A super quick (reversible) method of turning any USB optical mouse into a spinner or paddle for use with your favorite retro gaming emulators and play bat and ball style games (like Pong, Arkanoid).
I had the idea for this while exploring options to convert my Atari 2600 paddles and C64 ones. I saw a few examples in the retro community where people were modifiying their original paddles using the parts from an old USB optiical mouse and solderding paddle buttons directly to the pcb.
Rather than mess with either an original paddle or breaking apart a perfectly good functioning usb mouse, i thought heck why not just make something that could slip over a normal mouse to add some extra retro gaming features.
Disclaimer: While initially I thought i'd come up with a pretty original cool idea, once i started scanning the web to see if anyone else had used this idea before, I found few variations on the flipping-a-mouse-over-and-sticking-on-something-'wheel like' (there is also a nice hackaday article on someone made a tron controller).
HOWEVER this one is super quick to make, entirely reversable, and uses parts that most of people should have lying around nearby or easy to get access to. You could easily adapt it further using high quality parts and make the spinner more permanent (possibly even spend hours making a 3d printable something) - but heck, as it stands this works as a low-fi method for casual paddle/spinner gaming.
How it looks:
Parts:
- 1 x Valcro One-Wrap Reusable Ties / Or any reusable cable tie (any color) = 25mm x 200mm (this is just enough to get around the mouse)
- 1 x USB Mouse
- 1 x Container Lid (the one I used is from an plastic milk bottle) = 40mm Diameter
- 1 x Screw (preferably with needle point to make a hole in plastic lid and with screw head that is 'flat')
Tools: Screw driver Somethign to make a hole in the lid.
Steps to make
-
Find centre of lid and create small hole (note:the blue-tack smudge in the pic was left over from earlier test)
-
Create small hole in Reusable Ties
-
Gently screw and fasten the lid to the reusable tie
The lid should move fairly freely whilst still being fastened by the screw. You may like to add in a nut but i found this wasn't necessary.
Play Game:
- Make sure your favourite game supports mouse
- Fire up the game = Strap on the spinner onto your favourite ergonomic mouse
- Turn the mouse up-side-down (gripping it tightly in the palm of your hand!)
- Have fun!