Posted by Torgo on October 14, 1999 at 00:08:54:
In Reply to: Optical joy question posted by Radioman on October 13, 1999 at 22:24:21:
: Out of curiosity, can one use these joysticks as a spinner for tempest as well as a regular joy??
They do work, and will work for any spinner type game, because they control mouse movement. However, sensitivity is an issue with some games. The Happ's optiwheels are large (about 1.5" across) so a lot of motion on the wheel translates to little motion on the mouse. Tempest, specifically, feels almost playable, but you have to turn the sensitivitty all the way up to 255, and that is still not quite enough. It sounds like the new version of optimame will fix sensitivity issues though. The next problem is that the twisting part of the joystock is pretty stiff. There is no "coast" when you let go. With a real tempest machine, you could spin the hell out of that spinner, but not with these. Also, since they are attached to the end of a joystick, you have a tendancy to accidentally push the stick in one direction or another. So its knda wobbly for Tempest and If you press your stick far enough that it actuates a microswitch, that will be picked up by mame and turned into right/left/motion unless you do a custum key setup for tempest. (tab key menu)
So basically, if ya aint got nuthin else, it'll work, but I wouldn't buy them just for that purpose.