I'm starting to price out pieces for my summer MAME project.  I wanna throw a couple of spinners in there and was wondering if anyone had a cheaper solution than these Spintrak spinners from ultimarc?  They're like $74 for the assembly, $14 for the knobs and $10 for the flywheel which is like $98 a spinner.

[url]http://www.ultimarc.com/JShopServer/section.php?xSec=6 [/url]

If this is the only solution I'll fork out the $200 for 2 spinners, but just wanted to see if any of you guys knew of any decent quality spinners that may run a little less (or even a cheaper palce to buy those Spintraks)

I have heard the TurboTwist Spinner by Groovy Gamegear is supposed to be the best because it's a high resolution spinner.  I've heard there are advantages to a USB2 spinner like the Ultimarc model but am unsure what they are, maybe it's their own version of "high resolution" (there website seems to indicate this), you'll have to read up on it, I recommend arcadecontrols.com as I believe they had a thread that compared the two.

Whatever the case, high resolution spinners are great because some games like arkanoid, you can indeed tell the difference.  I do not know the difference between the GGG and the Ultimarc and although I hear both are great business' who take care of their clients, I've had to deal several times with Andy (Ultimarc) and I KNOW he takes care of his customers.  Take that for what it's worth, but I'm sure Randy (GGG) is cool too.

Ok, now's the time for a disclaimer.  I own a Slikstick Tornado spinner (I believe it might be discontinued) and I love it. Yes, you can tell the difference between my spinner and a higher resolution spinner when playing a game like Arkanoid but with proper sensitivity adjustments in Mame, Arkanoid is still a lot of fun to play. So it comes down to what you are looking for:  near perfect accuracy, or just fun?  BUT since the price point of current quality spinners is very similar, I'd recommend you got for either of the two.  Although hi-resolution might be debatable, high quality is not, so go for the good stuff.

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Spinners

Oscar is no longer in business and  SlikStik vanished into the night, but I believe that both Happ and MAMERoom both stock the Tornado spinner.

The others are all available last I knew.

You might want to think long and hard about spinners.  I ordered 1 back in April from Happ and here's the results from my post over at CGCC.

Cost of spinner with knob from Happ $110.91 (canuck bucks) - not too bad
Add in their shipping and handling - total $141.40 (can)
Cost of UPS shipping with brokerage $55.47 - (call the proctologist, I've just had it put to me hard and dry and I'm reasonably sure I don't like it  )

Total $196.87  

The dollar is better now but that was for just 1 spinner and knob.

I think I have a bunch. and I am pretty sure I have a interface board too for the mame project

Quoted from b1buwg97

I think I have a bunch. and I am pretty sure I have a interface board too for the mame project

Wonder where some of them came from.  Hmmmmm!

mess, forgot about too...

I KNOW I have a bunch