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New to shooting games..do I need aimtrak with a tube TV?

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pbj:

God help you on the light gun path, all I can say.   I really need to dump my EMS Top Gun, all it does is collect dust.





mcseforsale:

Yeah.  It's ambitious.  My my little man wants a shooting arcade.  It's either that or a $$ pinball of some sort.  I'll probably just purchase one Aimtrak and hook it up on the bench to see if I can accept its function.  If so, the project will take shape.

If not, I'm sure I can find something to do with an old TV and a PC  >:D

AJ

BadMouth:

It has to do with what your expectations are for them.

Personally I can't stand the IR guns.  They just aren't accurate enough to turn off the crosshairs and use the gun sights.
It feels more like I'm using a magic wand than a gun.  You point it in the general direction and watch the on-screen crosshairs to aim.
It gets worse when games are played by someone of a different height or standing in a different position.
If you're happy playing gun games on a wii, then you'll be happy with them.
The upside is that they'll also work for the positional(mounted) gun games where you spray bullets like Terminator 2.

If the TV has an S-video input, I'd be on the lookout for an old set of Act Labs TV guns (there is a tv and a PC version).
They'll work with a composite input, but the graphics are too blurry with that input IMO.
I used to have the silver ray gun style and loved them. (before I rid my home of CRTs)  You can stand anywhere, use the sights on the gun, and they are accurate to within 3 pixels.
The downsides are that they won't work for the positional gun games, and if the TV has any type of built in processing (overscan, comb filtering), they won't work.
There is another style that looks like a small silver pistol (not ray gun).  Those are the most uncomfortable light guns I've ever held in my hand.




dkersten:

I agree with the aimtraks for future compatibility, but at the same time, BadMouth has some great points about the lack of accuracy with aimtrak guns.  IF you are standing front and center, at about 5-6 feet back, and calibrate it in a fairly dark room with no overly bright light sources and no reflective surfaces in the line of sight behind the screen, it is pretty accurate.  But you also have to play a game in the same resolution and size as your windows desktop for that to stay.

With the CRT, you won't be switching to a "Letterboxed" mode, so that won't be an issue.  If you are only using one gun and standing in the same place, holding it at the same height all the time, you will be happy with the aimtrak.  But as soon as you step outside of those parameters, expect things to start getting ugly.

Bottom line, on most mame games you will want the crosshairs on.  In some, you will have to turn them off and enable the game's crosshairs (they can be different even after calibration).  Far as I know, no other emulator allows for multiple guns at once.  Your best bet is games that run natively on the PC and use the mouse control for aiming.

BadMouth:

You might want to bookmark this thread for future reference.

List of just about all emulated arcade light gun games: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,119925.msg1271123.html#msg1271123
scroll down to Darth Marino's videos for emulated console games.

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