Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: Martoon on August 22, 2004, 05:08:03 pm

Title: "Joystick + spinner games" or "How bad do I need a triggerstick?"
Post by: Martoon on August 22, 2004, 05:08:03 pm: Okay, we're building our first control panel at work (and the cabinet will follow). What we're after is a CP that's versatile, without being excessively huge, crowded, or expensive. Here's what we have (or have ordered) so far:

2 T-Stik Plusses. These will each have 6 buttons by them, and will be close enough to each other to work for Robotron, Black Widow, Crazy Climber, etc.

3-inch Trackball

Vortex Spinner

We also have some additional buttons for coin, player start, admin stuff, and to put near the trackball (a la mouse buttons). When we build the cabinet, we may put in a couple pedals, and use the spinner for driving games.

It seems like this should cover the majority of the games in MAME. Four-player is not a big thing for us - just single player and occasional two-player action.

What types of games will we miss with this setup? The things I can think of are:

Joystick + spinner (e.g., Tron, Mad Planets) since you can't hit the buttons at the same time. Trigger sticks seem really pricey, and even top-button sticks seem a little high. Anyplace I can get a good price on something like this, or is there some other solution I haven't thought of for these types of games?

Analog stick games. Are there any that can't be played pretty well with either a trackball or 8-way stick? I thought of using a PC analog stick (with trigger and thumb button) for the analog and trigger stick, but I tried moving the ship around in Mad Planets with the PC analog, and it felt pretty useless.

Gun games. Not really a big deal for us (and some of these work okay with a trackball).

Any other types of games I'm overlooking? I don't expect to cover every single game, but we'd like to make the CP as versatile as possible, without getting too pricey or crowded.
Title: Re:"Joystick + spinner games" or "How bad do I need a triggerstick?"
Post by: Bgnome on August 22, 2004, 06:34:16 pm: RayB sells custom-made top-fire wico balltops for a good price:
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=22827
Title: Re:"Joystick + spinner games" or "How bad do I need a triggerstick?"
Post by: RayB on August 22, 2004, 07:40:12 pm: I've got ball-tops with firebutton. See my link below.
They aren't complete joysticks though. you need a "base" (old Wico or Happ Super).

~Ray B.
Title: Re:"Joystick + spinner games" or "How bad do I need a triggerstick?"
Post by: Martoon on August 22, 2004, 07:48:51 pm: Quote from: Bgnome on August 22, 2004, 06:34:16 pm
RayB sells custom-made top-fire wico balltops for a good price:
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=22827

Well... it looks like it would be around $15 to Bob Roberts for a Happ Super (with shipping), and another $20 to RayB for the replacement shaft/balltop (with shipping), so it would set me back $35.

Alternatively, I could get a tulip-style top button Super from Happ for $32 plus whatever their shipping is.

One thing I need to consider is that all of our other controls are black, except for white player start buttons and a white trackball. I think the red button on the tulip-style would be less disruptive than the red balltop on RayB's modification. Although the classic balltop shape is nice. Any chance I could roughen that plastic and paint it somehow?
Title: Re:"Joystick + spinner games" or "How bad do I need a triggerstick?"
Post by: Kremmit on August 23, 2004, 12:38:04 am: This guy is always selling these on ebay (he has two up right now):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6114386579&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6114386579&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW)

If it's Tron you care about, this is what was on the Tron cocktail, see it here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13716&item=6113815998&rd=1 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13716&item=6113815998&rd=1)
Title: Re:"Joystick + spinner games" or "How bad do I need a triggerstick?"
Post by: Martoon on August 23, 2004, 09:31:28 am: Hmmm... those are interesting. And they do look like they could be painted. What are sticks like that actually worth? (his buy-it-now price of $55 seems pretty high). And are those standard microswitches that could be replaced with something off the shelf?

He's got some other interesting items for sale, too. I know I have my eye on both of these items ;D
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20291&item=8126380711 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20291&item=8126380711)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20864&item=3695360452 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20864&item=3695360452)
Title: Re:"Joystick + spinner games" or "How bad do I need a triggerstick?"
Post by: Bgnome on August 23, 2004, 09:38:40 am: i dont think you should consider painting joysticks. if you are dead set on black, you should get black ones..
Title: Re:"Joystick + spinner games" or "How bad do I need a triggerstick?"
Post by: NoOne=NBA= on August 23, 2004, 10:15:07 am: Those sticks have been selling repeatedly in the $55 range.
That's how he came up with it for his Buy It Now price.