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The Final Roundup: A Spinner Comparison Chart and Some Final Thoughts
The Comparison Chart
The following chart is the result of completely objective reporting. At least, that's what I'd like to say. The honest truth is that judging the “feel” of a spinner, by nature, boils down to my own personal opinion. I tried to judge the spinners on a number of different criteria using a 5-point scale. Aside from the objective numbers (spin time & Tempest settings), the rest of this chart is pure personal opinion, but it's at least opinion based on side-by-side comparison.
The “Design” rating is my own opinion on how well designed a spinner is, specifically from the perspective of using it as a general purpose MAME spinner. The factors that made up my design rating were such things as the sturdiness of the design, smoothness of the spin, overall “feel” during gameplay, installation footprint, and more. (This rating doesn't actually reflect the engineering excellence of a spinner, by the way — the Oscar Push/Pull spinner, for example, is marvelously engineered, but its design rating is lower than some of the other spinners because of the size of the spinner and the slower spin and slight wobble.)
The “Tempest” setting is the lowest analog sensitivity setting in MAME where I saw evidence of “backspin” when the spinner was spun very rapidly. If you haven't used a spinner, let me explain a bit about what backspin is, exactly. Basically, if a spinner spins faster than the encoder can recognize, the encoder may get “confused” about which direction the encoder wheel is moving — the end result is that the onscreen pointer/character will suddenly reverse direction in the middle of a fast spin. It may even reverse direction a couple of times, leaving you with a paddle or character suddenly “jumping” back and forth onscreen.
The lower the sensitivity setting, the more sensitive the spinner encoder was, which is (for the most part) a good thing. None of the spinners exhibited any backspin that could not be corrected by adjusting the sensitvity settings.
MAME Spinner Comparison Chart |
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|
Tron Spinner |
Oscar Pro |
Oscar Push/Pull |
Oscar Model 3 |
Oscar Vortex | SlikStik Tornado |
Tempest Spinner |
Spin time (secs) |
3 | 7 | 4/3* | 5 | 10 | 3 min. 5 sec. | 5 |
Spin start weight |
4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
Direction change weight |
4.5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
Quick stop from spin |
4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
Backspin level |
50 | 40 | 40 | 70 | 30 | 55 | 25 |
Wobble |
3 | 0 | 3/1* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Design |
3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
Installation |
n/a | 4 | 3 | 2/4** | 5 | 5 | 4 |
* With Optional Sleeve Bearing Installed
**With Optional Metal Mounting Plate
Conclusion
This is going to be a difficult section for me, since I'm not really sure what to conclude. All of the spinners performed well — there isn't a bad one in the bunch, and they'd all be good choices for a MAME control panel. Common home-brew spinner problems like backspin really weren't a problem at all with any of these spinners. Even the problems I've mentioned in this roundup are all small ones — none of them was a show-stopper, so to speak.
The Workshop After a Hard Day of Spinner Testing
Currently, I'm using the SlikStik Tornado assembly with the SlikStik Skirted knob (with so many knobs to choose from, I find myself swapping them out quite often). The SlikStik skirted is a great all-around combination knob for almost every spinner game in MAME, and as a Tempest-fanatic I love the quick, smooth, and silent spin of the Tornado.
With my current control panel layout I can't fit the Vortex or Push/Pull spinners — if I had the room, the Oscar Vortex would be an excellent spinner choice, and in many ways it comes a bit closer to the true "arcade" feel than the Tornado.
If you haven't done so already, check out the 3-minute Video Preview I made to show each of these spinners in action. It should help you to make a decision about which spinner is right for you. In the end, I hope this “Roundup” provides you with enough information for you to make your own informed decision about which spinner you want to “take for a spin.”
