Author Topic: Light Gun (Read 4804 times)

olsteve · « **on:** December 14, 2004, 06:30:58 pm »

Does anyone know if the "PC Auto Mag Light Gun" will work with mame?

Kremmit · « **Reply #1 on:** December 15, 2004, 12:12:32 am »

It works, but is not perfect. Find lightgun reviews at:
www.retroblast.com
for more info.

olsteve · « **Reply #2 on:** December 15, 2004, 12:44:43 am »

I read the reviews on the retroblast site. They only tested three models: Act-Labs, Bio-Gun, and Virtual-Gun. The review said basically the Act-Labs gun is the way to go. However, I am using a computer monitor and not a TV and Act-Labs has discontinued their VGA model. I did find it on e-bay but it was like $170 +/-......more than I want to spend for a light gun. I saw the PC Auto Mag gun and it is listed for only $10 and comes with two games. I was just wondering if this thing is a P.O.S. or should I get it and see for only $10?

cobracon · « **Reply #3 on:** December 15, 2004, 02:47:32 am »

Do you have a web addy for someone selling the PC Auto Mag Gun?

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #4 on:** December 15, 2004, 07:37:59 am »

From the SEARCH function:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,5165.0.html

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,24204.0.html

Lilwolf · « **Reply #5 on:** December 15, 2004, 08:30:38 am »

anyone have any of the other gun types (other the act labs) and open it up (and take pictures??)

I have an actlabs and started trying to hack it into a true arcade gun. I stalled 1/2 way through since I bought a house and started moving and never got back to it.

One of the things I wanted to try is to use the arcade optics (they seem MUCH better then the act labs. I'm curious if that is the problem with some of the others. Because if it is... then there is a real solution... buy a cheap gun and a good arcade gun... and hack them.

But I'm about ready to put my act labs back together and sell it on ebay... the money doesn't seem worth it when I have two guns on the dreamcast cab right next to it....

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #6 on:** December 15, 2004, 08:34:29 am »

Quote from: Lilwolf on December 15, 2004, 08:30:38 am

But I'm about ready to put my act labs back together and sell it on ebay... the money doesn't seem worth it when I have two guns on the dreamcast cab right next to it....

If you do, then also post it in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum, they're pretty high demand right now.

olsteve · « **Reply #7 on:** December 15, 2004, 01:34:17 pm »

http://www.softwareoutlet.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=4506

This address has the PC Auto Mag Gun for $9.99 plus you get House of the Dead and Virtua Squad 2 included.

ChadTower · « **Reply #8 on:** December 15, 2004, 08:28:35 pm »

Well, if anyone wants to know how they really are, contact me in a week or two. I'm a gun game freak and I just ordered to with the link above my post.

El Bucle · « **Reply #9 on:** December 15, 2004, 08:37:54 pm »

Good luck with those guns. I was just about to order two as well. . . but in that case, expect a PM in a couple weeks.

olsteve · « **Reply #10 on:** December 16, 2004, 02:20:59 am »

I broke down and ordered one too. I will let you know how it works.....or doesn't work.

Lilwolf · « **Reply #11 on:** December 16, 2004, 08:17:25 am »

When you guys get yours. If its easy to take apart and shoot a few digital photos let me know.

I would love to see if this would be a good candidate for hacking into a real arcade gun. If the optics are the cheap part... we might be able to keep the optics from the arcade gun and get good accuracy for a cheap price. (and not have it look like the default gun in a crappy fps space clone)

ErikRuud · « **Reply #12 on:** December 16, 2004, 09:15:33 am »

If the prices for the Act-Labs gun keep climbing on EBay, this gun might actually become affordable!

http://www.vrealities.com/x-gun.html

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #13 on:** December 16, 2004, 09:19:36 am »

Quote from: ErikRuud on December 16, 2004, 09:15:33 am

If the prices for the Act-Labs gun keep climbing on EBay, this gun might actually become affordable!
http://www.vrealities.com/x-gun.html

Interesting, looks a LOT like the Act Labs gun casing.

