Author Topic: RetroBlast Video Review: ACT-Labs Lightgun (Read 9744 times)

KevSteele · « **on:** September 05, 2003, 05:55:31 pm »

A video review of the ACT-Labs PC USB Lightgun is now available:

http://retroblast.com/video.html

The written version of the review will be up in a day or so.

Kevin

night · « **Reply #1 on:** September 05, 2003, 10:04:06 pm »

cool. ive got 2 TV guns on preforder for an eternity.

what song is that in the intro. cant seem to remember the name

NY_in_TX · « **Reply #2 on:** September 05, 2003, 10:50:17 pm »

Quote from: night on September 05, 2003, 10:04:06 pm

cool. ive got 2 TV guns on preforder for an eternity.

what song is that in the intro. cant seem to remember the name

Janie's got a gun...Aerosmith

nice

Sasquatch! · « **Reply #3 on:** September 05, 2003, 11:06:59 pm »

Quote from: NY_in_TX on September 05, 2003, 10:50:17 pm

Janie's got a gun...Aerosmith

nice

Dammit, you beat me to it.

EDIT: Whoa, I thought your kid was gonna eat the barrel of the gun at the end there.

KevSteele · « **Reply #4 on:** September 05, 2003, 11:22:43 pm »

Sasquatch:

I know -- it looked like my son Chris was going suicidal, but he was just imitating his dad (which is why there's the clip of me blowing off the barrel.

)

My son's is obsessed with guns & swords right now (age six) - we started off trying to raise him in a "gun free" environment (my wife's idea), but when he started building submachine guns out of Legos, I gave in. Sorry, but genetics are a hard thing to beat...like father, like son.

Kevin

Aceldamor · « **Reply #5 on:** September 06, 2003, 03:52:12 am »

um...your link isn't showing the act labs review as a selectable video.....

Lilwolf · « **Reply #6 on:** September 06, 2003, 08:03:13 am »

Did the review get removed already?

KevSteele · « **Reply #7 on:** September 06, 2003, 08:32:22 am »

Quote from: Aceldamor on September 06, 2003, 03:52:12 am

um...your link isn't showing the act labs review as a selectable video.....

What the $%#&?

It looks like my entire site has been "rolled back" a couple of days!

I suspect the server "burped," but I'll have to restore the site.

Check again in a few minutes.

Grrrr....

UPDATE: The Retroblast site has now been restored, video and all.

(I don't know why these sort of things happen right after I've made a site update, but I seem to be attracting more than my fair share of bad luck these days...

)

Kevin

SirPoonga · « **Reply #8 on:** September 07, 2003, 10:33:28 pm »

Pretty cool review. Hehe, wouldn't it be cool if a PC silent scope came out and THAT's what the attachment is for. Just dreaming, silent scope isa mechanical gun.

rockhopper · « **Reply #9 on:** September 07, 2003, 10:41:17 pm »

Could always build your own recoil attachment, operated through the trigger. Just need a solenoid with a mass attached to it in some enclosure which clips onto this space. Of course you need to power it somehow.....could use a 9V battery as the mass and to provide power!

After all this site is called build your own controls...

EggZilla · « **Reply #10 on:** September 09, 2003, 11:55:22 am »

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried to use two of these guns simultaneously, as one would when playing a two-player light gun game?

They could probably be connected via a typical USB hub, but I'm skeptical as to the software support otherwise. Does MAME even support two guns?

Anyone have any input?

Lilwolf · « **Reply #11 on:** September 09, 2003, 12:14:20 pm »

Analog+ mame handles 2 lightguns..

but only in 98 (not XP)

Why? XP only has inputs for one mouse. 98 you can ask for the system mouse (all mice) or mouse0, mouse1, ect..

So to get it to work, 98 + analog+ and you are good to go.

WonderMellon · « **Reply #12 on:** September 09, 2003, 12:35:10 pm »

One of the big things holding me back from ordering one of these guns is the white flashing screen issue. A lot of people have mentioned that it is VERY annoying. It didn't look to bad in the video, but I don't know if it was because the video recorder just didn't catch all the white frames.
Can anyone testify as to how bad the flashing is?

-WM

Lilwolf · « **Reply #13 on:** September 09, 2003, 01:37:05 pm »

It the dreamcast flashes... it flashes a light grey.

