Whatever happened to that $99 force feedback wheel

The wheel is from ACT Labs and is called the FORCE RS. All force feedback companies are faced with a lawsuit by ATARI over the force feedback technology used in wheels so right now they are dealing with the lawsuit. Until the lawsuit is resolved we will see now force feedback wheels on the market. As soon as it is resolved expect to see a ton of wheels hit the market! Thanks John

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>A few months back, there was talk about a $99 force feedback wheel -- >darn, I can't remember the vendor name ... >But RAS was abuzz with threads on this subject... does anyone know if >this product acutally came out? Any reviews? Anyone got one? >Thanks... >Doug >p.s. What was the name of it?

A few months back, there was talk about a $99 force feedback wheel -- darn, I can't remember the vendor name ... But RAS was abuzz with threads on this subject... does anyone know if this product acutally came out? Any reviews? Anyone got one? Thanks... Doug p.s. What was the name of it?

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> A few months back, there was talk about a $99 force feedback wheel -- > darn, I can't remember the vendor name ... > But RAS was abuzz with threads on this subject... does anyone know if > this product acutally came out? Any reviews? Anyone got one? > Thanks... > Doug > p.s. What was the name of it?

The name of the company is Acts Labs

>The wheel is from ACT Labs and is called the FORCE RS. All force feedback >companies are faced with a lawsuit by ATARI over the force feedback >technology used in wheels so right now they are dealing with the lawsuit. >Until the lawsuit is resolved we will see now force feedback wheels on the >market. As soon as it is resolved expect to see a ton of wheels hit the >market! That's interesting. Do you have a link for a story on the suit? I'm curious, because Sega had feedback in Outrun. I can't remember which was out first, Hard Drivin' (Atari) or Outrun. Thanks! -- Tim - remove REMOVE to e-mail

I havent heard the name Atari in ages... last I saw was the jaguar system and their stock price of about $4.00 a share ;) I wasnt even sure they were still in the "game". Scott B. Husted http://home.ptd.net/~sbhusted

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> >The wheel is from ACT Labs and is called the FORCE RS. All force feedback > >companies are faced with a lawsuit by ATARI over the force feedback > >technology used in wheels so right now they are dealing with the lawsuit. > >Until the lawsuit is resolved we will see now force feedback wheels on the > >market. As soon as it is resolved expect to see a ton of wheels hit the > >market! > That's interesting. Do you have a link for a story on the suit? > I'm curious, because Sega had feedback in Outrun. > I can't remember which was out first, Hard Drivin' (Atari) or Outrun. > Thanks! > -- > Tim - remove REMOVE to e-mail

Well, I think they pretty much soured on the home market after the Lynx and Jaguar failed. They were actually both pretty good machines hurt by poor marketing in my opinion. I'm not real big on the arcade scene, but I think Atari is still a presence there. Isn't the San Francisco Rush driving game by Atari? Thats a pretty cutting edge game. Hard Drivin', which I mentioned, is an arcade game with force feedback. That's the one I'm thinking is the basis for the suit. I also heard a while back that Atari was going to make actual driving simulators for schools based on the Hard Drivin' game. I don't know if they were ever produced or not, though. I thought they had a Chuckie Cheese affiliation through Nolan Bushnell too, but I'm not real sure. -- Tim - remove REMOVE to e-mail

Man, I almost went out and bought an Atari Jaguar when it came out. It never got much 3rd party support, and they didn't make many games for it. Then, the Saturn and PSX came out, and the Jaguar was history. Pretty glad I didn't get one. Oh well, back to the 'ol Sega Genesis <g>. -- Please remove nospam from address when replying via e-mail.

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> A few months back, there was talk about a $99 force feedback wheel -- > darn, I can't remember the vendor name ... > But RAS was abuzz with threads on this subject... does anyone know if > this product acutally came out? Any reviews? Anyone got one? > Thanks... > Doug > p.s. What was the name of it?

ACT Labs is the name of the company. I have e-mailed them, and they responded that they held off on releasing the wheel to fine tune it. They expect it be available first quarter '98. Their page:........ ACT Labs -- ||||||| Vince Savage ` o..o ' ''''

On Tue, 16 Dec 1997 19:08:26 GMT, "Scott B. Husted" >I havent heard the name Atari in ages... last I saw was the jaguar >system and their stock price of about $4.00 a share ;) I wasnt even >sure they were still in the "game". Go to your local Arcade and play San Francisco RUSH Extreme Racing made by Atari. It's top fun when driving against others. The arcade machine uses 3Dfx chips for the graphics. Can't wait for the conversion

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>A few months back, there was talk about a $99 force feedback wheel -- >darn, I can't remember the vendor name ... >But RAS was abuzz with threads on this subject... does anyone know if >this product acutally came out? Any reviews? Anyone got one? >Thanks... >Doug >p.s. What was the name of it?

ACT Labs Force RS. There was rumour of an Atari law suit, I tried getting a response from them but as yet no luck. Interestingly, if the suite is in regard to Force feedback (which is just plain stupid) then why hasn't the non-Force RS been released? It was to be out by Christmas, however it isn't. If you look at their web site you will see 'Coming Soon' under the online store. But if you go to Immersive Inc (the company responsible for the force feedback side of the Force RS) then you will see a date of January 1998. kane

Apols read that as early 98

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>>A few months back, there was talk about a $99 force feedback wheel -- >>darn, I can't remember the vendor name ... >>But RAS was abuzz with threads on this subject... does anyone know if >>this product acutally came out? Any reviews? Anyone got one? >>Thanks... >>Doug >>p.s. What was the name of it? >ACT Labs Force RS. >There was rumour of an Atari law suit, I tried getting a response from them >but as yet no luck. Interestingly, if the suite is in regard to Force >feedback (which is just plain stupid) then why hasn't the non-Force RS been >released? >It was to be out by Christmas, however it isn't. If you look at their web >site you will see 'Coming Soon' under the online store. But if you go to >Immersive Inc (the company responsible for the force feedback side of the >Force RS) then you will see a date of January 1998. >kane

I bought an Amiga CD32; all the games were just straight ports from Amiga 1200 ones, but still it was an exciting machine to own when it first came out. Sank pretty quick though! -- Dave Bowers

> The wheel is from ACT Labs and is called the FORCE RS. All force feedback > companies are faced with a lawsuit by ATARI over the force feedback > technology used in wheels so right now they are dealing with the lawsuit. >> A few months back, there was talk about a $99 force feedback wheel -- I don't actually know if there is a lawsuit going on, but I do know that Atari has a good patent on force feedback as applied to driving simulation games (I consulted for the Hard Drivin' development team, and my friends have their name on the patent, assigned to Atari). At the present time, I am aware of one company that sells a motor+wheel assembly for arcade games -- the price of each assembly includes a license fee to Atari. -- Doug Milliken Research Associates Inc.