lightguns on CRT shoot to the right without calibration *solved*

[KenToad]

So I got a Sega light phaser and found that it shoots just to the right of the barrel on my 60 hz Trinitron flat tube CRT. Even if I touch the barrel to the screen, the shots never waver from just right of the barrel, which is odd.

I have a Guncon 1 and two Guncon 2's that all shoot perfectly during and after calibration with games that were designed for Guncons. I also have an NES Zapper that seems to be accurate, although it doesn't have a way to see the specific pixels it's targeting and most of the targets are large rectangles.

Lately, I've been messing around with PS1 games like Lethal Enforcers I and II and Project Horned Owl that I patched to use the Guncon instead of Konami's Justifier and they have the same problem of shooting just to the right of the barrel, even after calibration. I would assume that the calibration screen hasn't been patched to work properly.

Anyway, I'm posting this after much fruitless searching for a solution online to see if perhaps someone on these forums has encountered a similar issue.

*Edit* Quality component cables fixed this problem. Details in post #10 below.

[Titchgamer]

My light phaser shoots slightly off to the left so no you are not alone.
Never bothered to look into it but I suspect the only fix would be to nudge the sensor over a bit inside the gun.

[KenToad]

I forgot to mention that I did open up the phaser and attempt to nudge the sensor to no avail. I didn't take the whole thing out of the housing because it doesn't work well without the lens in place. I also thoroughly cleaned the lens.

[Titchgamer]

I forgot to mention that I did open up the phaser and attempt to nudge the sensor to no avail. I didn't take the whole thing out of the housing because it doesn't work well without the lens in place. I also thoroughly cleaned the lens.

Hmm did it make any difference at all?

[KenToad]

No difference. The weirdest part is how I can place the tip of the gun against the screen and the shots still register to the right of the barrel, leading me to think this might be a TV issue. With the phaser, it's at least nice that you can see exactly where your shots are hitting with the Marksman game.

[Titchgamer]

I was just thinking the same thing.
Must be the TV.

[KenToad]

Now I'm back to thinking it's a software issue. I tested the Guncon 1 with the playstation port of Crypt Killer patched for Guncon support and it shot perfectly straight, even before calibration. I even patched the playstation version of Policenauts, but the game froze about 15 minutes in, before I got to the first shooting section. I'll probably give it another try.

I guess I should have mentioned, too, that I'm on an unmodified original Playstation and I'm using my light phaser on a Model 1 Genesis both hooked up through composite.  For the light phaser guns, I'm running hacked Master system games modified to use port 2 through a Mega SD flash cart. Everything works perfectly, except that all phaser games I've tested have the aiming issue and only certain hacked playstation games have the aiming issue.

[Titchgamer]

Well my PS1, Mega Drive and pretty much all my other consoles are fine with lightguns its only the Master System that is off.

But its also the only one without any calibration :p

[KenToad]

Do you have a Justifier for the Mega Drive? I don't own it, but I was curious if it can be calibrated. Seems like a waste to pickup, as so few games used it, especially if it can't be calibrated.

[Titchgamer]

I have only played lethal enforcers with the justifier but yes it does have calibration.

If you do go down the justifier route get 2 blue ones.

To play 2 player you need a blue and a pink but the pink ones are rare and very expensive.

But you can modify a blue one to work as a pink. I mod’d one of mine.

[KenToad]

In case anyone finds this thread in the future, getting HD Retrovision component cables for my Genesis solved this problem. I'm not sure if the crappy replacement composite cables were the source of the problem, since I don't have good quality composite cables for my Genesis to test, but the problem went away when I invested in the new cables.

I also got a Sega Justifier recently and the accuracy is decent, not as good as Guncon or the phaser, but pretty good.