Using real arcade guns on PC with mame?

[Zebra]

Is there a way to use real arcade guns on a PC?

I've given up hope that anyone is ever going to release a genuinely good home arcade light gun that matches up to the real arcade gun experience. So... I'm either going to have to build my own or find a way to use a real used Operation Wolf or Thunderbolt gun etc on my pc.

Can it be done?

[BadMouth]

This is the only way to have real light guns on a MAME PC: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,138723.msg1433282.html#msg1433282
(the interface is hard to find and requires a CRT arcade monitor)

The games you mention use mounted positional guns.  (well operation wolf used a light gun, but it was mounted like a positional gun)
Mounted positional guns are basically just analog joysticks.  All you need to do is wire the potentiometers to an interface that shows up as a joystick and then calibrate them correctly in windows, MAME, and the emulated service menu within MAME.

[Zebra]

This is the only way to have real light guns on a MAME PC: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,138723.msg1433282.html#msg1433282
(the interface is hard to find and requires a CRT arcade monitor)

The games you mention use mounted positional guns.  (well operation wolf used a light gun, but it was mounted like a positional gun)
Mounted positional guns are basically just analog joysticks.  All you need to do is wire the potentiometers to an interface that shows up as a joystick and then calibrate them correctly in windows, MAME, and the emulated service menu within MAME.

It's the light guns I wanted to use. The positional ones are easy to replicate as you said.

I do play on real CRT arcade monitors so that isn't an issue for me. If those adapter boards are not available though, then I have no good way of connecting an operation Wolf gun. That's a shame.

What about arcade guns from some of the newer cabs like the Raw Thrills Terminator Salvation guns? Those games run on PC hardware so, could a real arcade Terminator Salvation gun be made to work in Mame with older light gun games?

Those Raw Thrills guns seem to work every bit as well as the older arcade light guns and that is my real goal. I'm not fixated on the underlying technology. I just want an arcade gun that works and feels right (and authentic). My Aimtrak guns just feel like I'm using a mouse with noticeable lag.

[DudeRegular]

Those use IR based solutions. One of  the guys here was working on something at one point. I think he was posting over at the arcade-projects boards. It was using sega parts IIRC.