Got my gun today... Review

[Xiaou2]

  Act Labs gun that is : P

 
   Review:

 I played a few games in mame.  Accuracy was a bit off here and there... but wasnt bad at all.   Made previously unplayable games decent.   I especially liked the feel of pointblank  : )

 In windows, I was opening and closing programs, selecting tiny menus..ect! : )   Was pretty cool stuff.  I even navigated to this message board with little problem at all!  

 I played a few of those flash games.   XiaoXiao was Amazing! : )   Very fun, and almost worth it just for that feel.  There are links on the cd by pressing the 'click here' shape.

 The Cord was nice and thick so I wont fear it breaking anytime soon.  The hookup was easy.


 Now for the bad...

 The gun trigger spring is soooo strong that my fingers were cramping in pain after only a few minutes of play : (

 The trigger was also too close to the handgrip, causing you to have to bend you fingers outward in an uncomfortable position.  

 The second button (right click) is in a place thats impossible to get to when holding the gun in your left hand.    And when putting it in your right hand... its still awkard because the shape of the gun at that point makes your thumb extend outward to reach it.  Its not painfull, but not comfortable at all... and I couldnt see keeping that type of hold on the thing for more than 2 minutes max.

  This means... that games that require you to press a button to reload... may have to reach over to the keyboard.  >: (

  They Should have put the 2nd button under the trigger, for the 3rd finger to press.  That way, its not stresssing your fingers out... as well as making it easy for both left and right handers to use.
 
 Also,  "IF"  the button was 'easily' accessable,  then they should have included a program that allowed you to map a keystroke to it... so that it would be compatible with keyboard only games... or to be able to change the button to any button you wanted.

 I think a pump-action gun may have been a better idea.  That way, you could reload by puming the front end twords you... as well as have 'several' buttons on the front part of the gun.    Having a place for both hands would make it more confortable, controllable, and give you a more stable shot.

 The cord length isnt as bad as I though... but still should be at least another 3ft... because your pcs vga is 3ft behind the pc case!  and nobody is gona turn thier case backwards to get more extention.  

 I dont know how anyone got t2 to work...   The gun dosnt allow 'Rapidfire'  by holding down the trigger.   The game requires holding down the trigger and moving... and its way too fast for you to do that with the actlabs gun.  


  All in all, its not a bad piece of equipment.   Like I said, its extremely accurate in windows.   I will probably hack it by adding a foot pedal instead of that lousy side button... and losen up the trigger spring somehow.   Those 2 things alone will make the experience much more enjoyable.   Adding a recoil uint would help as well.    

 Hmm an additional comment... would be that it may be too accurate.  Meaning, that by a simple small wrist angle off, and its gona look like its not centered properly.   I dont remember the arcade guns being so fussy.  This may have to do with programming (fuzzy logic) or difficulty,  the type of display (less pixels = less accuracy probs),  better lenses (different refraction and magnification properties - maybe more like a fisheye effect ?)   ect...

 I have to say... that I am dissapointed in the design.  I dont know who they have test the stuff... or who makes the designs... but whoever they are, they need to be replaced.

hope they improove the gun bigtime when they make the tv version.



Steve

 

[slug54]

I also got mine .It seems to work fairly well in most games
but the 2 games I was most interested in I can't get to work.  Zero point and T2.

Zero point the aim is off about 2 inches to the left and up a little bit no matter how many times I calibrate.

and T2 the aim is stuck off screen , I callibrated the gun
and also set the test dipswitch in T2 and ran the in game gun calibration but it still won't aim correctly.

Can someone with a gun check these and let me know what needs to be done to make them work.

I am running mame32 v061 but I did also test with mame.exe


                                    Thanks
                                     slug54

[MrArcade]

I think T2, Revolution X, and some others used potentiometers in the base of the gun...not optics

[Howard_Casto]

I think T2, Revolution X, and some others used potentiometers in the base of the gun...not optics

Yeah they did.... along with operation wolf, it's sequal, and some other game that I can never remember the name to.  

[tom61]

I think T2, Revolution X, and some others used potentiometers in the base of the gun...not optics

Depending on how the driver is coded, this shouldn't be a problem.  If Mame can calculate the mouse position, the game shouldn't have trouble with suddenly getting a new resistance value for that spot.

[Howard_Casto]

I think T2, Revolution X, and some others used potentiometers in the base of the gun...not optics

Depending on how the driver is coded, this shouldn't be a problem.  If Mame can calculate the mouse position, the game shouldn't have trouble with suddenly getting a new resistance value for that spot.

Yeah, supposedly all analog games are compatible with the light guns.... if you turn on the lightgun support it even replaces "ad stick y" with "lightgun y"

[Superdave]

On these games, center the games using your trackball or mouse. That's what I did and mine works fine