SpaceOrb 360?

[Contractor]

Does anyone know of a way to get the old serial spaceorb 360 working with modern games? There used to be a kit you could buy to make it USB and useable but it ins't available for purchase any longer. I think it used an arduino kit or something. Can anyone shed any light on this or another way to make it work?

The spaceorb 360 rocked with Descent back in the day!

TIA!

[lpnlizard27]

The kit your thinking about used to be made by Grendel, i don't know if he still goes by that name as its been at least 10- 15 years or more since i even seen them in forums.

Try some of the old descent forums you might get lucky.

Your best bet is to figure out the pathing on a kit yourself or put that space orb back in the closet

[Contractor]

you made me cry

[Contractor]

Wow thanks Blart! So this sounds achieveable?! I guess I should ask if Overload will support the thing? I was reading that the Spaceord 360 requires 10 per second polling or something for minute control and is only available if supported by the game? I'll paruse the links you sent me. Keep in mind that last time I played Descent in VR and the spaceorb was win 95/98 and the VFX-1 HMD. If this works it will mean only a 22 year wait for a graphics update lol

[Revival Productions]

We haven't tested the Space Orb. We use an interface layer called Rewired. If they support it, it should work in the current builds.

[Contractor]

No point anyway. The orbshield is long discontinued and I haven't found anything else that will make it work. Shame.. ..

[Contractor]

Beyond my skillset unfortunatley. Sounds like theres a demand for them. Enough for a fellow with the skill and tools to order up enough parts for ten kits. Just sayin' :)

[Contractor]

Any word or a contact to buy or to have some build me 1 - 2 units? I miss this controller and i thinik it would work awesome as i did with orginal descent back in the day *drrool~*

[Lu2]

cool controler. i would like to try one

[Hyper Sonic]

3DMice (6DOF joysticks) work well in this and other games, basically 1 handed SpaceOrbs.

[Contractor]

Thanks for the feedback. It's still not the same. The SpaceOrb 360 was incedible with Quake in VR back in the day. Would really like to have this working with a modern O/S again. If I had the soldering skills etc I'd be all over this. From the earlier links it looks like it's quite doable although I'm not sure if I would need the exact older 'arduino' unit or not.

[Hyper Sonic]

With Orb you only have 6 buttons, with a 3DMouse you have the entire keyboard for the other hand. Moreover you can only press 4 of those buttons at a time as the thumb can only be over 1 pair of buttons at a time.

[Contractor]

Ahhh gotcha. I wasn't thnking about just sitting experiences. With the VFX1 I usually played standing up. Resolution aside it was pretty immersive. I wonder if Oculus or Vive looked at the original Forte CyberPuck controller when trying to come up with VR controllers.

Like the cyberpuck the Orb 360 gave you that sensation of being self-contained, almost like an extension of yourself.

I'm not into CAD or anything but what would you reccoment as a 3d mouse/joystick reasonably priced for a gamer?

[Hyper Sonic]

SpaceMouse compact or SpaceMouse WIreless seem like good choices, between $100-$150. I've been using the Space Navigator, but the SpaceMouse is probably better than the Navigator, possibly stiffer springs.

[Contractor]

Thanks Player. Appreciate your comments! Game on..

[Hyper Sonic]

Anytime, I hope it works well! Depending on the stiffness of the springs you might have to somehow clamp to the desktop. WIth SpaceOrb your other hand basically acts as a clamp. Can't overstretch 3DMouse springs thanks to the stoppers.

With your other hand totally free from movement control (6DOF 3DMouse takes care of those) you have alot more button/keys available for other functions.

A curved keyboard would be usefull. With the Orb you could essentially control 2 buttons with one finger. You could do the same with a keyboard if it was curved.