Light Guns

[SlyJackal]

New here and to the hobby but I was curious what is the best light gun to use?  I have a 27" CRT TV as my arcade monitor.  Was looking at Act-Labs since it just hooks up with no having to put anything together or put something on my screen either (like the AimTrac)  Will the Act-Labs work with Mame 139?  Thanks in advance.

Jack

[Dazz]

Ultimarc AIMTrac all the way.

[amendonz]

Yeah I had 2 topguns ordered but luckily got in time to cancel them when I read there's plug and play aimtrak guns coming. Anyone know when these will be available?

[DeLuSioNal29]

SlyJackal, if you wait a bit more, Andy over at Ultimarc is going to sell complete kits with everything pre-assembled in a gun.  It will be worth the wait.

But if you don't mind putting it together yourself I believe you can get the kit now.

D

[SlyJackal]

So these kits with the hardware mounted on the screen is better than act-labs

[releasedtruth]

Some good threads on the subject. People are having good success with them. It's not a silver bullet, but they track like mice and have shorter shoot distances than the Topguns and some other options.

[bkenobi]

Aimtrak is very good from what many people have posted.  I can say that I have been generally very happy with my GunCon2 setup (2 guns on a CRT TV).  For what you have (CRT TV), I would say that if you can handle being at least a couple feet back, you should be ok with the Aimtrak's.  If you aren't far enough back, the guns won't see the sensor bar and will not work correctly.  If that is an issue, you might consider going with ActLab guns or GunCon2's.  These will work with CRT only, but when they work, they are very nice!

[BadMouth]

I picked up and old set of Act Labs ray guns for $30 each and am happy with them.

Keep in mind that "real" light guns only know where the gun is pointed the instant you pull the trigger.
They don't work well on games that used mounted analogue "joystick" guns because they weren't really light guns.
(i.e. terminator 2, etc)

The aimtrack will work for both because it is constantly tracked and seen as a mouse.
I've never used one, so I can't comment on how well they work.

[bkenobi]

I think you can use the guncon2pc driver to make 1 or 2 guns show up as HID mice.  WinGun makes 1 or 2 guns show up as a single mouse, so you can't play 2 player games where the gun tracks the instantaneous location.  If you get official Namco GunCon2's, you will have to use WinGun.

[severdhed]

I think you can use the guncon2pc driver to make 1 or 2 guns show up as HID mice.  WinGun makes 1 or 2 guns show up as a single mouse, so you can't play 2 player games where the gun tracks the instantaneous location.  If you get official Namco GunCon2's, you will have to use WinGun.

so wingun does work with the Namco guns?  i was under the impression that these guns just wouldn't work on a pc at all.

[EvilNuff]

I have been unable to get either of those mentioned guncon drivers to work under windows7 fyi.  Don't know if that matters but it did for me.

[bkenobi]

Namco Guncon2's have the "rolling x" phenomenon.  I don't know what causes it, but the result is impossible calibration.  There is a switch that was added to the WinGun driver that allows it to detect if the gun has this issue.  I was unable to get the guncon2pc driver to work for these guns, but they did work with a pair of Scorpion's I used to own.  If your gun works with the guncon2pc driver, I'd use that one instead.  I wish there was a way to add the switch into that driver, but the project (both actually) are long dead.

I have only tried using guns with WinXP, so I don't know what works on other OSes.

[mrtuesday42]

would you guys still recommend the aimtrak for someone on an arcade monitor like myself??? my friend has two guncons hooked up but his arcade is on a tv instead. i know that the aimtraks/topguns are good for lcds and such (if i remember correctly).

[JustMichael]

The aimtraks do NOT care what kind of screen you have (yes even projector showing on a wall is ok).  The aimtraks ONLY care about their little led bar.  Looking at the led bar is how they can tell where they are pointing (like the Wii remotes).

[mrtuesday42]

yeah. i understand how it works, i was just wondering if maybe there was a more accurate/better solution for those with original arcade monitors. it is nice that they work on basically EVERYTHING

[bkenobi]

No gun is perfect...period.  The aimtrak solves some problems that people have been having.  If you don't have anything currently and are ok with spending some change, you would probably be happy with a pair of them.  The only thing you should keep in mind is that Aimtrak and TopGun require a IR bar be installed above the monitor (just like a wiimote).  If you can't stand the idea of an IR bar (or at least a couple IR LEDs) being visible, then you are better off going with an ActLab or GunCon2 setup (but, these only work on CRT displays).

[nickynooch]

I LOVE my actlabs guns.  I'm not running mame .139 but I'm sure they work in them... I'm running a very slightly older mame than .139 and they work great.

I highly recommend the actlabs ones. I have a 27 inch tv in my cab and they work great.  I prefer the look of them too.  To me they had a Lethal Enforcers look to them, which reminded me of the arcade era I grew up in.

They work with snes9x (snes games), nestopia (nes games), Model 2 emulator, MAME, House of the dead 1-3, Virtua Cop 1 and 2, epsxe (playstation emulator), American Laser games (Mad Dog McCree and several other live action games), etc.

I love mine.  I highly recommend getting guns on your cab.  At the moment I seem to be playing those games more than anything else on my cab.

As said above, also I didn't want an infrared bar above my screen, especially considering my bezel around my monitor is tight to my monitor, so I went actlabs.

[mark shaker]

I've got the older ray-gun styled Act-Labs Light Guns and they work great with Windows 7 - 64 Bit and MAMEUI V139.

BTW: I was pleasantly surprised that all the Digital Leasure Light Gun games run fine with Windows 7 - 64 Bit.

