Main > Reviews
Got my Act-Lab Gun Today (Mini Review)
Analog-X:
If you are easily offended than dont read.
To my surprise the The Act-Labs gun arrived in the mail today. So here is my initial review of it.
- Upon opening the box you will find the Gun and CD-ROM, Advanced Users: You know what to do here.
Novice Users: There is no indication of what to do next, and how to proceed with installation.
- When I inserted the CD-ROM a menu poped up with a Macromedia Director Created Menu with options of Gun Installation Game support etc... upon clicking the Gun Installation button, I got an Run Time error and C++ Visual Library error (Win98SE) to proceed exploring the CD Manualy to find the installation instructions as a Text File.
- When you finaly install the Gun and Turn your PC on in my case (Win98SE) it looks for your Win98 Installation CD, so you better have that handy since no Drivers or Inf Files were included on the CD Included in the package.
- The installation instructions talks about Button #2 located on the left side of the gun but does not go any further on explaining what its function is.
- One of the selling features of this Gun is Mame32 Compatibility but again there is not explanation anywhere on how to get it working properly in mame32. I tried and failed. I tested Duck Hunt, Point Blank, Terminator 2 in all games I can fire but the aim is stuck off to the side of the screen.
- The Calibration, the method for calibration is pretty simple, however and onscreen vertical/horizontial guide line would have been much help in calibrating the gun properly, after many attempts at calibration, the gun aim it still off centre, and I've been using the Supplied Macromedia Game to test this.
The Gun is very simplistic and lacks features compared to playstation 1 guns that I bought for the same price range, for example my PS1 Guns have the option of Recoil effect, Lights on the side of the gun when firing, Auto Fire or Pulse Fire options.
The Cord going from the PC Adaptor to the GUN is only 6' (feet) long and might not be long enough for people who might want to install it in a Cab installation. I know ActLabs didnt design the gun for Cab installation but its something to consider.
The Gun did work pretty straight forward out of the box, but I think the product was rushed a little. Some printed instructions should have been included for the novice user, and since Mame is one of the Advertised features of the gun on their site, a little faq should have been written on how to configure it properly in mame32.
Thats my 2 Cents.
Sasquatch!:
I've gotten the feeling that it has been rushed too, and I've never even used the damn thing! Sucks that it might look to be that way...
Xiaou2:
Just so ya know... Terminator 2 used Pots (gun was a big joystick), so Im not sure on optical compatibility. I also know that you have to manually calibrate the gun in mame by going into the test menu. This may be true for other games as well... as its not just the pc that needs to know the guns coordinates... its the arcade machine that needs to as well.
Also, Ive heard that the Duck Hunt driver was temporarily broken in mame.
SirPoonga:
Terminator 2 is a big joystick, BUT right now in MAME gun is simulated witht he mouse. The act labs gun "simulates" a mouse so therefore it should work...
Analog-X:
Check out the games mame supported gamees list.
http://www.act-labs.com/gun_gamelisting.htm or
http://www.act-labs.com/gun_mamegames.htm
Terminator 2 and Duck Hunt are listed that is why I tried them out. I also tried out, Zero Point, Point Blank, but same results. I followed the included instructions and calibrated the gun inside the game but didnt get it working either.
I will try your suggestions of calibrating the gun inside each individual game use each games test screen.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version