Are you happy with your actlabs usb pc gun?

[Shieldwolf]

I'm thinking of buying two and I just wanted to know if you found them to be worth it. I'll be using winxp and no namemame so I should be able to use two.

[Magnet_Eye]

I just got one and am having mixed results. A lot of games just don't work right for some reason. Some I think it's because the actual game you hold the trigger and it keeps firing (auto-fire) and this damn gun doesnt have autofire! So, I can't play Jurassic Park, Operation Wolf and many others. Also, some games just don't work at all. I dunno wth is going on. I can play old games like Duck Hunt, Hoagan's Alley, etc..and it works fairly well.

I think if you really want a gun, this is probably the best option out there. I hope someone designs a better gun someday, one with more features like auto-fire.

 

[NoOne=NBA=]

Mine works great.
There are some issues with certain games and such; but when it works right, it works great.

From what I've heard, they are the most accurate of the guns on the market, and I'd have to agree because I can't imagine having a more accurate one than mine.

The cases are butt-ugly; but, until people stop buying them because of that, I don't think they'll make a GOOD case for them.

I've thought about taking a Dremel to mine and using Bondo to make a prettier gun, but that project is WAY down the list.

[Doc-]

I have twin USB Act-labs PC guns and I am very happy with them.

It can be a bit of a pain to configure them with new games at times - sometimes you need to remap the buttons or take some extra steps to go through the machine specific calibration.  However once you are up and running they work great!

You will need to run AnalogMameXP to be able to use dual PC lightguns.  I don't think Nonamemame has the XP support for dual lightguns needed to run the PC USB versions.  AnalogmameXP has a special driver for this.

[Shieldwolf]

I thought noname had added the dual win xp I have to check it out. To bad you can't just buy a happs gun and have it work with mame. I would love some time crisis guns.

[Sasquatch!]

My answer is "No, not really."  I have one gun, and it's so intermittant with its results that I'm not going to buy a second gun, nor am I going to try to permanently graft it to my cab.  It's not horrible, but it's not great either.

[Minwah]

I wasn't overly impressed with mine (not too great accuracy and occasional way-off-shots basically)...

Just as well really as my hack ended up in 2 non-working guns  

[Teknique]

As pertains to accuracy... are any of you shooting through a plexiglass monitor covering?  Im wondering if this would have any effect on results?

Tek

[Chris]

As pertains to accuracy... are any of you shooting through a plexiglass monitor covering?  Im wondering if this would have any effect on results?

Mine are very accurate... I'm shooting through glass...

The guns should be pretty good with lightgun games, and less good with positional gun games

Some history on the "ugly" cases: At one time, Act-Labs was set to release a very realistic looking gun product.  The week it was to be released, the Columbine attacks happened, and people were claiming that these guys learned to shoot by playing Doom.  Act-Labs scrapped its plans.  I'm presuming that this has something to do with why their guns don't look remotely realistic now.

Personally, I like the guns.  The cabinet is mostly used by 8-10 year old girls, and the smaller, lighter guns suite their hands well.  Autofire would be nice, but the nature of PC gun technology pretty much prohibits it, as it would require live tracking. I had considered hooking up a relay to add autofire, but MAME starts to bog down pretty badly when I pull the trigger rapidly, so if I had a relay doing the work it would get even worse.

One solution to autofire, I suppose, would be to hack anotrher button on the gun and map it to Button 1.  Holding down that button would autofire in the last position the crosshairs were in; you would just have to continue shooting occasionally with the trigger to move the crosshairs.

--Chris

[Doc-]

As pertains to accuracy... are any of you shooting through a plexiglass monitor covering?  Im wondering if this would have any effect on results?

Tek

I'm shooting the PC version through thin plexiglass over the monitor, and it works fine.  When I started the guns were shooting a little low and left, but after I adjusted the monitor settings a bit they are now very accurate.

BTW - You can use either Analog Mame XP or Noname MAME XP - either will work with dual PC lightguns.  Apparently Noname does have the "dual mouse" XP drivers needed.

[GamingGreg]

I have two guns and I tried using them with an old arcade monitor, and my accuracy was really poor.  However, I've since replaced that 19" arcade monitor (as it's on it's last leg) with a 19" computer monitor, and the accuracy is very good now.  Also I am shooting through plexiglass, and it doesn't seem to effect it much.

[MrBond]

Mine works just fine for the lightgun games (not so much the positional)
Police Trainer is awesome!  For this game alone it is worth it.

[Magnet_Eye]

what about games like jurassic park, etc? can you guys get these to work. i cant remember right now, but most of the lightgun games simply do not work for me. On some you shoot, but it doesnt do anything.

[Chris]

Jurassic Park dooesn't work well for me; the cursor drifts to the left.  I think it's a positional gun game....

For me, I get the best results in Sharpshooter and Police Trainer; next in Zero Point, Zero Point 2, Area 51, Maximum Force, and Duck Hunt.  Terminator 2 and Operation Wolf are good if you can pull the trigger faste enough, as you have no autofire.  Space Gun and Alien 3 work okay.  (For Terminator 2, you need to calibrate the gun in the game's service mode, if i remember correctly.)

I'm using MAME:Analog+ with two Act-Labs USB PC lightguns and Windows 98.

Remember, to get accurate results you need to have your monitor adjusted so the display fills the screen.

[FloLob]

Can anybody comment on the Virtua Gun from Lik-Sang, plz.
I have read the review at retroblast, but I am still not sure which gun i should order..... this one or the gun from ActLabs.

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=54&products_id=1429&

[hulkster]

everything ive heard from people about the other guns is....not good.  they look cool, but accuracy sucks.  if you absolutely cant wait for some new gun that actually works right to come out, then get the marvin the martian gun.

[FloLob]

While surfin the web , i discovered different versions of the
Act Labs Lightgun. THe USB ones and this:

http://www.psxshop.com/product_info.php/cPath/200/products_id/342

What kind of gun is this, whats the difference ? USB / Gameport ? Its not listed on the Actlabs Homepage.

[Chemixtry]

I think that is their regular gun with this replacement case:
http://www.act-labs.com/scripts/catdetails.asp?catcode=parts-gun

[FloLob]

I found out in the Act Labs Forum:

Its an old an discontinued product and uses the gameport.
Its not compatible with Win ME or newer, and not compatible with Mame.

So hands of this gun !!!!

[Shieldwolf]

does it work with Time Crisis.

[menace]

My 2 cents:

After getting it all working (had some problems with analogmame but they are ironed out) I am quite pleased with the results, the accuracy is good, the games (i've only played area 51 so far) are good and it does feel like the arcade--you really do forget about the space gun look of the thing while you are playing.  Calibration is a bit of a pain but it literally only takes 5 seconds per gun so its something I can live with.  Fortunately the gun is light weight since your arms do get tired on the longer games--if it was any heavier it would make playing less comfortable.  

If you buy them--make sure to adjust your vertical hold to the point where the screen almost starts to roll--this makes the flicker when the shots register, alot less noticeable.

My only complaint is the hardware--the cables are too short meaning that the main box has to sit on the pc inside the cab since the video pass-through cables are so short.  And since you have to sit it so close, the tethers to the gun end up being shortened as well (I can still stand a few feet back however)  It just makes positioning the hardware more difficult.

All in all--very happy with my purchase.

[MameMaster!]

....check out Kevin Steele's great review of all of these guns at:

http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/lightgun1.html

MameMaster!