MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Quick market survey

- If two trackballs are supported, that should equate to 4 spinners (warlords). Wiring could probably be slaved off the same inputs, with a toggle pin to kill the signal to the unused devices. A button setup could be programmed to scroll thru the devices, enabling or disabling them in sequence. Possible LED lights up the active controls.

- I dont think there are any games that use a trackball and a spinner together, so alternating them would be a nice way to have more controls off one controller board.

- True arcade motor support would be nice. Such as being able to drive a real high-current force feedback wheel, or outrun shaker motor directly. Other desired outputs, would be 30v coil output support for both T2 guns, Qbert knocker, and maybe at least 3 coils for pinball support. (left&right flippers, and one coil for anything else activated)

Andys board only outputs 5v I believe.. and so unless you are a guru of electronics.. which most of us are not... theres no good solution for easy plug and play wiring up of coils & motors. No kickback on Time Crisis guns, T2 guns...etc. Which is quite sad. Howards 'Mamehooker' supports the devices.. but we need a way to actually interface with them hardware-wise.

- Does that mean each wheel has 3 analog pedals with it?
Two Race Drivin machines linked would equate to 12 pots:

2 ten turn wheel pots
2 analog gas pedal
2 analog brake pedal
2 analog clutch pedals
2 shifter X pots
2 shifter Y pots

Not only would making a device to read a 10 turn pot be completely Epic.. (people & mfgs would start building their own race-drivin wheels.. or maybe use of 900 degree wheels?), but also, the analog shifter design of Race Drivin is far superior to any switch based shifter. Its durable as hell, and could be programmed using custom software, to be used in many different gear configurations. (just have to swap the top mounted restriction plate)

- What about true 12 position mechanical rotary joysticks for games like Time Soldiers and Ikari Warriors?

- And 49 way optical joystick support? for Sinistar alone, its worth it.

- IMO, I could care less about wireless. That just means money spent on batteries. Also, wireless stuff only last so long before they eventually give out.

Other things desired, that currently are not on the market:

A custom pinball controller device:
- hooks to pc
- programs it via pc, upload to onboard ram/flash chip
- easy programming mode: drag and drop w/ pulldowns & checkboxes. minimalist if/then basic, similar to gary kitchens game maker of the c64 days, if needed. (no defining variable crap, or difficult/complex commands & scripts needed, but still able to make great things)
- Advanced Language support for the Gurus.
- 5 speaker output. Surround + Sub.
- Lighting: Flashers, Leds, Typical pinball bulb lamps
- Able to activate videos / music / sounds from a pc, if desired. (lcd based backbox animations)
- Large number of high current coil and motor support.
- Hall, Optical, and Mechanical swtich support.
- Use of webcam via pc, for taking pics, and or possibly as an additional sensor, using advanced kinnect style captures.
(possible used overhead, as a failsafe that can tell when a sensor / device is no longer working properly.. and the game can adjust to compensate)
- coil power output adjustment ability. Can tweak strength of voltages, for machine thats losing some power.. and or to adjust the coils precisely for better gameplay.

Theres a lot of interest in real pinball now, partially because of virtual pinball / pinmame. However, theres no easy to set up way to replicate a real machine.. nor design your own machine. Partly because most artistic / creative people just dont have a programmers mind. Or dont have the easy to wire electronics needed to realize something. You could say that its like keyboard/joystick encoders: Once they became available... all sorts of people started making their own arcade controllers.

This is something that could save Pinball from disappearing completely, and the new interest would spur new part runs... rather than stock vanishing completely, and never being re-ran.

Edited by xiaou2 (12/14/11 05:44 PM)