Cousin Vinnie Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I just picked up a brand new light gun from video 61, and it’s an Atari light gun. I was excited about it cause I never had a real Authentic light gun, And I wanted to re-review light gun games for my new website: www.atari7800forever.com... but it doesn’t seem to be working on my flat screen TV. Do these things only operate on cathode television sets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Yep. They depend on the timing of the electron beam across the scanlines of a CRT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin Vinnie Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 Thanks for the info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin Vinnie Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 Crazy technology Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Yeap, the only exception was the NES light gun was looking to see if you had the gun pointed as a white square that was produced on the screen for like 1 frame. Technically it should still work on even newer displays, but the problem now is that newer displays have lag in the time of the signal being sent to the display to when it actually creates the image. While not a lot to prevent general use of the displays, it is enough that the light gun in the NES looks for that square and it shows up just a frame or 2 too late on the screen to be registered properly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thursday83 Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I just got one yesterday from video 61 as well, Vinnie. They did forewarn me that they don't work on flatscreens, that you need to have a tube tv (CRT) in order to work. Luckily I saved one of my big old clunkers, which will be dedicated for all 3 Atari systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.Bullitt Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I remember seeing this year's ago, no idea if it was ever turned into a product, but I think most of the people on this forum would want one haha. ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 LOL I was just about to post that very same video! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Sinden light gun - you need either PC games, emulators or PS1/PS2. It has a camera for constant calibration. Taking pre-orders but not yet shipping. Fall 2020 shipping for first batch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patroclus99 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 If you're considering buying an old CRT for light-gun games, I'd look at converters first, whereby you can play these games on a flat-screen. I think these are available for the NES, Sega, et al. but I believe they require a composite video cable; and I'm not sure how a RF->composite adapter would work in this case. I feel like something could be used similar to the sensor-receiver bar with the Wii remote, except for a legacy light-gun. But, I haven't seen anything like that. The Sinden device is interesting, but legacy-gaming has become such a scam-fest such that I wouldn't recommend any novel peripheral without an actual product release. . . no Kickstarter, Pre-order, Seedinvest, etc. garbage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sixersfan105 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Also if you go the CRT route, be mindful that *some* of the later-gen "flat front" CRTs will not work with light guns, either. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Monkey Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 50 minutes ago, sixersfan105 said: Also if you go the CRT route, be mindful that *some* of the later-gen "flat front" CRTs will not work with light guns, either. So maybe I don't have a closet full of broken Zappers, Light Phasers and Stunners? I'll have to drag out another CRT to see if any of them work with a non-flat CRT... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pac-Lander Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 Saw the YouTube clips above. Can anyone confirm that a "converter" of sorts exists that allows 7800 Light Gun play on modern TVs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted August 16, 2020 Share Posted August 16, 2020 I have put up one huge PAL CRT TV for use with Sega light-phaser, and one somewhat smaller NTSC CRT TV for use with Am. 5200 and 7800 including use of light-phaser. Just saying’ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Moss Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 On 8/14/2020 at 10:09 PM, aaron1677 said: Saw the YouTube clips above. Can anyone confirm that a "converter" of sorts exists that allows 7800 Light Gun play on modern TVs? If it did would you really want it if those were the only solutions? I mean the first solution with a Wii controller strapped to it may work but it results is a bulky, unbalanced and ugly looking bodge of a controller, which is. Plus it needs an Raspberry Pi & an Arduino added to the mix, so more boxes, expense and more things to power. The second video you can clearly see when the trigger is pulled that the game is utilising the black screen with white target square method of "hit" detection. Now you should not be able to see that frame so I do not know if that an effect of recording the screen or if the camera response in the controller is so slow that it has to display the target ID screen from more than a single frame, which would be rather poor and annoying to keep seeing that. Plus it also need a PC or Raspberry Pi to process the camera image so again not exactly an elegant solution. If the 7800 games use the white square on black target detection method then it is possible the Sinden controller connected to a Raspberry Pi option might work for a 7800 provided it outputs a 7800 compatible a single high/low "fire" output that can be connected to the 7800 button input pin. However, if a game was using counters that are stopped by a "hit" signal from a black screen with white target square light gun you could fake the hit signal by shining a White LED into the end of a 7800 compatible light gun barrel so that every trigger pull registers a "hit", stopping the counters which then gives the XY position of which (if multiple) target was shot at. But as every trigger pull results in a "hit" signal there could be accuracy issues depending on how tight the XY position of the counters is compared to the XY position of the target. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stechmann Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 (edited) perhaps the lightgun games could be patched to use a trackball instead Operation Wolf on Amiga worked well with a mouse Edited December 2, 2023 by Stechmann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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