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Video Comparison of Four MAME Spinners
shmokes:
You should get a job with PBS. Or maybe you could teach a distance-learning math class. ;)
KevSteele:
Teaching math? Ugh...trust me, you do not want me teaching anyone math! :P
JD,
Your wish is my command -- I added the sleeve bearing to the DOT spinner and merged the videotape of the change into the main video.
The sleeve bearing does get rid of the "wiggle", but you also gain additional friction, which makes spinning and the up/down motion just a little bit harder.
You'll have to watch the whole video again (all 3 minutes 10 seconds worth!) to see the difference.
Kevin
jdjuggler:
Kevin,
Thank you! Everything is clear now... Of course, it's still a tough choice. Do I really care that the up/down spinner with the bearing doesn't spin for a long time?
Someone else brought up a point regarding the games that you take your hand off the spinner during gameplay, to be few or none. So, maybe it's not such a big deal.
Decisions... Decisions...
Thanks again,
JD
KevSteele:
JD,
Spin time, to me, is an indicator of how "smooth" (or frictionless) the motion is of a spinner. The DOT spinner tracks well, has the great up/down motion, but it just isn't the smoothest spinner.
Part of that is due to the fact that it is the slight "play" when you turn the knob, before the pins on the inner shaft contact the outer shaft (with the encoder wheel). This causes a noticable "click" sound and feeling each time you start to turn the knob.
The other lack of smoothness comes from the slight wobble (without the sleeve bearing) or the increased metal-on-metal friction (using the bearing).
These are necessary compromises to add the up/down motion to the spinner, but it's something you should be aware of.
Kevin
Vectoraster:
Hey, do you guys remember the "dark ages" when you couldn't buy a spinner? Lots of good homebrew ideas but it seemed like everybody who tried to get it going gave up pretty quickly (Twistygrip, Chris Fulton, etc.) Man we've come a long way.
Nice video, Kevin.
Hey JD, if you're only going with one spinner remember that the DoT spinner is identical to the original in terms of wobble and clicking and it's designed for a very special type of game. However, the original Tempest spinner (of course) was a much simpler design, no clicks or wobble (by the way, I can't detect wobble on my OSCAR DoT), spun longer than Tron or DoT, and created that BRRRRR sound when you put muscle on it. In Discs of Tron, the gameplay is much different (way slower) and calls for aiming accuracy that's best provided by a DoT spinner. In other words, don't buy a DoT spinner expecting to bring back that Tempest emotion. It's adequate for Tempest and opens up options for a wider range of games but if it's the Tempest feel you're after, there's better choices. I use the OSCAR PRO for all my Tempest needs. Then again, you might not even care too much about Tempest. Naaah - that's not possible :)