Ultimarc Spintrak, how useful is it?

[m2306]

I’ve been reading about the Spintrak. Seems it is a good device and I’m thinking about adding one to my build. I have rPi3B+ and newest Retropie, Mame 2003 and FBA. I understand it works with several games line Arkanoid and some driving games in Mame. What I haven’t found any info about is, if it works for scrolling through the gamelists in ES? I have some quite long lists and that feature alone would justify getting one. Any other thoughts about the Spintrak, use in other emulators?

[Lurker]

I've been eyeballing the Spin trak from Ultimarc and the Turbo Twist High low from Groovygamegear for some time now.

The high low is almost twice the price but does have the up and down function I want for Tron Deadly Disc . Its hard to justify that amount of cost for effectively one game, so I remain stuck among indecision.

Whoa is me side, from what I have read and seen since the spinner is just one axis of the mouse you should be able to scroll through items in a list. The tricky part is getting the spinner to orient correctly for the menu and the games. IE "Y" axis for a vertical list but "X" axis for a driving game.

I am not sure exactly the correct set up (see above lack of actual experience) but I think if you set it as a Y axis spinner and then in the needed games flip the input to the Y axis to see the spinner it would work.

[wstanek]

I have three reproduction cabinets with rPis that don't have a joystick to navigate Emulation Station. One is a Star Wars, and I really wanted to navigate the ES game list with the yoke, but it was way too jumpy. I maybe could have gotten it to work , but gave up and set the up/down to the one and two player start buttons on the panel (vertically arranged).

I recently finished a Tempest reproduction (control panel and spinner are original, interfaced with USB) and I did the same thing, made the UP and DOWN the one and two player buttons. I think you can set the up/down to work with a single axis +/-, but I didn't try it since I like how the button presses work. My other cab is a centipede with a trackball, ES navigated with buttons.

@Lurker I'm with you on that TT HL from GGG. Coveting it for years now. I'm working on my next cab, Mad Planets, that shares the Tron and D-o-Tron controls. I bought a new flight stick from Happ (trigger and two thumb buttons). I already have an old Slik Stik Tornado spinner. After examining the picture of the TTHL, I had the idea to simply house the Tornado with a bottom pressure spring and switches.

I would buy that TTHL if I didn't already have the Tornado. I think you guys just convinced me to get it though.

My Tempest cab was really only made for Tempest and Arkanoid and a few other games, but I was surprised how many driving games work really well with it. Super Sprint, Pole Position etc all play great with it.

I see both Groovy and Ultimarc offer mini wheels with their spinners. I think thats a way to go. You gotta get a spinner, but I don't think I'd recommend it for ES list navigation.

ws

[edmaul69]

I dont think you can as it is seen as a mouse.