Desert Gun type MAME

[Keebo]

I'm looking for information on mameing a game like Desert Gun which uses a rifle mounted on the cabinet and the video is reflected onto a background. I'm wondering if the light rifle has the same setup as the newer light gun setups. I intend on finding an original light rifle to use in this setup. Any info I can get on this the better.

[BadMouth]

Parts Manual:

 http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/ARCADE/A-J/Desert%20Gun%20[Part's%20Catalogue]%20[English].pdf
(can't get it to post right, copy & paste entire thing into your browser)

Looks like the gun used potentiometers to get the X & Y axis.  (not like the old light guns that scanned the screen or modern light guns that use IR strips)
I have a couple old steering controllers that I've thought of tearing the pots out of and seeing how they would work on games like this.
It might be hard to get the gearing right, then again maybe the calibration in the service menu will take care of it.

An easier way might be to install an aimtrack in the gun, even though it's mounted.
Not sure how the mirrored monitor figures into that.  There have probably been threads about it.

I'm a newb, but been researching out of curiosity.

In fact, I just bought this to play around with.....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110418873536&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT  

Anyone Know what game it's from?

[Keebo]

I was thinking about taking the old rifle and putting modern day optics in it, if they would fit. Has anyone tried using the nintendo pistol with mame?

[Xiaou2]

You should see if any collectors will buy or trade for a generic cabinet, for this game.  It could be very rare.

[bkenobi]

I saw a picture of this game on the manual that is listed on ebay right now.  You will not be happy with how this turns out if you MAME it.  I would HIGHLY recommend attempting a trade or outright sale.  You would be much better off with a more standard style cabinet or even building from scratch.  This game will not give you the type of viewing angle that you will be happy with in the long run.  As a result, you will destroy the Desert Gun cab and not create a quality MAME cab IMO.

Your cab, so do what you want, but that's my opinion.

[Keebo]

Oh, I don't have a cabinet, If i did I would never MAME it. I wanted to start from scratch with a similar rifle and mount. I'm facinated with the reflected graphics games and wanted to see if I could recreate one of them.

[bkenobi]

Oh, well that's different!   

[CheffoJeffo]

If you are interested in reflected graphics gun games, then you want to check out the Exidy 4400 series of games -- Crossbow, Cheyenne, Catch-22, Combat, Crackshot, Chiller, Clay Pigeon, Hit N Miss, WhoDunit.

I had been wanting a MultiExidy cabinet for a long time and finally resigned myself to building a MAME version if I could find a cabinet. Last year I came across a Cheyenne at auction and scooped it up with the intention of doing so, although I wasn't sure if the AimTrak was going to work. Using a mirror was going to be problematic given the angle of the mirror. I thought about installing an LCD at the back of the cabinet instead, but was still worried about the short distance between gun and screen.

Fortunately, the Cheyenne was working and required some minor monitor repair.

More fortunately, around the same time, Dave Widel and Mike Doyle indicated that they would put together a new version of Dave's MultiExidy kit, so I went that route instead. If you like reflected graphics gun games, then I highly recommend it.

[Keebo]

More fortunately, around the same time, Dave Widel and Mike Doyle indicated that they would put together a new version of Dave's MultiExidy kit, so I went that route instead. If you like reflected graphics gun games, then I highly recommend it.

This is great thank you for that information. But actually the games I want aren’t reflected with a mirror. They are reflected with a piece of glass that only reflects the white areas on the screen. You can also see through the glass at the background which was sometimes florescent and other times not.