lightguns with MAME on a pc?

[chrishicks]

is it possible to use a lightgun with MAME on a pc? there are a few shooting games I like but moving the mouse around isn't as fun as actually holding a gun and shooting. does anyone even make a lightgun for this? I plan on hooking up my pc to my 36" tv soon if this would make a difference.

[Bruce Tomlin]

It would probably be difficult to do light guns on MAME because they depend on the timing of the monitor beam. A VGA monitor won't be scanning at the same frame rate, and the emulator won't likely be executing cycles in real time anyhow.

 

A light gun could still be emulated for mouse clicks, though.

[Dav]

It would probably be difficult to do light guns on MAME because they depend on the timing of the monitor beam.  A VGA monitor won't be scanning at the same frame rate, and the emulator won't likely be executing cycles in real time anyhow.

 

A light gun could still be emulated for mouse clicks, though.

 

Yes, that's how it works. It doesn't emulate the way the original light gun worked at all, it's just a mouse driver. It attaches as a pass though to your monitor cable as well and it requires regular calibrations.

 

 

Look up Act-Labs. They also have a tv version.

[IceCold]

is it possible to use a lightgun with MAME on a pc? there are a few shooting games I like but moving the mouse around isn't as fun as actually holding a gun and shooting. does anyone even make a lightgun for this? I plan on hooking up my pc to my 36" tv soon if this would make a difference.

 

Go ahead and check this site out. It is reviewing the different light guns for pc that work with mame

[Blackjack]

Yes you can use lightguns in Mame, I bought the Act Labs lightgun to do just that(just google act labs). They aren't expensive ...BUT... they aren't fantastic either.

 

A quick review:

Easy to set up

Must be recalibrated upon starting each new (different) game. Not a HUGE deal, but can be a bit annoying.

Mine shoots a bit low and to the left....... NOT GOOD!

There is a very slight, but very noticeable delay between firing and hit detection on screen........ VERY BAD!

Machine gun type automatic fire in games like Operation Wolf don't work properly. You DO autofire, but you can't move the crosshairs while doing so.

Mame has issues with the "Fire offscreen to reload" thingy. It often doesn't work very well.

 

I like it OK with games like Area51 and Maximum Force where you're shooting straight on at the baddies.

 

For games like Crossbow where you shoot things moving across the screen it sucks!

 

If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have bought the gun. The technologhy/emu implementation needs to mature a bit first.