| Main > Main Forum |
| Guns ... Today's Views? |
| << < (2/10) > >> |
| yotsuya:
I just bought an AimTrak last week. Pros: Works in MAME pretty well. Don't have to stand too far for it to work. Works with LCD screens. Cons: Recoil not standard, but I bet by this time next year it can/will be. I plan to use it with a 25 inch CRT, so we'll see what happens when I test that out. |
| pinballjim:
Recoil is annoying. All you guys lining up to buy that new kit are going to have buyer's remorse in less than a week. Higher resolution is a farce, too. Who knew that arcade shooting games needed high resolution guns? Anyway, I'm a fan of the Top Guns. Half the price, already in gun shell, and more functionality. Work with anything. I am seriously considering opening mine up and desoldering the recoil so I can stop having to press two buttons every time I turn it on. |
| Vigo:
I kinda figured Hi Res is a sales pitch, but I am a bit surprised by the recoil bit. I loved recoil in the arcades, but I guess i didn't play that many shooters in one sitting. Good to know there is a downside to it. So are the act labs guns pretty much going extinct? |
| BadMouth:
What I have experience with: Act Labs (have used for a couple years) Pros - pixel accurate;can rely on sights on gun body, distance & height make no difference Windows sees as mouse Cons - Only works with CRT monitors/TVs, won't work well for positional gun games, require recalibration when switching games unless all games set to same resolution, no recoil, no longer being made. I've read they don't work with 64-bit operating systems. (actually now that I think about this, if it shows up as a mouse, why wouldn't it? I will test on my driving cab that runs XP64 this weekend) EDIT: Tested and they work fine on XP64 Another note: they don't work on TVs or monitors that have built in processing (line doublers, progressive scan, etc) AIM-Trak (Have only tinkered with for a few hours) Pros - Works with any screen type, works with positional gun games, support from Andy Multiple shells and recoil options available (IIRC, www.arcadeguns.com is working on usb powered vibration motor) Cons - Not as accurate; must use onscreen crosshairs for best results (anyone who has managed to calibrate them accurately enough to turn off onscreen crosshairs and succeed in games please correct me if I'm wrong) Wii controllers (Have only tinkered with for a few hours) Pros - works with any screen type, cheap (unless you buy the ones I did), wireless Cons - Problematic bluetooth connections, Less accurate than AIM-Trak I sometimes get blue screen of death when connecting the 2nd gun. Definitely not ready for people who want something plug-n-play. I'm tempted to order the Top Gun now just for the sake of comparing it, even though the IR emitters wouldn't fit between my monitor and bezel glass. Other thoughts: It's a subjective thing, but I've never been able to get IR guns to feel right. I like being able to use the sights on the gun and swing it around by pivoting my body instead of trying to keep the gun in the same position it was in when calibrated. People who are used to playing gun games on a wii would probably just go by the on-screen crosshairs anyway and it wouldn't bother them. If my new cab had a CRT monitor, I'd probably try to use Act Labs guts stuck in different gun bodies with 24v recoil solenoids. Haven't seen that done yet, but I think it would give me the experience that I want. Playing for long periods of time, your arm gets tired and the recoil will make that a lot worse, but I have a short attention span and want the arcade experience. The current plan for my LCD build is to use Wii guns and just accept that they aren't going to compare to real light guns. If I can't get the kinks worked out, the cab just won't have guns. Except for the light bar taped to the top of the monitor, no modifications to the cab were necessary, so there really aren't any changes to make to the cab. I'd still like to see someone who knows their stuff give the USB2Gun a whirl. For those who haven't been following gun threads, the USB2Gun is really just the gun board out of Gobal VR's America's Army (can't remember if the dedicated or conversion one is the correct one). Standard Happ arcade guns plug into it and it makes them show up as analogue joysticks. It even supports recoil, but I don't know if the recoil signal is sent by the game or is handled on the board. Too pricey for me to get just for the sake of testing. --- Quote from: Vigo on September 28, 2012, 03:37:39 pm ---So are the act labs guns pretty much going extinct? --- End quote --- They aren't made anymore, so yeah. |
| pinballjim:
It's just impossible to get perfect accuracy with an IR gun. It'll be great towards the center of the screen and off around the corners. Watch the Youtube reviews, ALL of them have this problem. Most arcade shooters seem to be based around how fast can you shoot something that pops up in the center of the screen so you don't really notice it. I've horsed around with the Wii remotes too and wasn't all that satisfied for MAME use. Nobody's ever gotten the PC stuff to work seamlessly. I did enjoy the Wii game where you shot at a bunch of turkeys running around the screen and the Cross Fire is a joy to use. I've never been a fan of prolonged recoil. I modified a Saturn stunner 12 years ago and undid it. If you open it up, the handle was clearly shaped to hold 2 AA batteries. There's another empty slot near the trigger where a DC motor fits nicely. I remember that the trigger switch had an extra set of contacts and I used that for the positive battery wire. (perhaps it was all coincidental but it sure seemed like SEGA intended that thing to either pop or shake) Last about 2 hours before I ripped it out. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |