Building a replica Pole Position?

[HaRuMaN]

Still looking locally for a Pole Position, without much luck, which has led me to thinking about building a replica PP using MAME.

I know some versions of MAME have a shifter indication (HI / LOW) on screen.

Could I buy a PP control panel and somehow interface it to a PC?  What is available for this type of interface (360 deg wheel, shifter, gas pedal)?

[ChadTower]

Isn't PP just an optical wheel?  If it is there are tons of solutions for interfacing a spinner with MAME.

[HaRuMaN]

Ahh I didn't even consider that it is basically a spinner...  interesting.

[ChadTower]

I wasn't 100% sure so I looked it up...  these are from the manual.  I have always been tempted to do this myself as PP is a favorite of mine.

[HaRuMaN]

Very cool.  From those pictures, it looks like you could even easily do a mouse hack as a cheap interface.

[ChadTower]

You could but the spinner interfaces are so cheap now I wouldn't bother.  Why go to the effort of building a cab and cheap out on the itnerface?  If that's not perfect PP will play like crap.   

[RayB]

PP hardware was so unreliable that it's easy to find empty or converted PP cabs. I'm not sure why you're not finding any.

[ChadTower]

PP hardware was so unreliable that it's easy to find empty or converted PP cabs. I'm not sure why you're not finding any.

I don't think that's really true anymore.  They have all been trashed.  It's not like we have ops sitting on warehouses all over the place like ten years ago.  Nearly all of those old stashes are gone now and so is all the "trash" like unreliable Pole Positions.

[Pinball Wizard]

That is very true. I have 2 pole position cabinets. The one cabinet is heavily water damaged, it looks like it wasn't just in a flood but that it sat in water for awhile. The steering wheel is bent on the other and both steering wheels have that sticky degrading feeling of plastic. One of many to-dos on my list.

[SavannahLion]

The steering wheel is bent on the other and both steering wheels have that sticky degrading feeling of plastic.

Yeah, about that. A nice discussion about it, but it kind of ended on a cliff hanger so I don't know if his selected solution worked for him or not. I just love that red 70's style steering wheel.

[Pinball Wizard]

Red steering wheel? Both of mine have black steering wheels. That worn down or is my memory gone? Even Klov looks like they are black.

[SavannahLion]

Red steering wheel? Both of mine have black steering wheels. That worn down or is my memory gone? Even Klov looks like they are black.

In the post I linked to, the op snagged 10 or so Atari wheels. Only one was PP though, at least 5 probably belong to Sprint, two are unknown with the odd man out being the red glitter. I actually liked the 70's style glitter look and probably would've swapped the wheel into my cab.

In any case, you are correct. PP never had anything other than black that I know of. I should've made that more concise in my last post.

[Ummon]

Helll noo. The PP wheels were a little large, but they didn't look like 60s midway rides. Christ almighty.

I have a PP panel. It is indeed as shown above. I'd have it done by now, but I haven't been able to build a case for it. And, at least I think, PC mice are decent enough hardware that if you got one around, use it.

One thing you might think about it is resolution. I bet the mouse is higher than the encoder used in PP, which means you might need to turn the wheel farther to go farther. Could be good, could be a little more than necessary.

[SavannahLion]

Helll noo. The PP wheels were a little large, but they didn't look like 60s midway rides. Christ almighty.

Huh?

One thing you might think about it is resolution. I bet the mouse is higher than the encoder used in PP, which means you might need to turn the wheel farther to go farther. Could be good, could be a little more than necessary.

If the resolution is higher, wouldn't it be less effort to turn the wheel? For example (with random numbers of course), 15 pulses to turn 15 degrees on the PP whereas the mouse requires only 7 1/2 degrees to send out 15 pulses. Or am I thinking of it the wrong way?

[ChadTower]

Helll noo. The PP wheels were a little large, but they didn't look like 60s midway rides. Christ almighty.

Huh?

I get what he meant.  He's talking about traveling carnival rides where everything was glitter impregnated fiberglass.

[Ummon]

Helll noo. The PP wheels were a little large, but they didn't look like 60s midway rides. Christ almighty.

Huh?

I get what he meant.  He's talking about traveling carnival rides where everything was glitter impregnated fiberglass.

Or just cheap cast (or worse, welded) metal.

If the resolution is higher, wouldn't it be less effort to turn the wheel? For example (with random numbers of course), 15 pulses to turn 15 degrees on the PP whereas the mouse requires only 7 1/2 degrees to send out 15 pulses. Or am I thinking of it the wrong way?

The higher the resolution, the farther you have to travel on the encoder to get somewheres. Sensitivity settings can alter this, but I think what happens is it essentially filters the resolution of the encoder, which is why you have to turn it down on high-res encoders. Of course, the gearing in the PP panel off sets this.

[SavannahLion]

If the resolution is higher, wouldn't it be less effort to turn the wheel? For example (with random numbers of course), 15 pulses to turn 15 degrees on the PP whereas the mouse requires only 7 1/2 degrees to send out 15 pulses. Or am I thinking of it the wrong way?

The higher the resolution, the farther you have to travel on the encoder to get somewheres. Sensitivity settings can alter this, but I think what happens is it essentially filters the resolution of the encoder, which is why you have to turn it down on high-res encoders. Of course, the gearing in the PP panel off sets this.

Somehow that's counter-intuitive  but I'll accept it as is until I really have to deal with it. 

[ChadTower]

Every mention I have seen of PP wheels and MAME do say that it's a bit of a pain to make it feel like the original.  I imagine if you're a real PP fan it is worth the effort and even if it's off some you'll get used to it before all that long.  It's not like you spend $20/week at on PP at the corner store now, right?

[Ummon]

Somehow that's counter-intuitive  but I'll accept it as is until I really have to deal with it. 

Well, I'm not sure I have the right formalism to grasp it. I'm getting caught in trying to physically analogize it. I think what I said last about the sensitivity is right, but not about resolution in general.