Debating on adding light guns...Aimtrak/Sinden/something else? LCD screen.

[P-chan]

The price difference between Aimtrak and Sinden is pretty small (around $200 for a pair).  I don't mind adding a sensor bar, but it looks like the Sinden gun is the better technology.

Has anyone actually used the Sinden gun in person?  The Aimtrak?  How are they?  How much do you actually use them?

[CitznFish]

Winding has only shipped out about 100 so far, I'd be surprised if anyone here got one already. The non-recoil guns will be out to everyone in 6 to 8 weeks. I have 2 coming, can't wait.

[P-chan]

SIGH.  I have a pair of Sinden light guns (non-recoil) coming in January..  Another $240 down the tube

[Drakkorcia]

My Sinden's are coming this month but months ago I bought an Aimtrak because I really wanted to play and I wasn't sure how long the Sinden would take to be released. In my opinion the Aimtrak is working just fine. It hasn't required any calibration outside of MAME. The shell is more simplified with only a couple buttons and the trigger whereas the Sinden seems to have a d-pad, more buttons and pump action. The non recoil Sinden cost me $120 USD with shipping and the Aimtrak was $105. For the price and the fact they are now shipping, in my opinion Sinden is the only way to go unless the Aimtrak's come down in price. Significantly.

[Phreakwars]

I have a Sinden coming in this month. Can't speak of the performance on it yet. All I care about is playing Hogan's Alley. I went with the Sinden because I don't like utilizing those stupid sensor bars. Granted, if one was so inclined they could easily make a sensor bar and integrate it into their build, but I want accuracy and allegedly the Sinden delivers better on that.. guess that remains to be seen. One thought on that is needing the white border, which I understand you can get around by creating one on the artwork bezel?? Would beat seeing it on every screen/game. I don't know if this has changed since I last read about setup on it, but something to consider.

[Howard_Casto]

Boy did you waste money then.  You can play Hogan's Alley with a modified zapper and modified nes rom.  It's like 30 bucks total. 

[Drakkorcia]

Apparently you can change both the size and color of the Sinden's border so it doesn't have to be a noticeable white box. I have to test it when it arrives and will certainly update everyone.

[Drakkorcia]

I got my Sinden this week so I can give a detailed and accurate opinion. The first thing I noticed is the trigger on the Sinden is quiet and smooth as opposed to the Aimtrak which is clicky. Next, the Sinden has a pump action, 4 buttons and a d pad to the Aimtraks two buttons. The pump action works as a reload and is so much better than having to shoot offscreen.

Build quality is solid, it looks great, and the cord has ample length. With the pump action and sight notch at the top it didn't fit in my Aimtrak holster so you will need to order one as an extra perk or find an aftermarket that specifically lists the Sinden as compatible.

Aside from being able to lose the sensor bar, the Sinden destroys the Aimtrak in terms of accuracy. It doesn't matter if you change your body's position and you don't have to recalibrate. You point and shoot. Because the Sinden is detected as a mouse you can make speed adjustments via the mouse settings in the OS.

The software has a lot of settings to play with and is necessary to make the lightgun work. For an arcade cabinet I set the applications exe to load on startup (run -> shell:startup) along with my frontend so I don't have to find the exe and click on it every time I want to play a lightgun game. By default the Sinden's white border is bigger than I preferred but you can adjust both the border size and the color of the border. Andy includes documentation but you don't need to use all the advanced features to make it work. He goes over the basic first steps but once that's done you're good to go. One thing that will help a lot is the software includes presets on the configuration page such as "thin border" that you can select and go to the different configurations pages within the app and see what the values are to get an idea of what everything does and tweak accordingly.

When the software is running, pressing the back right button will turn the border on fullscreen, pressing it again will change the border to 4:3, and once more to turn it off so you won't have the border showing when you play non lightgun games or in the game menus in the frontend.

Other than this, the usual MAME mapping is required. Setup your Lightgun X and Y mapping, the trigger button, or anything else you normally do.

In my opinion the Sinden is everything it claimed to be and more. There is no substitute.

