How do I hook up arcade spinner to MAME to play Arkanoid?

[jayrawk007]

I love Arkanoid and bough a real arcade spinner that came from an Arkanoid machine. I have no idea what to do with it to make it work for MAME. What cables, etc do I need to buy in order to get it to work on my computer? Thank UUU!

[BamBam]

Not to be a smart ass, but I thought of doing the same thing and was turned on to the Slikstik Tornado, which I find to be an awesome spinner that hooks up to USB and needs no messing around with software.  They are, however, a bit expensive, but when you spin it, you will feel the quality.

[taylormadelv]

Spinners are something I have extensive experience with in terms of arcade emulation. I'm not completely positive about the Arkanoid spinner connections but most spinners work in a similar way. You can hack the wires and connect them to one of the connectors of a DIY trackball kit from Mikesarcade. There should be 4 wires, 5V, Ground, X and -X. The trackball harness will have two connections for a trackball, you will need only 1 for a single axis spinner. The trackball adaptor will give you three mouse buttons and you can choose from PS2 or USB. I've hacked a Tempest spinner this way without problems. I also have a SlikStik and it is buttery smooth (maybe too smooth?) and it will give you 3 pushbuttons to work with as well. If you really want to play Arkanoid, I suggest you stick with the original spinner since it's "geared" and a regular spinner will not ever work the same way, even if you crank up the settings in mame.

[EwJ]

I love Arkanoid and bough a real arcade spinner that came from an Arkanoid machine. I have no idea what to do with it to make it work for MAME. What cables, etc do I need to buy in order to get it to work on my computer? Thank UUU!

You need to wire it up to an optical interface (mouse hack, opti-wiz, opti-pac - see here) to hook to your computer.

[jayrawk007]

OK, Thanks everyone!!!!!! So I just bought an opti-wiz since I'm not the most mouse- hacking inclined....! Let you know how it works

[DeLuSioNal29]

I loved Arkanoid too, back in the day, and I still do.  Let me know how it works out.  I currently have a TT2 by groovygamegear.com and it works great.   But there's nothing like the real thing. 

DeLuSioNaL

[jayrawk007]

OK, so I got the opti wiz in the mail..... I need to hook up wires from the opti wiz to the spinner, let me check the package........:  there's NO WIRES! ahhhh.... This wasn't as easy as I thought. So what kind of wires do I use?? Do I need to solder them??

[DeLuSioNal29]

You can use simple **edit ** 18 - 22 awg wire.  Personally, I get mine from Home Depot in the doorbell section.  Doorbell wire is perfect for this job.

On the board itself, there are three axis points you can connect to.  X, Y and Z.  You'll want X which is left and right.  There are two solder points (should be labeled on the board) XA and XB.  You'll need to connect 4 wires total.  +5 volts, ground, -x and +x.  As for the +5 power, there should be two points (also labeled on the board) that say +5 and ground.  But just in case... ask Randy.

On your Arkanoid spinner, I'm not sure what wires are what.  But generally red = +5 and black = ground.  The other two wires are not that important.  Because if you reverse them, the worst that will happen is the the spinner will go right when you spin left and vice versa.  If that happens, simply reverse the XA and XB wires.

Here's a pic of the "no solder version" (not sure which one you bought) which has pins already sticking out.  The principle is the same but for the solder version there are no pins present, just solder points.



DeLuSioNaL

[jayrawk007]

Thanks Delusional... I'll give it a whirl!

[lanman31337]

Wow, 12 gauge?  You could use 18 - 24 gauge and have no problems.  It's low voltage, and very low amperage.  You could probably even use CAT - 5.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Whoops!  That was a typo on my part.  12 gauge would have been too thick.

D