It looks like there are some real good aftermarket spinners around from what I've seen. Of course it'd be nice to wire in an original Tempest spinner provided it is in good condition, but I've read that the feel of the Oscar spinners is pretty close.

I am still doing a lot of research to determine what I want to do for a MAME setup. I think I'm going to start by building a small and somewhat cheap arcade control setup for my PC. I REALLY like the the I-Pac interface which adapts arcade controls to USB in what looks to be a painless manner... Much less "ghetto" than hacking up keyboards and Sidewinder joysticks. The way it looks from what I've read, I could pretty much buy the controls, the I-Pac interface, start wiring things up, and have a working prototype in the course of a weekend. That's pretty nice. I've cut myself off at a $100 for this phase to see if I really want to dive into it.

If after that, the itch is still there, I'll think about some way of making a full cabinet happen in my new residence. At that point I could totally see myself getting way into this.. I already know what my dream control layout will look like if I had a cabinet, and with the interfaces that exist these days, there aren't really any limitations except space. I don't want to dive too far into this just yet though.

Speaking of Tempest, anyone tried out Tempest Tubes in MAME? Those levels are sick! I think I was born 10 years too late, I would have loved hacking into arcade machines back in the day.