Let's define some terms, first.
Ultimarc: Ultimarc is a producer of hardware components that people use to make MAME cabinets (a full-sized arcade cabinet configured to play games through the MAME emulator).
Opti-Pac: a small board, produced by Ultimarc, that allows you to hook up a number of trackballs and/or spinners, to your PC through a USB cable.
Major Havoc: A color vector arcade game from the early 80s that did not do well financially. Dedicated MH cabinets go for thousands of dollars, and a game that was converted into MH are rather pricey as well. MH, in addition to being rare, used a roller for left right movement, instead of a joystick or spinner. (There is a kit to convert Tempest to Major Havoc, and in those cases, Tempest's spinner is used.)
Roller: a translucent that allows for movement along one axis. RAM Controls made a perfect reproduction of this device.
Happ Red Board: The roller uses a little circuit board to relay data outwards. The roller included the red board. Unfortunately, the pins aren't labeled on the Happ red board.
... OK, we're off!
I bought the Major Havoc roller from RAM Controls a few months ago. While the transaction ultimately went OK for me (I bought it through eBay) I know that they have shut their eBay account down because of negative feedback relating to shipping items.
I don't have the whole story, and my transaction was satisfactory, so I am not going to trash them. If you have a roller, then that's great and we'll ultimately find that it works really well. You cannot fault the craftsmanship of the device in any way. It even includes a little light bulb, to project light through the translucent roller itself.
The Ultimarc Opti-Pac is a circuit board that allows you to hook up trackballs, spinners and rotary devices to your computer. It's about six inches long. It does not need a Windows driver. Here is a photo (click for a larger version):
http://picasaweb.google.com/robb.sherwi ... 3472270914
There were two main hoops to jump through in getting this working:
1) What settings should the Opti-Pac have in order to be recognized by Windows?
2) How should the wires go, from the Opti-Pac to the Happ red board? (Unhelpfully, the pins on the Happ red board aren't labeled. Fucking Happ.)
As of writing this, I have the Opti-Pac working in USB mode for my laptop, but not my main PC. The MAME computer is still just a head floating around in space, so I can't tell how it will react.
"He's just a head, floating around in space!" -- Kup
I have the following jumper settings
- USB for both player one and two
- Rotary on an A/LO setting
The roller, using a Happ red board, went as follows from left to right, looking at the thing dead on with the wheel behind the pins:
X2 - GND - +5 - X1
Now, you can reverse the wires on the X axis pins to get it to spin the opposite direction.
Here is a pic of that:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robb.sherwi ... 3537042002
