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I can't afford my dream control panel!
SirPoonga:
To make trackball cheaper.
Get one from ebay. Doesn;t have to be a full tball, just the case and ball. Get new rollers and optics if needed. Goto oscarcontrols and grab his mouse hack for the spinner and use both axis for the tball.
Also, don't order from happ unless you have too.
Also, have you considered module or removable panels?
Civilan:
u_rebelscum: Thanks for mini-review. Its was very helpful and saved me the search and read time. Based on all the posts I've read from you in the past week or so, I greatly respect your impressions.
SirPooga: You're right. I could indeed save some money getting an older tball and rebuilding it. I'll have to look into the Oscar Controls thing as well. You're insights in other posts have been a great help to me as well. big THANKS.
I am indeed planning removable and interchangeable control panels for my cabinet. The others would be for the yokes, flight sticks, steering wheels and such but the details are still foggy at this time. I was hoping to make the primary control panel as capable as possible to miminize the swapping of panels for the majority of games.
I'm sure I'll end up with my dream panel eventually. I just have to take it slow.
Thanks all.
Civilan.
Mojo2000:
How can you ignore the need for two or more spinners? :P For shame!
Championship Sprint (two)
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat (three)
Ironman Stewart's Super Off-Road (three)
Sprint 2 (two)
Super Sprint (three)
Off The Wall (three)
Bad Lands (two)
and when it gets emulated: Sega's Hot Rod (four)
You could probably "get by" with just one spinner, but I wouldn't want to be one of the other players stuck using a plain, digital, non-velocity-sensitive joystick. :-* Depending on how seriously you take your games, this can be a good illustration of how you can't base your control choices on just a number of games using this layout. Rather, think of the quality of gameplay with and without these controls, THEN see if you can justify leaving them out. ;D
I just remembered something. In my own future dream cab, I plan to use two grip joysticks (with thumb and forefinger triggers) paired with two spinners, so that two players can play such games as Time Soldiers, Caliber .50, Heavy Barrel, Guerilla War, Midnight Resistance, Forgotten Worlds and Ikari Warriors. This would be more useful and practical to me than rotary/clickety joysticks. The catch is that I wouldn't be able to achieve this without two spinners.
To the original poster:
Have you considered Smash TV and Total Carnage? :) Or Vindicators I and II?
Civilan:
Mojo2000:
I'm happy to hear that there is at least one other person that feels that two spinners are necessary to play certain games well. The games you listed are some of my favourites of days gone by.
I hadn't considered SmashTV, Total Carnage, and the Vindicators series but looking at their requirments for 2 joysticks per player I doubt I would be able to incorporate 2 more joysticks into my design. The best I'll be able to do with my setup is play these games in 1 player mode. Even then Vindicators will not be fun due to missing joysick fire button.
Oh well - I did know that I won't be able to play every game with my control panel just a large percentage of them.
Civilan.
Mojo2000:
If you think that's bad, consider also those games which need two or more trackballs (or equivalent analog devices) to operate well! :P
- Atari's Arcade Classics prototype (which features Missile Command II and Super Centipede, both offering 2P co-op play and requiring two trackballs)
- Marble Madness
- Combat School
- most co-op light-gun games (hope these 2P's get supported by Act-Labs sometime)
Oh, and I forgot some more multi-spinner games:
- Blasteroids :)
- Two Tigers
- Warlords