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Future of light gun gaming?


Boojakascha

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Salut

Mid December I finally received the PDP Mars light gun system and I played it a lot since then. I even released a full review:


Very unfortunately the system wasn't able to hold it's promises. I write here because I would love to hear what you think will be the future of light gun gaming?

I guess laser assisted systems will never make the cut, because they are too expensive and too sophisticated. As PDP showed us low price versions of it will lack the necessary quality.

 

I have high hopes for Andy's Sinden light gun, but I don't know anybody (besides Andy) with first hand experiences...

Personally I would love to see IR reference light system guns gaining back some attention. The Guncon 3 was great and the Ultimarc products still are. But their reputation was permanently damaged by shitty products (to which I count the Nintendo Wii).

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I don't think there is a future, at least for me personally.  I prefer to play on original hardware, and none of these solutions work with the old systems, only emulators.  HDTV's have been manufactured in various ways, between Plasma, LCD, OLED, etc, and run on different frequencies, unlike the old days of NTSC CRT's. 

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1 hour ago, Greg2600 said:

I don't think there is a future, at least for me personally.  I prefer to play on original hardware, and none of these solutions work with the old systems, only emulators.  HDTV's have been manufactured in various ways, between Plasma, LCD, OLED, etc, and run on different frequencies, unlike the old days of NTSC CRT's. 

While I understand your desire, your are not 100 % correct, Sir. There are IR reference light system based light guns (Wii like) for Xbox and PS2. Furthermore NES games can be patched to account for the screen lag of LCD displays which allows them to work with cheap guns which lack a frequency filter.

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  • 1 month later...
4 hours ago, Skarrj said:

Have you played PSVR?  The move controllers are about as perfect for light gun gaming as you can get.  Traditional light guns will never be anything close. 

 

I haven't yet! Honestly I am skeptical^^ I guess time will tell, but I don't see anything ever going to be as precise/accurate as raster based scanning.

 

3 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

Not sure about the "future" of lightgun gaming, but yeah, the present is VR. For example:

 

Superhot

 

Pistol Whip

 

Space Pirate

 

House of the Dead or Virtua Cop would be neat in this environment. 

 

I indeed play the latter two. I guess with a setup < 2K USD it doesn't challenge classical light gun gaming as it's freaking hard to see the sights on older/cheaper goggles. 

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3 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

@Boojakascha Oculus Quest is self contained (no PC, no wires), starts at $400, and looks awesome. I was skeptical but am now a believer. It's still too expensive for mainstream but hopefully the price will come down with time. 

The display is still grainy and the tracking is not as precise as anything using light house technology.

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I have PSVR...just not that big a fan (though DOOM VR is....f'ing amazing). I don't want to put a helmet with cords on to shooty-shoot....I just want the damn gun.

 

As previously mentioned, I'm baffled that in this nostalgia flooded market, somehow no one (Namco???) has come up with a "plug and play" light gun that includes all their old gun games and works on a modern TV via HDMI.

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5 minutes ago, GoldenWheels said:

I have PSVR...just not that big a fan (though DOOM VR is....f'ing amazing). I don't want to put a helmet with cords on to shooty-shoot....I just want the damn gun.

 

As previously mentioned, I'm baffled that in this nostalgia flooded market, somehow no one (Namco???) has come up with a "plug and play" light gun that includes all their old gun games and works on a modern TV via HDMI.

^^ well they did but it sank unfortunately. It is/was called "Sure Shot HD" but sadly almost no major companies supported it, and just few games were released. It's really good actually.

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  • 4 weeks later...
58 minutes ago, OscarGungan said:

It's a pipe dream but I've wanted zapper guns in the Switch Online NES app. Not sure it's worth it for them financial to create a HD compatible zapper. I kind of think they'd sell a ton but I don't see it happening.

 


Well, there are HD TV compatible Zappers... Also Alexsey used one to play on a Raspberry Pi. So I would guess on a rooted Switch running Android this should be possible (not in the official online NES app of course).

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Light guns are unfortunately dead. :( I love REAL lightguns (think nes zapper, and the like) but they don't work on modern systems due to latency, though with a modern system this could be easily fixed with a calibration option on the gamr, or system. Traditional style, this would still limit you to only a few objects on screen at once. (It literally blanks the screen and just detects light of not)

 

With modern tech, you could put a camera in the gun, and detect colors and shapes easily on the blank screen, but as of yet, I've seen no attempt by anyone to do this. It would allow for true aiming, and allow (potentially) dozens of even hundreds of objects on screen at once.

 

I do NOT consider that glorified mouse on the modern Nintendo consoles as a lightgun. What? You thought they put that target reticle on screen because they think it looked good? No, it's because they're literally looking for two points of light projected by the bar, and aiming at the tv is irrelevant. Don't believe me? Take the light bar and put it to one side. It'll feel odd aiming somewhere besides the tv, but it'll still work exactly the same.

 

Anyhow, if a lightgun is ever attempted again, I'll be there, I just don't see that happening.

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2 hours ago, Video said:

With modern tech, you could put a camera in the gun, and detect colors and shapes easily on the blank screen, but as of yet, I've seen no attempt by anyone to do this. It would allow for true aiming, and allow (potentially) dozens of even hundreds of objects on screen at once.

As for cameras inside the gun: This has been done!
 


Also there is the upcoming Sinden light gun, which sees the screen as a trapezoid. Monitoring a trapezoid is of course more reliable than just seeing two dots. But the Wii is not the be all and end all of IR light reference guns... there were plenty of systems that used trapezoids too and thus were more reliable than the Wii. The Wii is a very unfair benchmark for two dot IR light reference guns by the way...

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Not saying there can't be better options, just that on the console side of things, there aren't currently better options. Wii u works the same as wii, and to my knowledge, Xbox and PlayStation use a camera mounted on the tv to see the light on the gun (in relation to you) to see where it's aiming. I assume the switch does something similar, but don't know as I've seen no gun games for that, or light bar sensor, for that matter. They still amount to glorified mouse controls and for me, just don't really do an adequate job of properly being a light gun.

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7 hours ago, Video said:

Not saying there can't be better options, just that on the console side of things, there aren't currently better options.

Oh, there were. PS3 had the GunCon 3, Top Shot Elite and the Top Shot Fearmaster. And no, the Move is in most cases just a gyro controller and the systems pays very little attention to the tracked light bulb (for most gun games that is). The Switch gun game/cradles use the gyro functionality.

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  • 3 years later...

Try an Ultimarc AimTrak Arcade Light Gun.
It simulates mouse movement and mouse button clicks.

Any game or emulator that uses mouse can be controlled by this gun

so the possibilities are endless.

It works on any T.V. or monitor as it bypasses the use of the display by using an inferred sensor bar which can sit on top or underneath or on the sides (if you have two of them) of your display.

It comes with and without recoil.

Accuracy is great in a dimmed environment and even over long distances (5 to 6 feet)

IMG_9428.jpeg

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