Do light guns not work on the Atari 400?

[Serious]

I'm considering parting with my XEGS, and I was going through my loose carts to see which would work on my Atari 400.

 

I was surprised that Bug Hunt appears to work. Appears is the key word. Using XE light guns, my shots would register as firing, but I was unable to register a hit on any target on the screen.

 

I tried with two different XE light guns, and got the same result.

 

Do light guns not work on the 400? Or is this a more likely a software compatibility issue with the Bug Hunt cartridge on the Atari 400?

 

 

[+Allan]

What kind of display are you using? The light guns won't work on modern TVs.

 

Allan

[Serious]

What kind of display are you using? The light guns won't work on modern TVs.

 

Allan

 

It is a 36" CRT NTSC television.

 

However, that is still interesting to know; another reason to keep my CRTs.

[BillC]

I'm considering parting with my XEGS, and I was going through my loose carts to see which would work on my Atari 400.

 

I was surprised that Bug Hunt appears to work. Appears is the key word. Using XE light guns, my shots would register as firing, but I was unable to register a hit on any target on the screen.

 

I tried with two different XE light guns, and got the same result.

 

Do light guns not work on the 400? Or is this a more likely a software compatibility issue with the Bug Hunt cartridge on the Atari 400?

 

 

Probably due to the following information I found on Atarimania, I believe the same is true for the 800:

 

 

James Bradford mentions:

"On the 400, the light gun /pen will only work in joystick port 4."

This renders much light gun and light pen software unusable on the 400.

[+Allan]

That's the only thing I can think of. As far as I know the 400 shouldn't be any different than the other Atari's when using the light gun. It's weird that both guns don't work. Maybe try changing the brightness/contrast on your TV if you can.

 

Allan

[+Allan]

I guess BillC's quote explains it. Never knew that. I wonder if that's true for the light pen as well.

 

Allan

[Rybags]

Try joystick Port 4. Supposedly light gun only works on that port on 400 and only if the software supports it.

[sup8pdct]

You will need to use gun and pen in port 4 in 400 only and trigger in port 1, ie a special splitter cable. All other 8bits dont have this restriction.

 

James

[Marius]

Wow! This is cool! I did not know this and i am wondering now: is this a design flaw or is this on purpose ?

 

 

[sup8pdct]

It has been done on purpose. Why? Dunno. The light pen circuit only supports one in port 4. The 800 has 4 tranistors (one for each port) vs 1 for the 400. Less board space is the only reason i can think of.

 

James

[Serious]

Thanks for all the info. This has been extremely helpful.

[Subby]

The 400 doesn't support light pens? I had never heard of that before.

And why would they do that when one of the reasons for the 400's existence was education?

Ah well, another of those very odd Atari corporate decisions.

[+Stephen]

Wow - had my 400 since 82, and I never knew this.

[bfollett]

Seems like it might be a pretty easy hack to change most exe games to use port 4 instead of port 1, (for the experienced hackers out there), but that's no help for cartridges... unless you have equipment to burn new ones.

[sup8pdct]

Easier to pull apart the computer, cut a trace and solder in a wire jumper.

 

James