Aaron Kamrowski, Tuesday, 27 November 2007
 From the hallowed halls of Gameroom Magazine's Digital Archive comes Aaron Kamrowski's review of the Ultimarc SpinTrak.
If you're on the fence about this spinner and are looking for more info, Aaron brings you the real deal on the pro's and con's of this little number. Sit back, relax, and have a read. You might discover something new.
Ultimarc Spintrak
The Ultimate Arcade Spinner?
Aaron Kamrowski
Originally Published in Gameroom Magazine, September 2007
Taking One For a Spin
One thing I’ve seen Ultimarc do again and again is design innovative products and controls. I have always been impressed with their technical expertise and willingness to take care of their customer even when the customer asks for information or tries to use their product in ways they may not have designed for. For this reason, I always look forward to see what Ultimarc will come up with next.
Why do I need a spinner?  Spinners, spinners, spinners. I remember when I was designing my control panel thinking, “do I really need a spinner?”
Honestly, the only spinner game I really liked playing at the time was Tempest, but what a game it is. Enough so that I thought my control panel would truly be lacking without it. This was well before the SpinTrak I will be reviewing in this article was available, so my only experience with a spinner before the SpinTrak is the one on my control panel which is an Oscar Controls’ Vortex. It is a reproduction of the original Tempest spinner, and I’ll make a few comparisons as we go along.
Introduction  Ultimarc SpinTrak with USB Interface
The first thing you’ll notice about the SpinTrak is that it isn’t called a spinner by default. As purchased it is a “super high resolution low intertia trackwheel”. What does this mean? Well a couple things, first, by default you don’t have a fly-weight. One of the characteristics of a spinner is that once you get it spinning it tends to spin awhile depending on the amount of fly-weight attached to it. Without a fly-weight attached, you can expect it to stop fairily quickly, but in this case the spinner top itself contains enough weight (despite being fairily light as it is made of alumunum) to let the SpinTrak spin a few revolutions if you start it and let go. Ultimarc offers a small or large flyweight which you can attach to the bottom of the SpinTrak which greatly increases the amount of kinetic energy it can store and use to keep spinning longer. I’ve even seen some websites claim how great their spinner is by how long (in minutes!) it can spin before stopping. I don’t really know what the point of that is, but I can say that different fly-weights greatly affect the feel of the spinner which makes all the difference in playing a game. One nice touch is that Ultimarc sends out the appropriate allen key for these items so you won’t have to fumble through a toolbox to find them. My favorite spinner top is the blue skirted one in the upper right. The two fly-weight sizes are shown at the bottom of this picture.
Probably my second most favorite “spinner” game to play is Arkanoid. I put “spinner” in quotes because Arkanoid is technically a “dial” game according to MAME, which means that it had a minimum and maximum position. Ultimarc’s website indicates that you would want to use no flyweight for Arkanoid and that the SpinTrak’s high resolution of 1000 transitions per revolution makes this the perfect control for Arkanoid. Arkanoid used some sort of gearing to accomplish its high resolution. I’ve never actually played a real Arkanoid so I am used to playing it with a spinner and heavy fly-weight, it will be interesting to see how it feels with the SpinTrak in “low interia tackwheel” mode (no fly-weight).
 Ultimarc SpinTrak with USB Interface
You can purchase the SpinTrak with or without the USB interface. If you get the model without it, you will need a product like an OptiPac or MiniPac. Ultimarc offers seven different spinner tops for it on their website, and they are genuine SlikStik Tornado spinner tops. It is also a sealed construction with dual sealed ball-bearings to prevent dust from getting in the works.
 Footprint Comparison to Oscar Vortex (Tempest Clone)
One very nice feature of this spinner is its low footprint. Trying to fit all the controls I had on my panel (a standard Ms. Pac-Man upright sized panel) was difficult, to say the least! The Vortex I have has a very large footprint and it was a tight fit. The SpinTrak on the other hand is extremely compact. I would think you could fit it just about anywhere there is room to consider a spinner.
Let’s try it out
The first unit I received had an odd problem, the USB interface spun the wrong way in horizontal mode. If you turned it clockwise it would go left. It did work properly in vertical mode, so it must have been an issue with the USB board. A quick message to Andy at Ultimarc and he had a replacement shipped out which worked perfectly. One thing I can’t say enough about is Andy’s willingness to take care of his customers. I’ve contacted him on various things I wanted to do with his products, things he never designed them to do, and he has always been top notch in helping me accomplish my goal.
 Mounted On A Test Panel  Closeup Of The USB Interface
You can really tell the SpinTrak has high accuracy, as small movements move the arrow very little distance, but spin it and it really moves. The first thing I noticed about this spinner is how incredibly smooth it is. My Vortex, by comparison, has more play in the shaft and is a little more picky if you don’t have it oiled well. The SpinTrak is certainly nicer in that you don’t have to worry about maintenance.
So I started with Tempest. The first thing I had to do was change the MAME sensitivity down to 10%! The resolution of the SpinTrak was much too high for what Tempest needed and I’ve read before that 180 degrees on the control should yield 3 full movements of the player. Once that was adjusted it played great. I prefer the heaviest flyweight myself, but that just may be what I am used to.
Arkanoid
 I’ve read in forums that Arkanoid takes 120 degrees of the spinner to move from one side of the playfield to the other side. I had to drop MAME’s sensitivity setting down to 60% from the default 150% to make the player move across the entire playfield. Arkanoid is not known to be an easy game, but I was instantly impressed with the accuracy of the SpinTrak. I was playing much better than usual and the player moved from left to right very smoothly and easily. I played it with the heaviest fly-weight attached because that is the feel I like in a spinner (what I am used to), but I think Arkanoid didn’t have a fly-weight and used gearing to obtain its high resolution.
I would say it is designed for wood control panels as the shaft sticks up 1 5/8” from the top on the SpinTrak. With one of the spinner tops, the bottom of the spinner top is 15/16” from the top of the spinner so it is probably ideal for a CP that is 1/2” to 3/4” thick. I would think if you have a metal control panel that you would have to cut the shaft down.
I got out my trusty test control panel. It isn’t too pretty, but it does a good job for this type of testing. I went ahead and drilled a couple holes to mount it where the joystick is usually mounted and getting it in was a snap.
I tested two SpinTraks to see how they would do, and they were a snap. Plug them both in and Windows XP detects them. Both spinners control the mouse pointer by default, but you can easily assign one spinner in MAME to player 1 and the second to player 2.
Pricing and Options - SpinTrak (no USB interface) $67
- SpinTrak (USB interface) $74
- Alloy Spinner Top (6 Models) $14
- Flyweight (2 Weights) $10
- If you already have a Mini-PAC or Opti-PAC then you don’t need the USB interface.
Conclusion
As usual I am impressed with quality of Ultimarc’s products. The SpinTrak is very smooth, easy to install, configure, and use. I especially like the high resolution and con- figurability the SpinTrak offers. If I were to build a multiple person spinner control panel, I would look no further as the extremely small footprint of the SpinTrak allows it to fit in almost any control panel.
Pros:
- USB board option makes it very easy to implement.
- Sealed construction does not need lubrication or offer places for dirt to enter.
- Very compact footprint for a spinner.
- Extremely smooth gameplay.
- Extremely high resolution.
- Two fly-weight sizes available or run it with no flyweight an option.
- Very nice high quality spinner tops.
Cons:
- It would be nice to see a package deal where you can select a SpinTrak with an allow spinner top and choice of fly-weight at a package price.
- Would be nice if a metal control panel model was offered with an appropriate shaft length as well.
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