Still no REAL arcade light guns??? Seriously???

[Purple Tophat]

I've been away from this forum for a while going through all manner of craziness with job loss, having to move last minute, and all sorts of other difficulties, so unfortunately, I've had to put my arcade project in storage where I can't get anywhere near it. Grrrr! Hopefully I'll be able to dig it out first quarter next year. I figured I'd stop back in here and see if any of the old rumors and hopes ever manifested into a way to use real HAPP arcade guns on a CRT monitor in MAME.

It looks like there's still nothing. How horribly disappointing! No offense to Ultimarc, but Aimtraks are not a solution that works for me. Wii-motes are not light guns (not even CLOSE) and they never will be. Now...I know this forum is packed with smart dudes who are capable of ALL MANNER of amazing feats. Can nobody create a way to use HAPP guns in MAME??? ANYBODY? I may have had a bit of a hard go of things lately, but I will pitch in on R&D and pay good money for a finished solution. I can't be the only one who wants this!!!

Look on eBay. HAPP guns are CHEAP. Real light guns are 1000% cooler than wii-motes. I don't know ANYTHING about how to do this, but if I did, you better bet I would have made this happen!!! ANYBODY???

Is it possible to create something that will work? Is it possible? If it's possible, then I have to find a way to do it. Can I hire someone? If so, then who?

[SMMM]

http://www.act-labs.com/products/gun1.htm

Haven't tried these myself, but I've heard it's the best.  Bad news is that they've stopped making them, so they're scarce to find.  If someone could possibly reverse-engineer it, that'd be great.

[TPB]

Can nobody create a way to use HAPP guns in MAME???

.

Mr. David R. Foley was working on a HAPP lightgun interface board for PC's.  I'm not sure if the project extended to MAME integration.

I gather the project got canned, once he became embroiled in his legal difficulties.

[yotsuya]

Hey, Purple Tophat. Welcome back! Good to see you, bro.

Having said that,
 

[pbj]

A Top Gun with a wide angle lens on it out performs the competition, but it's a little frustrating because arcade games tended to put the targets around the edges of the screen and none of these 'mouse guns' handle the edges perfectly.
 
Frankly, having thrown a lot of time and money at this, a Wii is your best solution.  There's a controller out there called a Crossfire that's excellent and actually syncs up with the Wii U if the system software is updated to 4.0.  The only thing it lacks is a way to switch A/B button functionality but that's only a problem on the REALLY early shooter games on the Wii.  A lot of the games have been changed so the targets occupy more of the center of the screen.

[BadMouth]

Get on the global vr service site and order the interface board for America's Army.  That is the same board Foley was going to sell as the usb2gun.  Only one member here has bought one, but they were trying to use Namco guns with it and didn't have a good understanding of analog controls in name. ( the guns show up as analog joysticks). I have the usb2gun manual saved and will post it later.

sent from my phone while driving

[BadMouth]

...I've been hoarding act labs s-vid guns.  My plan is to someday put the act labs guts in happ recoil pistols and shotguns.

sent from my phone while driving

[RandyT]

1: Get the largest RGB monitor you can (while you can)
2: Pick up a Playstation2 for cheap and hack an RGB output for it
3: Get a couple of Guncon1 and Guncon2's (and maybe a decent "normal" lightgun if you want to play the couple of titles which don't support the Guncons)
4: Scoop up as many of the supported titles as you can find for both systems (there are actually quite a few)
5: Be happy

This is what I did after trying the other options and not being happy with them.  It's not MAME, but the titles available are very good, for the most part, and certainly satisfy the lightgun game cravings.

[wp34]

sent from my phone while driving

 

[Firepro4Life]

Yeah, I wish someone would develop a true plug and play option for a gun w/recoil without having to connect your own power supply, wrap the double wires etc.

[jimmer]

1: Get the largest RGB monitor you can (while you can)
2: Pick up a Playstation2 for cheap and hack an RGB output for it
3: Get a couple of Guncon1 and Guncon2's (and maybe a decent "normal" lightgun if you want to play the couple of titles which don't support the Guncons)
4: Scoop up as many of the supported titles as you can find for both systems (there are actually quite a few)
5: Be happy

This is what I did after trying the other options and not being happy with them.  It's not MAME, but the titles available are very good, for the most part, and certainly satisfy the lightgun game cravings.

Will I be able to play Point Blank (PS1) on that?

[RandyT]

Will I be able to play Point Blank (PS1) on that?

Yes.  You just need to use the original GunCon with the PS1 titles, but they do work fine on the PS2.  Ebay is good resource for pulling together a collection of supported titles.

[BadMouth]

Get on the global vr service site and order the interface board for America's Army.  That is the same board Foley was going to sell as the usb2gun.  Only one member here has bought one, but they were trying to use Namco guns with it and didn't have a good understanding of analog controls in name. ( the guns show up as analog joysticks). I have the usb2gun manual saved and will post it later.

Better late than never.  File too big to attach.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B637CSO6oe1fTC1DRHdZdWVRRGc/edit?usp=sharing