I've even got the PC versions of "House of the Dead 2" and "Virtua Squad 2" running under Windows 7 - 64 Bit. ("The Troubleshooter" is required for both these games to work with Act-Labs Light Guns. http://thetroubleshooter.home.mindspring.com/ )

   - Mark

[BadMouth]

BTW: I was pleasantly surprised that all the Digital Leasure Light Gun games run fine with Windows 7 - 64 Bit.

   I didn't know those games existed, now I have to get them....and I see there are a lot of them.

*Edit* bought 4 of them so far and the house of the dead series to boot! Guess I can't go out and spend $$ this weekend
  this hobby addiction.

[mrtuesday42]

i was looking at the act-labs guns and it seems like they want a ton of money for a two player setup, two boxes and two guns costing 200$. would the guncons or even aimtraks stuffed in guns be a better option??? seems to me it would be. i am using an arcade monitor at the moment.

[bkenobi]

You can get guncon2's for as little as $10 (maybe less on ebay).  You do need to do a bit of research here to see which ones work well and which ones should be avoided.  At this point, anything you get will be used (or at least not new from a local retailer) since they aren't made any more AFAIK.  I did see one at a Game Stop a few months back that was new, but that seemed a bit rare.

The AimTrak costs $40 for the sensor kit and $40 for the gun body.  You can certainly mount the sensor kit in anything you want (even a $10 guncon2 body), so that might help save some cash.  If you go AimTrak and get 2, you will be looking at close to $200 as well, so the Act Labs price isn't that much more.

But, remember what I said earlier...there is a product that will let you use your arcade guns that costs ~$200.  If you are looking at spending that kind of money anyway, you might at least consider going that route.  I am not affiliated and know nothing about this product, but I did think you should know all the available options.

http://www.nanotechent.com/opti-gun.php

[mrtuesday42]

thanks for the link man. a quick google sent me straight back here lol. i see no way to order from that site...

i ebayed a namco guncon 2 last nite for 20 shipped. not great but its a namco and it was usb (idk if that was good or not tbh, figured it was) hopefully i can get that working with my current cab. ive abandoned the idea of the lethal enforcers cab for the moment, as 1 my roommate doesnt want to spend 200$ on a cab for one game and since i dont know the game i dont either. so ill keep my eyes out for something i know and then look at the optigun from there.

[isucamper]

how do the act labs guns deal with tinted glass?  i'd really like their precision, but aimtracks seem more flexible

[releasedtruth]

how do the act labs guns deal with tinted glass?  i'd really like their precision, but aimtracks seem more flexible

How much tint do you have? I haven't used the Act Labs, but I use component video out so I didn't think they'd work. I've got Greylite 31 so I'm also curious about the tint.

[jasonbar]

how do the act labs guns deal with tinted glass?  i'd really like their precision, but aimtracks seem more flexible

Act Labs guns didn't work through my tinted glass at all.   

(Sorry, did some searches & couldn't dig up my % tint, though...).

-Jason

[mrtuesday42]

they just seem really expensive considering you can get an aimtrak for 44 and slap it in whatever gun you want...but thats just me.

[RandyT]

The Act Labs guns (or any standard optical guns) are probably not going to do well with any significant tinting.  Unlike IR, which zips right through the tint, the light a standard light gun is concerned with is in the visible spectrum.  Obviously, the tints used to darken the screen operate in the same wavelengths.  So pretty much anything one does to darken the screen, will also hamper the ability of the gun to "see" the raster it uses to determine position.

It boils down to how sensitive the gun is to light, but regardless of that, any tint will make it harder for the sensor to pick it up.

RandyT

[mrtuesday42]

makes sense to me. i do have a question though, why do you guys have tint on your cabinets???

[RandyT]

makes sense to me. i do have a question though, why do you guys have tint on your cabinets???

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=102600.msg1110452#msg1110452

[releasedtruth]

It's been years since I built my cab, but I think it was for 2 reasons.

1) To add uniformity to the viewing area by producing a near black effect when the monitor is off

2) To enhance the color/contrast of a bright screen. Without the tint, my screen was almost oversaturated regardless of settings

[isucamper]

I've got the solar grey (light grey) tint on 1/4" tempered glass from One Day Glass.  Not sure what percent that comes out to, but it doesn't totally hide the bezel. 



I'd really like some guns, but there's so much uncertainty about them, and they aren't exactly cheap.  It's not like you can order a bunch and test them out and pick which one you like best. 

With the Aimtracks, do the feel like light guns?  Can you play a game in MAME with the cursor off and actually feel like you are aiming the gun?  Or does it just feel like your pushing a mouse around with a pointer?

[releasedtruth]

I've got the solar grey (light grey) tint on 1/4" tempered glass from One Day Glass.  Not sure what percent that comes out to, but it doesn't totally hide the bezel. 

I had the topguns and they were a real hassle to setup over and over again, but they worked alright as long as you stood 6ft+ away, which wasn't fun. If you want to cover the bezel, paint the backside of the glass or mask it somehow. I wound up painting black for smoothness. It doesn't feel much like a mouse with the cursor off.

[Marsupial]

I just tried the old "raygun" actlabs (the ones that don't have a P1/P2 option, and the gun is connected directly to the USB VGA box)

After config and tweaking, works well on the 2 versions of MAME I tried   - and old 107 or so one and 139.

I hope it works on a tinted glass, that's where ite being tried tomorrow.

[lodoss118]

Does anyone know if the aimtrak sensor board comes in closed case and the gun shell has the the front eye cover?

[bkenobi]

Here's all the info you should need.

http://www.ultimarc.com/aimtrak.html

[Marsupial]

the "raygun" lightgun from Act-Labs works like a charm on my cabinet trough the tinted glass. However, I have no clue of the tint level, but it does a great job hiding the bezel.

[releasedtruth]

Does anyone know if the aimtrak sensor board comes in closed case and the gun shell has the the front eye cover?

Not yet, but Andy's working on it