaster triggerstick handle (unlikely).  Mostly Orange or Red balltops, although Teal and Yellow ones exist. 

Here's one:  http://www.quarterarcade.com/Game.aspx/1945

[kelemvor]

Aren't these stickers encoded like a Spinner? I'm sure someone could take a spinner, hollow out a portion to insert a joystick shaft into...  Then there ya go.  Your own joystick for the price of drilling into metal and a cheapo joystick shaft...

[jerryjanis]

That thing is sweet looking and priced accordingly I might add. What the heck though, I spent $150 on a keyboard...Whats another $300 for a stick right?

$300.00 - Crikey that's a lot of money!  If I were you I would be patient and keep an aggressive eye on ebay.  If you give it some time, I'm sure decent will come up.  At $300.00 you'd be better off buying a full cab!

You might want to read up on my 720 page:

http://jstookey.com/arcade/720/

particularly:

http://jstookey.com/arcade/720/720-arcadejoy.php

My web page has some information about hacking the original 720 joystick to work with the PC.  At the bottom of that page, there's a Mame driver that enables you to use the 720 arcade joystick.  (It's a little outdated - Mame 0.104, and I think it needs to be updated in order to work with the latest version of Mame.  Let me know and I would be happy to update it).  I'd even compile a version of Mame for you if you like.

Also, as was mentioned by someone else, you can use an older version of Mame Analog+ with the original 720 joystick.

As far as using the joystick for any other games, you can probably forget about it!  Nothing is impossible, but it's a matter of getting someone to devote that much time around a joystick that only a handful of people own!  I would love to play more games with the joystick, though.  I'm thinking that maybe by hacking an emulator or something you might be able to trick a Tony Hawk game into working with the spinner joystick, but it would take a fair amount of effort!

Jake

[Torc]

Aren't these stickers encoded like a Spinner? I'm sure someone could take a spinner, hollow out a portion to insert a joystick shaft into...  Then there ya go.  Your own joystick for the price of drilling into metal and a cheapo joystick shaft...

The diff between the 720 stick and a spinner is the stick is calibrated with the spinner mechanisim so the movement is always in the same direction as the stick is facing. If you use a spinner with a stick attachment, the stick will not always be in the correct direction. making it unplayable.

I think the best cheapest alternative is the 49 way stick. Thats what I use and the game is extremly playable like that. I've even considered making a restrictor plate to make it only move in a circular direction. I believe a 49 way stick with a circular restrictor would give almost identical feel to the arcade, and far cheaper too.