Chris · « **Reply #14 on:** December 16, 2004, 09:55:23 am »

Quote from: Tiger-Heli on December 16, 2004, 09:19:36 am

Quote from: ErikRuud on December 16, 2004, 09:15:33 am
If the prices for the Act-Labs gun keep climbing on EBay, this gun might actually become affordable!

vincemash · « **Reply #15 on:** December 16, 2004, 11:12:12 am »

for $10 its worth the gamble...just ordered one

ErikRuud · « **Reply #16 on:** December 16, 2004, 01:05:34 pm »

Chris,

That is kind of what I was thinking as well.

This line from the description tends to support that idea,

Quote

Operating Distance from Screen: Up to 50 feet with no line-of-sight requirement

eyal8r · « **Reply #17 on:** December 16, 2004, 02:39:58 pm »

so wait- I thought I could still buy an Act-Labs gun for TV on their website- are they not continued anymore?
Thanks
D

Chris · « **Reply #18 on:** December 16, 2004, 02:44:14 pm »

Quote from: ErikRuud on December 16, 2004, 01:05:34 pm

Chris,

That is kind of what I was thinking as well.

This line from the description tends to support that idea,
Quote
Operating Distance from Screen: Up to 50 feet with no line-of-sight requirement

So you wouldn't be able to actually "aim" at anything... just swing the gun around to move an on-screen crosshair...

ChadTower · « **Reply #19 on:** December 16, 2004, 02:50:43 pm »

I'm wondering, why hasn't anyone hacked a better looking gun, like a Saturn gun?

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #20 on:** December 16, 2004, 02:52:14 pm »

Quote from: eyal8r on December 16, 2004, 02:39:58 pm

so wait- I thought I could still buy an Act-Labs gun for TV on their website- are they not continued anymore?
Thanks
D

AFAIK, the PC monitor gun is discontinued, the TV one is new and still available.

ErikRuud · « **Reply #21 on:** December 16, 2004, 03:54:11 pm »

According to an email I received from Act Labs:

Quote

- The PC USB Light Gun has been retired and we have no more stock.
There is a chance the product will come back. You can subscribe to a Wish
List on our home page for an update if the product comes back.
- The TV USB Light Gun is in stock and shipping although we are running
low on stock.

fredster · « **Reply #22 on:** December 16, 2004, 04:18:48 pm »

Quote

I'm wondering, why hasn't anyone hacked a better looking gun, like a Saturn gun?

Howard C explained it to me, It's not that simple. There has to be a white pulse and some device to measure the time. The lightgun just picks up the white pulse. The PC gun was more than just a mouse hack to a light gun, it had it's own electronics to pick up the pulse and then translate the position as a mouse click. Mame treats the lightgun like a mouse.

Just hooking a lightgun up to a PC won't cut it. It needs that mouse ability and the device to pick the pulse.

When the button is pressed, the PC gun sent a signal to the box in the back and sent a white (all monitor guns on) to the screen. The lighgun optics picked up the white (because a monitor scans from left to right, up to down scanline) and knew the time and hertz of the monitor, then it moved the mouse cursor to that point. So it was kinda complex, like hacking an optical mouse.

That's why it's hard. Now if somebody can come up with a mouse PCB hack and the chips that ACT LABS used and fused them together to make such a system, yeah, you could take about any lightgun and hack it.

ChadTower · « **Reply #23 on:** December 16, 2004, 04:35:06 pm »

What I was trying to say, really, was why not take the guts from one of the crappy looking but functional PC light guns and put them into a better gun... it should be doable, hell we can do just about anything else around here.

All you'd have is the good gun guts in a more macho casing.

ErikRuud · « **Reply #24 on:** December 17, 2004, 03:16:19 pm »

Here are two more interesting possibilities that I am trying to get more info on:

http://erealgames.com/ecommerce/os/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=28&osCsid=556eb25cf0b770f4a8ed5b30ddf8ad1b

the bottom line reads: "It is not currently compatible with PC games", hopefully the use of the word "currently" means that it will someday soon.

http://www.eopstech.com/eops/index.html

I think this is probably works simular to the Gyration Mouse.

fredster · « **Reply #25 on:** December 17, 2004, 05:10:26 pm »

Anybody know anybody from Act Labs?

