Thoughts on the Aim-force recoil controller for Aimtrak

[Classicgamer]

I have been testing an Aim-force dongle from Arcade Guns this week. For those who don't know, it allows you to add full auto recoil and other adjustments to an Aimtrak gun that are not possible with the basic recoil kit.

I like what it does at a high level. It is useful to be able to set up the correct speed and recoil style on a game by game basis. You can set Terminator 2 to full auto and Time Crisis to semi auto etc. you can also adjust the speed, force and delay for each game on various emulators including mame, model 2 and model 3.

There are several limitations to be aware of though....

It only works with the Aimtrak guns and this is a huge problem due to their poor build quality. After a few minutes of playing Operation Thunderbolt there were loose bits of plastic chipped off the gun shell and rattling around inside. There is no rubber bumper inside an Aimtrak like there is on real arcade guns...

The solenoid that comes with Aimtrak guns (or their recoil kit) is too small and also of poor quality. It's ok for occasional semi auto use but it only took one game on full auto to destroy the coil and cause a burning plastic smell.

There is a heat control feature in the software but it is BS. There is no heat sensor in an Aimtrak. While the solenoid burnt up beyond repair and melted the gun shell, the software showed the heat to be just fine. Barely 10% of it's maximum.... it would be better to delete this misleading feature.

So.... while I like what the Aimforce does, my advice would be to plan on transferring your Aimtrak insides to a different (and much stronger) gun shell before using one. and... more importantly, I suggest buying a different solenoid for full auto. Preferably one rated for continuous use and one that uses less power and generates less heat...

The guy from Arcade guns said they are working on a new recoil controller that won't be limited to just Aimtrak guns. It might be worth waiting for that. One of my mame guns is a fixed Operation Thunderbolt arcade gun. It works much better than Aimtraks for games like op Thunderbolt and T2.