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Cut the crap - Is the Aimtrak any good?

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RayB:

Some people won't be satisifed until a peer-reviewed thesis is presented, and even then, I don't think everyone will feel confident in the results.

The thesis will also have to go into entire chapters dissecting the original question "is it any good?" for there can be many definitions of "good".

 ::)

syph007:

OH man! Some folks here have way more picky needs than me.  Selling points for me were that it works in Mame, can use 2 at once, and needed no drivers.

IMO the change in accuracy vs position/angle/height is grossly exaggerated.  For me and my guests its pick up at play.

RandyT:


--- Quote from: syph007 on November 01, 2009, 07:18:30 pm ---IMO the change in accuracy vs position/angle/height is grossly exaggerated.  For me and my guests its pick up at play.

--- End quote ---

The last thing you wrote on the subject was;


--- Quote from: syph007 on October 27, 2009, 12:21:09 pm ---Besides me I'd say 10+ guests have used it on my arcade and never done any sort of recalibrating.  You need to leave the crosshair on though.  If you would hate that, you might not like them.

--- End quote ---

If you are playing with the crosshairs on, how can you possibly be in the position to state that others are "grossly exaggerating" the change in accuracy?  My accuracy goes wonky if I tilt the gun, and it takes a while for it to come back (on default settings), and sometimes it doesn't fully until I tilt it the other way.

And I disagree about needing to leave the crosshairs on.  While it may be a good idea to do so in the guest environment, it's not necessary once you get a good calibration and learn to hold the gun in a repeatable fashion.

RandyT



romshark:

I guess I'll throw my two cents in. Haven't used my Aimtrak in a while, but that's because I formatted and reinstalled everything on my cabinet PC, and am still setting everything back up.

I went to the arcade a few days ago, and played Area 51. It was actually worse than my Aimtrak setup at home (the shots landed about a centimeter away from where I was aiming.) I couldn't even enter an A on the high score screen because of this, even with the gun barrel right up against the monitor glass.

On the topic of crosshairs: I don't use the ones MAME provides. Of course, stuff like Terminator 2 can't be turned off. That said, some games don't need crosshairs, because they provide a reference to where you shot. Area 51, House of the Dead, ect. all have some indication of where your shots landed. To me, that is just a good a reference as an actual crosshair. The only difference is that it only appears for a few moments. I know other games don't use it, like Duck Hunt, and possibly Point Blank (never played it yet).

Is the Aimtrak good? Well, what are the alternatives? I use an LCD in my cab, so Guncon and Act Labs are out (I never could get Act Labs stuff to work with my CRT on my desktop in the old days anyway). I tried the LCD Topgun, but getting the drivers to work properly was a nightmare. And then, calibration took a dozen attempts every time, then the cursor still didn't behave anywhere near proper (I mean it was way off). The Aimtrak doesn't need drivers (there is a config utility, but it isn't required.) I can get calibration to work within 1 or 2 tries. And the cursor is close to where I'm aiming (within half a centimeter). Nobody else but me has played any game on my cab yet, so I don't have multi-player data yet.

If you go to an arcade, not every gun game is going to be perfectly calibrated. At the one near me, some (like Police 911 2) are really accurate, but some (like Area 51) are really bad. If it's a bit off (and you can't be bothered to recalibrate it), just think of it as the real arcade experience. After all, isn't that what we're trying to do in the first place?

syph007:


--- Quote from: RandyT on November 01, 2009, 10:42:17 pm ---
--- Quote from: syph007 on November 01, 2009, 07:18:30 pm ---IMO the change in accuracy vs position/angle/height is grossly exaggerated.  For me and my guests its pick up at play.

--- End quote ---

The last thing you wrote on the subject was;


--- Quote from: syph007 on October 27, 2009, 12:21:09 pm ---Besides me I'd say 10+ guests have used it on my arcade and never done any sort of recalibrating.  You need to leave the crosshair on though.  If you would hate that, you might not like them.

--- End quote ---


--- End quote ---

Yes, with the crosshairs on and you sight down the open sights, while moving around, you get a real time view of how the sights line up with the crosshairs.  If you didnt have crosshairs on, how would you know how accurate the gun is, vs you just missing the targts.  I find the sites and the crosshair dont differ by that much.  Remember you are not a typical user here, and no matter how objective you are trying to be, im sure sub conscously you dont want a competitor to have a 'win' product.   I do admit your review was quite fair though.

Keep in mind that also none of the people that picked up and played my gun games had a clue how to even use a gun.  They were mostly shooting from the hip.   Have people give it a try next time you have a crowd over and ask them if they think its fun.  



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