With the act labs they flash white.

Its MUCH more noticable then the dreamcast guns..

and the dreamcast guns seem just as accurate.

If you really care about the flash... then don't get them... It's there..

KevSteele · « **Reply #14 on:** September 09, 2003, 01:37:49 pm »

WonderMellon,

The flashing didn't bother me at all - it was a nice way to register that a shot had occurred. I can see where it might annoy some, but I didn't find it bothersome at all.

EggZilla,

You can't use two light guns at the same time -- the video passthrough won't accept a second gun. You could probably use a mouse for one player & light gun for the other (using analog mame & 98, as Lilwolf mentioned.)

Kevin

GamingGreg · « **Reply #15 on:** September 09, 2003, 03:44:17 pm »

I believe u_rebelscum had two ActLabs USB lightguns working with Win98 and Analog+ MAME. (see this thread here for details)

Still I haven't seen anything that would work with two players in WinXP. (Thanks a lot Bill Gates!

)

KevSteele · « **Reply #16 on:** September 09, 2003, 05:01:11 pm »

Cool - I didn't think it was possible to use two light guns (daisy chaining them together like that!)

That's almost good enough to make me want to switch back to Win98...almost...

Kevin

SirPoonga · « **Reply #17 on:** September 09, 2003, 05:36:10 pm »

uRebel thinks multiple mice in XP is possible, but not through DirextInput. He needs an XP machine to try it though.

GamingGreg · « **Reply #18 on:** September 09, 2003, 08:44:02 pm »

SirPoonga & uRebel,

I'd be willing to assist in any way with testing multiple mice code on WinXP. I might could look at writing some routines as well, however I'm rusty at Windows code, as I've been in the Web/Java world for 7+ years now. I'd probably need to be pointed to some sample code to start.

I have two machines at home with XP on them (one in my cabinet), and my cabinet has a trackball, spinner, and standard mouse attached to it. So even without two lightguns, I could still test some multiple mice code on XP.

Carsten Carlos · « **Reply #19 on:** September 10, 2003, 03:02:19 am »

Cool review! Didn't know about the white-flashing before, seems like they have a better solution in the real arcade-machines (like HOTD3)? If they only would make such guns for home-use...

But I must admit, seeing the ActLabs-gun in action, it isnt't that much ugly as I thought!

u_rebelscum · « **Reply #20 on:** September 10, 2003, 03:33:27 am »

Quote from: GamingGreg on September 09, 2003, 08:44:02 pm

SirPoonga & uRebel,

I'd be willing to assist in any way with testing multiple mice code on WinXP. I might could look at writing some routines as well, however I'm rusty at Windows code, as I've been in the Web/Java world for 7+ years now. I'd probably need to be pointed to some sample code to start.

I have two machines at home with XP on them (one in my cabinet), and my cabinet has a trackball, spinner, and standard mouse attached to it. So even without two lightguns, I could still test some multiple mice code on XP.

I'll left you know if I get to the point of needing testers.

FWIW, I'm just starting to try to compile some basic XP rawinput stuff, but having problems trying to use MS headers on gcc (the gcc headers used in mame don't have the winXP rawinput stuff).

KevSteele · « **Reply #21 on:** September 10, 2003, 05:08:34 pm »

UPDATE: The written companion review of the ACT-Labs light gun is now up on RetroBlast:

http://retroblast.com/reviews/actlabs.html

Unfortunately, I still can't get the gun working correctly with my ArcadeVGA card.

Kevin

PacManFan · « **Reply #22 on:** September 10, 2003, 05:26:43 pm »

urebel,
Thanks for helping me out a few months ago with that multi-mouse code. I was able to successfully get two independant cursor on the screen at the same time in Windows XP. I'm more than willing to share the source code and all the details. I really hope you'll be able to integrate it easily into Analog. I'll send you some source code later for MSVC.

-PMF

jerryjanis · « **Reply #23 on:** September 11, 2003, 04:43:52 am »

I've been looking at the XP rawmouse stuff recently, too... I'm going to start a new thread in the software forum for programmers to discuss. It came up in another thread - I didn't even know you guys were talking about it over here!

PS - keep the reviews coming. They are great!


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