Rotary joystick game appreciation thread

[jnm23]

As I recall, these mysterious devices appeared in the mid eighties as an alternative to the twin joystick approach of Robotron

Employed by "run 'n gun" games, they allowed the player to rotate the direction of fire independently from the movement

For some reason the joysticks were always yellow

The examples I can think of are:

Ikari Warriors (SNK)
Victory Road (SNK)
Guerilla War (SNK)
Search and Rescue (SNK)
Midnight Resistance (DATA EAST)
Heavy Barrel (?)
Of these I think only IW, MR and (to a lesser extent) GW are well known

[Molloy]

I used to play Midnight Resistance on a rotary joystick. Can't remember how that affected the gameplay though. I just remember the game being (initially) rather tricky, and the weapons being ace.

edit: had a go on MAME there. It's ****ing hard to play on a keyboard. Went as far as the tree boss on the third level. Reminds me of watching other people playing it down the town arcade. Ahh, good times.

[MonkeyWrench]

My fave was Blasteroids. It used to be 10p a credit at my local arcade, give me a quid and I was sorted for the afternoon Also don't forget about 720?!

*EDIT*

A few more that have sprung to mind:

Cal. 50 (Romstar)
Time Soldiers (Romstar/SNK)
Forgotten Worlds (Capcom) <-- how could I have forgotten that one?!

[Mayhem]

And the grand-daddy of them all, Front Line

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7859

[jnm23]

have tried midnight resistance on MAME with my dualshock, but it seems the controls are too sensitive to allow use of L1 and R1 for rotation

[Kubrick]

Although, not a joystick as such. TRON had a rotary controller too.

[MattyD]

My childhood memory is very poor but I seem to remember Xybots had some kind of rotary yoke / stick thing?

[Mayhem]

Yep, though unlike the others, it just twitched left or right to turn, you couldn't spin it around like the others.

[dfq23]

Worked in an arcade in 1990 and sepent every break on Midnight Resistance till I could clear it on 1 credit. If only there was a way to play it with the proper control method

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

If only there was a way to play it with the proper control method

I don't get how people can say that. On the original cab, I think the control method is perfect.

[jnm23]

Originally Posted by dfq23
If only there was a way to play it with the proper control method

I don't get how people can say that. On the original cab, I think the control method is perfect.

i think he was referring to playing via emulation

have done some research on this, turns out victory road is ikari 2, and there's an ikari 3: the rescue (which looks pretty dire)

the thing i remember most about midnight resistance was that the bosses took about a million shots to kill

[Jaz]

Frontline

does not actually use a rotary in the strict sense. Its a one-off controller that you can press down to fire as well. Trust me on this, I own Frontline, Heavy Barrel, Midnight Resistance and Guerilla War arcade cabs