Re: Prototype Major Havoc Roller (from long ago...)

I always wondered why Atari had to build these the way they did. You would
think any engineer halfway into making something that would last would have
just put a shaft through the large roller itself and put a ball bearing at
either end and a high resolution optical (or better yet, Hall-effect) encoder
on the same shaft. But instead you have a free-floating large roller loosely
laying on a pair of shafts. More stuff to wear out, twice the bearings, and
for what! All that to MECHANICALLY increase the resolution of the encoder.

I suppose it was a limitation brought about by what was available back then,
but it seems so easy now to make one of these that would be maintenance-free
and would never (in the games' lifetime) wear out.

Clay Cowgill wrote:

> Ok, so in reality I just got a new toy (a Kodak DC-280 digital camera) and
> I'm dying for something to use it on, so this little webpage is the result.
> ;-)
>
> http://www.multigame.com/mh_controller.html
>
> It *is* kinda interesting to see though.
>
> -Clay
>
> P.S. I'm going to stop worshipping the TiVo for a while and build a little
> shrine for the DC-280. This thing just takes *amazing* pictures. Click on
> the "huge" image link on the page. That's a lot of pixels. Please let me
> know if anything's broken on the webpage...
> ______________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>
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--
Windows:
32 bit graphical interface for a
16 bit patch for an
8 bit operating system written for a
4 bit processor by a
2 bit company that can't stand
1 bit of competition.
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