Playstation rotary controller
The two playstation Tempest versions are fun and I'm glad Nyko made a trackball for them, but part of me always wanted a spinning rotary controller so it would be more like the arcade. One day after opening a trackball and poking around, it hit me that the encoder for the Y-axis could do the job if it was mounted to a spinning mechanism.
It took awhile, but eventually found another trackball (no way I was giving up missile command and centipede!), and bought a stepper motor assembly in an electronic supply. The motor was a nice find because the shaft and the bottom part spun together and it was heavy enough that it would keep spinning after being let go (like the arcade version). The shaft was thick and grooved so was able to attach it to a spare 2600 paddle knob with epoxy. Also used epoxy to glue the motor board into the trackball top case. Btw, it was my first time using epoxy, that stuff really smells nasty.
Superglued an inch long piece of tube to the bottom of the motor, than glued the slotted encoder disc to that. For the encoder pickup, I mounted it using a high-tech organic cross strut (aka popsicle stick). The bottom of the trackball case needed to be cut out to make everthing fit, so I glued on four stand-offs for some height and a sheet of plastic to cover and protect everything. The plastic came from a see-through cd case, so also get to show it off to people.
This controller works for the following psx games:
- Tempest X3
- Breakout
- Arcade Greatest Hits Atari: Tempest
- Arcade Greatest Hits Atari: Super Breakout
Sadly, the Pong game doesn't work because it wasn't programmed for mouse support.
According to the Gamefaq's Tempest X3 Secrets, you can unlock a hidden version of Tempest 2000 by getting the high score and entering your name as: YIFF!
Someday, I'm gonna see if this controller can be used with a Jaguar also. Why does finishing one project always make you think of one or two other ones to do?
