Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: crapjoint on January 30, 2004, 12:59:38 am
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I have access to an original arkanoid spinner I can get for cheap, will it work with a pc for mame somehow?
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It will work in mame as long as it works in windows :)
A mouse hack might work, not sure if it will be too fast for a computer though.
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I am pretty sure people have used these before, if a Mouse hack won't handle it, then an Opti-Pac should.
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I could never make the Arkanoid spinner I had work with an Opti-PAC or mouse hack. The person who I got the spinner from told me it was just pulled from a working game and should have worked. The transistors tested out okay, so I don't know? I just pulled off the Arkanoid optic board and put one of my own on it.
It worked extremely well for Arkanoid in MAME once I put one of my optic boards on it and connected it to an Opti-PAC. The gear ratio on the Arkanoid spinner gives it the equivalent to a 480-tooth encoder wheel, so it had extremely fast action. But it's still really only suited towards the breakout style games. Playing Tempest with it sucked, to say the least.
What I didn't like about the Arkanoid spinner is the cheap bearing and sloppy feel. The cheap, brass sleeve bearing is so bad that it caused the gears not to mesh properly, thus giving it a very grindy sound and feel. I rebuilt the spinner with a bronze bearing and put a different shaft on it, and then it was much better.
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So basically, you're saying that it had a really nice knob, but you had to replace everything else? ;D
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No, the knob sucked, too. I ended up putting one of my own on it. :)
What I did keep was the frame and gear set, that's it. Check out these pics on how it turned out after I rebuilt it:
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/ebay/ark-spinner1.jpg
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/ebay/ark-spinner2.jpg
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/ebay/ark-spinner3.jpg
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/ebay/ark-spinner4.jpg
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/ebay/ark-spinner5.jpg
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I won a brand new in the box "Arkanoid Returns" spinner off Ebay. The reason it caught my eye is because it is a spinner and also is a horizontal 2-way joystick. Pretty damn neat. It does have the typical reduction gears ( they are actually acceleration gears) like any Arkanoid spinner/paddle but even though its brand new it sounds like absolute crap when I spin it. I haven't taken it apart but it sounds like either the berings are defective or the gears aren't properly meshing. It almost feels as if it doesn't even use berings but rather just lousy bushings which would justify the horrible lack of spin time. I'm sure that the gears probably slow them down quite a bit as well. Arkanoid spinners are very misleading as they seem to be very heavy and built like a tank. (at least the one I have is) but yet they perform like a cheap piece of crap. I know they're not supposed to spin super freely since they are considered to be a paddle and aren't weighted to carry momentum like a true spinner but every Arkanoid machine I've ever played, the paddle made a grinding noise if I tried to spin it too fast so to me that just screams "POOR DESIGN"! Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is their are much better choices out there for spinners unless you're an absolute Arkanoid freak or something then you may be happy with their performance.