PP/PP2 Brakes or No Brakes

FrizzleFried

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Many many moons ago I picked up a few items for a driver MAME I was going to build. Among them is a Pole Position COCKPIT pedal set. The difference between the cockpit pedal set and the upright pedal set is that the cockpit pedal set has both brake and gas pedals while the upright only has gas (let off gas and that is the brake).

I came across the cockpit pedal set the other day and got to thinking that perhaps I'd drop the cockpit pedal set in to my PP upright... but wanted opinions. I am not sure if I have EVER played PP in a cockpit. Does the brake add anything to the game play? Anyone have experience enough with both to make any recommendations? I am about 99% sure I could swap the two sets without issue as I think I remember that the brake setting is a simple dip-switch option.

Opinions?
 
In my opinion, the break doesn't add anything to Pole Position (II). When I play Pole Position in a cockpit...the break is never used, Just letting off the gas gives plenty of "drag". With that said, I'd find it even more akward to use in a stand up. Also, the break isn't like the gas. The gas uses a pot for control...so you have degrees of speeding up and slowing down. The break is a micro switch. It's either on...or off.....no degrees of slowing down, a la real driving.

Edward
 
Many many moons ago I picked up a few items for a driver MAME I was going to build. Among them is a Pole Position COCKPIT pedal set. The difference between the cockpit pedal set and the upright pedal set is that the cockpit pedal set has both brake and gas pedals while the upright only has gas (let off gas and that is the brake).

I came across the cockpit pedal set the other day and got to thinking that perhaps I'd drop the cockpit pedal set in to my PP upright... but wanted opinions. I am not sure if I have EVER played PP in a cockpit. Does the brake add anything to the game play? Anyone have experience enough with both to make any recommendations? I am about 99% sure I could swap the two sets without issue as I think I remember that the brake setting is a simple dip-switch option.

Opinions?

Imagine how awkward 2 pedals standing up would feel? Regardless of what it effects I wouldn't recommend it.
 
Brakes

You could always use a stool for the upright with a brake. I played a PP cockpit recently and never even thought about the brake. The only reason you would ever need the brake would be for traffic and if you have to slow for them just drag your wheel in the stripes and it will slow down quick. Otherwise just keep the gas to the floor and dont slide the tires. If you use a brake, it will kill your score.
 
Imagine how awkward 2 pedals standing up would feel? Regardless of what it effects I wouldn't recommend it.

huh? If I'm interpreting you right, you should know that REAL drivers don't keep a foot on each pedal - you only use one foot and move it from pedal to pedal as needed.

Anyways, a brake is pretty much pointless on 99% of arcade driving games. Outrun has one, and I only used it during test mode to make sure the pots were calibrated. :D

I usually use the shifter as my brake. Works wonderfully in a virtual environment where you don't have to worry about dumping your transmission onto the interstate.
 
From a hardware standpoint, the brake pedal goes through the some analog to digital converter as the gas pedal. Suspect it was originally planned to an analog input and later changed to digital on/off. As others have noted, it makes so little difference to gameplay that they likely decided to just change it to a switch and include only in the sit-down version. Was always curious if variable braking was supported by the code, but never motivated enough to find out.
 
My upright Ride Racer II had a brake. It was a pain to use it. I ended up selling the game boards but kept the cab and added a dreamcast to it so I could play Crazy Taxi. Now it's a different game with still the same annoying pedals. It doesn't get played much because of the retarded pedals.
 
I guess the general consensus is that it's not worth it.

Interesting tidbit: Techs in the field often times replaced the pots in the PP gas pedal with a simple on/off switch... and did so evidently enough that the techs at Atari took notice and even made a suggestion to simply supply the games with switches instead of analog pots. I read that in an internal Atari memo on some site.
 
I guess the general consensus is that it's not worth it.

Interesting tidbit: Techs in the field often times replaced the pots in the PP gas pedal with a simple on/off switch... and did so evidently enough that the techs at Atari took notice and even made a suggestion to simply supply the games with switches instead of analog pots. I read that in an internal Atari memo on some site.

Yes, most arcade games should have been on/off switch based pedals...as long as they weren't those horrible pedals used on badlands. Seriously, who the hell thought up using a goo-filled rubber sack instead of a spring???
 
It's interesting to note that the upright has the cutout space for both the brake and gas, but Atari probably came to the same conclusion that nobody used it and so just didn't put it in to save money. Here's an interesting little doc from Atari for anyone installing one though:

http://www.brentradio.com/images/PolePosition/PolePosition2BrakeFix.jpg

I had this problem with mine and this fixed it.
 
huh? If I'm interpreting you right, you should know that REAL drivers don't keep a foot on each pedal - you only use one foot and move it from pedal to pedal as needed.

Anyways, a brake is pretty much pointless on 99% of arcade driving games. Outrun has one, and I only used it during test mode to make sure the pots were calibrated. :D

I usually use the shifter as my brake. Works wonderfully in a virtual environment where you don't have to worry about dumping your transmission onto the interstate.

Yeah I know, When I've driven I only use one foot(Yes real car). I'm just saying it would still be weird
 
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