Thoughts on Dreamcast Steering Wheels?

[racketboy]

What brands/models have you had experience with?
And what were your thoughts on them?
Give me the good and the bad

Thanks!

[GagaMan]

The only one I've tried was the official one and I didn't really like it, mainly because the pedals are these odd flap things on the back of the wheel rather than proper foot pedals, and the button layout was a tad confusing especially as they are all the same colour on it.

[Niode]

Don't think I've ever enjoyed using a wheel before the first batch of Force Feedback (NOT rumble/vibration) wheels came out.

Just don't see the point if you have no resistance on the wheel. If you are going for arcade authenticity it needs force feedback so I just don't see the point in them. I tried the official one and hated it. It doesn't have any pedals, the wheel feels loose, it's insubstantial, it moves around when put on a table, it moves around on your knee and there's no way to fix it to anything.

I didn't try the officially licensed Ferrari wheel by Thrustmaster but some people tend to prefer it. However it suffers from the same downfalls as the official wheel except that it has a central clamping plate for mounting.

[ubelaffe]

These are pretty rare. I've only ever seen one...definitely never got to use one, though.

[marurun]

I would think even without force feedback it would allow easier control in racers than the analog stick. That's what I'm hoping.

[Niode]

I would think even without force feedback it would allow easier control in racers than the analog stick. That's what I'm hoping.

It is slightly but it's not spectacular. The official wheel is sloppy. It just feels mushy when you turn it. You might have better luck with the Thrustmaster (that makes me laugh everytime, If I ever went into porn I think my name would be Hans Thrüstmeister). It doesn't have any pedals, just some flappy paddles on the back of the controller like the official one.

Getting a wheel does help for games like F355 but for the more arcadey racers you're better off sticking with the controller, you have more control over your accel/brake. The only thing you're going to be improving on with a wheel is smoother turning. Being able to hold your wheel at a certain point is far better than on a controller. However on F355 if you aren't fully locking the wheel on large corners you aren't using your accel/brake properly anyway so in some ways a wheel will actually decrease your performance until you get used to putting full lock on all the time (except in mild corners and positioning obv)

[crux]

I don't own any wheels for Dreamcast, but I think I've heard the Mad Catz MC2 Racing Wheel is one of the best of the bunch. The official wheel is well known to be of little use.

[marurun]

Well, the official and the Thrustmeister (*chuckle*) are just about impossible to find. The MadCatz and a couple Interact models seem to be the most available. Anyone have any experience with these?

[Beak]

I actually ordered a wheel for the Dreamcast. I should get it soon; I'll post when it arrives.

[Beak]

Got my Dreamcast wheel today!

It's a Concept 4 Racing Wheel.

Man, it's really nice. The gas and break pedals both give good resistance, but are made of plastic so I'm afraid to quickly stomp on the break on a turn or something, like you could in a real car. The wheel itself is nice too. It has some resistance and is pretty damn attractive for what I was expecting. There's a nice rubber grip all around the wheel and the wheel is 10" in diameter. It has a good layout of the basic buttons on the front of the wheel (A, B, X, Y, control-pad) so it's not a pain at all to use them when racing. The whole thing weighs more than a few pounds which is a plus too.

It's not just a hollow piece of plastic in the shape of a wheel, it feels much more like a wheel than I expected. There are suction cups on the bottom (which you can remove) which lets the wheel remain in place when on a table. The rumble feature is good; I'm not sure how it works, whether the rumble memory pack is doing all the rumbling on its own, but damn does the wheel shake, more than a controller shakes with a rumble pack; on games like Crazy Taxi it rumbles with the car engine when idling--cool!

All in all, I'm very satisfied. The only test I have to give it left is survivability; let's see how it stands up to time!