8-Way joystick modification to MAME

1) ~~Make MAME work with an 8-Way joystick~~ - COMPLETED 4/16/2002
2) Make MAME work properly with an 8-WAY joystick
    - ~~set up all the controls in the 720º driver file, rather than inputprt.~~ - COMPLETED 2/23/2002
    - Set it up as a cheat (flag it?) - check out cheats first
    - Separate drivers for each control type - Combat School (trackball) and a Combat School (joystick)
    - keep the analog menu, set the movement a bit slower instead of jerking straight into any of the 8 positions
3) Add a new control type - not a dial, not a trackball, but a circular spinner joystick, so that the controls for an 8-way joystick and for the original arcade controller will be handled. I'd just have to figure out how to avoid wrecking it for mouse input.

The actual 720º arcade joystick

1) ~~Make a good description page~~
2) ~~Try putting very few teeth on the encoder wheel for the original 720º joystick (NEWS - Should be OK with the large encoder wheel and proper MAME settings)~~(Opti-Pac worked perfectly) - DEEMED FOOLISH 5/2/2002
3) ~~Connect a mouse w/2 axes (Opti-Pac)~~ - COMPLETED 5/2/2002
4) ~~Alter MAME to deal with 2nd axis~~

Build your own 720º spinner

1) Test a single-disc spinner in MAME - can it work well?
2) 'OSCAR spinner with a second disk underneath and a hole drilled into the knob'?

Website

1) ~~Add pictures of the joystick disassembled~~ - COMPLETED 4/19/2002

Other Ideas

1) Analog joystick - convert to degrees
2) Perfect 360' joystick? What is a P360 joystick? (It's just an 8-way joystick that uses optic sensors so there's no 'click' or pressure)
3) Build a 16-way joystick
4) Joystick handle coming out of a trackball/mouseball - would need to calibrate itself
5) (Lilwolf's suggestion from BYOAC) - Move the mouse in circles and use the angle from point to point to simulate the spinning motion