Recommended PC dial controllers?

[Estebang]

I'm looking for a not terribly expensive, USB-compatible dial device for use with Arkanoid-style games and the like on MAME, but have no experience with such things. It would need to work with MAME, obviously.

I've heard that some speaker volume controllers can be mapped to analog mouse controls, would any of those be ideal?

[Fudoh]

I have used a Griffin Powermate for this purpose. But it's hard to set it up right and it needs lots of fiddling for every single game (also Gunbarich only supports digital controls....).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Yeah, it would've been great if Psikyo did use a dedicated rotary knob spinner setup with it's Gunbarich PCB. The Atari Games' Jamma PCB of "Off the Wall" supports both spinners and digital joystick support from the get-go.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Estebang]

Gunbarich was very clearly designed to use digital controls for that shmup feeling, so I'm not bothered about that.

Can you describe the fiddling in more detail, Fudoh?

[Fudoh]

you're basically using the Powermate to emulate a mouse input on a fixed horizontal axis. This works fine, but you have to adjust the sensitivity differently on each game. On the majority of games the sensitivity has to be set extremely low (several full turns to move the mouse pointer across the screen once (in windows)). This translates nicely to an arcade-like control in MAME (well I never actually used a rotary controller in the arcade, but I assume the control was done in a way, so you don't have to remove your hand from the controller knob for going full left and full right). Still I found the differences from game to game to be huge (in terms of sentivitiy requirements).

If you can find a cheap one, just give a try. I sold mine last year for 10 or 15 Euros.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Taito paddle controller for the DS ain't too shabby as it replicates a full-sized arcade spinner setup in minature form with the same heft and spinning speed (or gearing/flywheel setup) if spun really fast. Too bad only a handful of DS games support it though.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~