[P-chan]

I got my Sinden this week so I can give a detailed and accurate opinion. The first thing I noticed is the trigger on the Sinden is quiet and smooth as opposed to the Aimtrak which is clicky. Next, the Sinden has a pump action, 4 buttons and a d pad to the Aimtraks two buttons. The pump action works as a reload and is so much better than having to shoot offscreen.

Build quality is solid, it looks great, and the cord has ample length. With the pump action and sight notch at the top it didn't fit in my Aimtrak holster so you will need to order one as an extra perk or find an aftermarket that specifically lists the Sinden as compatible.

Aside from being able to lose the sensor bar, the Sinden destroys the Aimtrak in terms of accuracy. It doesn't matter if you change your body's position and you don't have to recalibrate. You point and shoot. Because the Sinden is detected as a mouse you can make speed adjustments via the mouse settings in the OS.

The software has a lot of settings to play with and is necessary to make the lightgun work. For an arcade cabinet I set the applications exe to load on startup (run -> shell:startup) along with my frontend so I don't have to find the exe and click on it every time I want to play a lightgun game. By default the Sinden's white border is bigger than I preferred but you can adjust both the border size and the color of the border. Andy includes documentation but you don't need to use all the advanced features to make it work. He goes over the basic first steps but once that's done you're good to go. One thing that will help a lot is the software includes presets on the configuration page such as "thin border" that you can select and go to the different configurations pages within the app and see what the values are to get an idea of what everything does and tweak accordingly.

When the software is running, pressing the back right button will turn the border on fullscreen, pressing it again will change the border to 4:3, and once more to turn it off so you won't have the border showing when you play non lightgun games or in the game menus in the frontend.

Other than this, the usual MAME mapping is required. Setup your Lightgun X and Y mapping, the trigger button, or anything else you normally do.

In my opinion the Sinden is everything it claimed to be and more. There is no substitute.

Damn! Thanks for the review! Excited to get mine!

[Titchgamer]

I got my Sinden this week so I can give a detailed and accurate opinion. The first thing I noticed is the trigger on the Sinden is quiet and smooth as opposed to the Aimtrak which is clicky. Next, the Sinden has a pump action, 4 buttons and a d pad to the Aimtraks two buttons. The pump action works as a reload and is so much better than having to shoot offscreen.

Build quality is solid, it looks great, and the cord has ample length. With the pump action and sight notch at the top it didn't fit in my Aimtrak holster so you will need to order one as an extra perk or find an aftermarket that specifically lists the Sinden as compatible.

Aside from being able to lose the sensor bar, the Sinden destroys the Aimtrak in terms of accuracy. It doesn't matter if you change your body's position and you don't have to recalibrate. You point and shoot. Because the Sinden is detected as a mouse you can make speed adjustments via the mouse settings in the OS.

The software has a lot of settings to play with and is necessary to make the lightgun work. For an arcade cabinet I set the applications exe to load on startup (run -> shell:startup) along with my frontend so I don't have to find the exe and click on it every time I want to play a lightgun game. By default the Sinden's white border is bigger than I preferred but you can adjust both the border size and the color of the border. Andy includes documentation but you don't need to use all the advanced features to make it work. He goes over the basic first steps but once that's done you're good to go. One thing that will help a lot is the software includes presets on the configuration page such as "thin border" that you can select and go to the different configurations pages within the app and see what the values are to get an idea of what everything does and tweak accordingly.

When the software is running, pressing the back right button will turn the border on fullscreen, pressing it again will change the border to 4:3, and once more to turn it off so you won't have the border showing when you play non lightgun games or in the game menus in the frontend.

Other than this, the usual MAME mapping is required. Setup your Lightgun X and Y mapping, the trigger button, or anything else you normally do.

In my opinion the Sinden is everything it claimed to be and more. There is no substitute.

I echo all the above, but great review

[Phreakwars]

Got mine (Sinden) the other day too. Totally echo everything that was said. At first I only got it for Hogan's Alley and Duck Hunt, but after using it, I totally got the bug for other games. Have tried it with T2, Big Buck Hunter, Wild Gunman, Police Trainer and Operation Wolf. Works fantastic, now if only my shooting skills didn't suck with age.

Here's a vid sampler of Hogan's Alley I did with it, love having no cross hairs, that's annoying.