If a group of people (Like the force here) were to converge on the act labs site asking for light guns maybe they would put together another production run.

It has to be that they ran so many and they aren't selling it.

Will · « **Reply #26 on:** December 17, 2004, 08:09:22 pm »

The only person that has contacts at act-labs is Kevin Steele.I'm on the wishlist and after seeing one of there 39.99 guns go for 150 on eBay last week I'm officially priced out of the market.If they make a new gun I will buy it otherwise life goes on.

ErikRuud · « **Reply #27 on:** December 19, 2004, 12:22:46 pm »

I located one in Australia, but shipping to the states would be too costly.

If someone from Australia needs one let me know, and I will tell you who has it.

Erik

eyal8r · « **Reply #28 on:** December 19, 2004, 12:26:25 pm »

and while we're at it- I'd like to convince them to have a little more realistic looking gun. The futuristic thing just doesn't quite for work me when I'm shooting at ducks and cowboys... LOL! I think it's a great idea to ban together- who wants to organize a small 'group'- maybe start up a side discussion of it???
D

ceew · « **Reply #29 on:** December 31, 2004, 03:46:42 am »

Hi could someone email the manual for the pc auto mag to me
i just bought it off ebay with no software and manual and am in a bit of a bother
thanks
seew

ChadTower · « **Reply #30 on:** February 14, 2005, 10:45:33 am »

Grr. Went to install one of mine (finally) last night, found out it requires a joystick port. My sound is onboard, no stick port. I will install a sound card and try from there.

RayB · « **Reply #31 on:** February 14, 2005, 11:51:50 am »

That's weird. Sometime even with onboard sound they include what they call a "game port".

Chris · « **Reply #32 on:** February 14, 2005, 12:00:19 pm »

Quote from: RayB on February 14, 2005, 11:51:50 am

That's weird. Sometime even with onboard sound they include what they call a "game port".

Most systems I've ever had with onboard sound have had game ports, except for the latest one. You may be able to get by with a USB-game port adapter.

Nocturnaloner · « **Reply #33 on:** February 14, 2005, 12:44:56 pm »

Quote from: ChadTower on February 14, 2005, 10:45:33 am

Grr. Went to install one of mine (finally) last night, found out it requires a joystick port. My sound is onboard, no stick port. I will install a sound card and try from there.

Definitely let us know how it goes. Game port guns haven't been spoken of with much respect around here. They're considered to be pretty inaccurate, but I'd like a first hand report.

ChadTower · « **Reply #34 on:** February 14, 2005, 04:22:24 pm »

Yeah. I have an SB Live card poking around someplace so it won't cost me more than a half hour's time to get it installed. My system is technically a server (Dell 400SC), so I can see how it would not have a gameport onboard.

Kremmit · « **Reply #35 on:** February 14, 2005, 04:28:14 pm »

I went ahead and bought one for my wife, she really likes House of the Dead. The durned thing didn't work worth beans with House of the Dead, but was OK with Virtua Cop.

stevodevo · « **Reply #36 on:** March 10, 2005, 03:01:26 pm »

Any update on this? ChadTower? Were these guns worth even $10!? Do they work with MAME at all?

GGKoul · « **Reply #37 on:** March 10, 2005, 03:03:03 pm »

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6159842497&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

ErikRuud · « **Reply #38 on:** March 10, 2005, 03:26:54 pm »

I did go ahead and order the PC Auto Mag gun. I fihgured the two games alone made it worth riskng $10.00.

The gun does function in MAME, but the accuracy is really poor. I tried it with Duck Hunt, No matter how carefully I did the calibration, It seemd like I had to aim under the ducks and pull the trigger right before the were above the gun sights.

Testing it on the windows desktop showed that it often registered shots in random places on the screen.

The pass through for the mouse did not seem to work at all, and when I plugged it in as a PS2 mouse, the serial mouse for my spinner would not work.


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