MAME Light Guns Are Here!!

[Trimoor]

In light of the recent interest in affordable MAME light guns, I have taken it upon myself to provide everyone with a solution.  After laboring for what seemed like minutes, I have created a near perfect dual gun tracking system using two webcams and an intermediate processor.

It works on all monitor types and is fully compatable with MAME lightgun games.

(Altoids prototype version available for a limited time only.)

The USB webcams plug into my super secret patent-pending co-processor dongle, (it's just a microprocessor) where their images are analyzed to determine the relative position of the monitor outline.  Absolute cooridinates are calculated from the images, which are sent through a USB cable to the computer as two mice.  Unlike normal mice, the cooridinates are absolute, meaning it constantly knows the exact position.  (Think of an artist's tablet.)

The cameras and virtual mice are fully HID compliant, so no extra drivers or software are needed.  (I'm not wasting my time with windoze.)  The dongle allows the mice positions to be updated 30 times per second, fast enough for every game I tried.

Unlike the upcoming e-real gun, my system has six degrees of freedom, so it will track the gun no matter where you move.

Once my custom PCBs get here, I will be selling these dongles for $50 each.  (I'm willing to go higher if anyone wants...)

How to use:

• Plug one or two USB cameras into the dongle
• Mount the cameras into your own lightgun case (not included)
• Connect the dongle to the computer with the included A-B USB cable
• Connect the included AC power adapter to the dongle
• Wire up the buttons from the lightgun case to a keyboard encoder (not included)

More details and ordering info will be available soon.

Well, what do you think?

[TalkingOctopus]

Haha.   Nice April Fools Joke.

[quarterback]

Haha.

[Flinkly]

dangit...and to think i read it all and was actually interested.  also, he posted last night at ten, so thats cheating in the april fools department, since it technically wasn't april fools day.

nice picture though.  i was beginning to think of how it would know where the monitor was...or the outline.

[1UP]

Hopefully this is not a joke, but it must be because he said "no software is needed".  How then does Mame even know what to make of it?

[Flinkly]

well, he says no extra software is needed.  everything to interperet the info should be on the dongle....wait.  why am i even arguing about this? stupid april...

[IntruderAlert]

Thanks but I already have one

[RetroBorg]

Ah very good, I must admit he had me fooled but in my defence I've just got off a long days works and it is 3:30am in South Australia on the 2nd of April so I guess I wasn't expecting it. 

Damm I really wanted that dongle. 

[AceTKK]

I'm not sure that this is an April fool's joke.  This guy has been posting about how he's working on a lightgun solution for a long time now; run a search on his name and you'll see what I mean. 

That said, I'm skeptical about his solution.  How can the device possibly be compatible with hundreds of different models of cameras?  If this is a serious post I'd be very interested in buying one if we can see it in action.

-Ace-

[IntruderAlert]

I like his rotary joystick mod
http://www.trimoor.com/rotary_joystick/

[quarterback]

dangit...and to think i read it all and was actually interested.

[quarterback]

Hopefully this is not a joke, but it must be because he said "no software is needed".

[brandon]

I like his rotary joystick mod
http://www.trimoor.com/rotary_joystick/

yeah me too!  too bad those encoders are damn near impossible to find though...

[Trimoor]

Yeah, the whole thing is a hoax.  I hinted at it a few weeks ago to make it seem more plausible.  I'm in the central time zone, so it was after midnight for me.  Even the board clock told me it was after midnight.

The "laboring for what seemed like minutes" is just my style of writing.  It make it look like my superhuman abilities are less then average.

I'm glad everyone likes my rotary joystick mod, and for anyone interested, I have a spare MS mouse with mechanical sensors.  The only problem is, I don't really care about money, so I don't want to sell it.  Trading is acceptable, but I don't know what I want.

It's too bad the TalkingOctopus ruined the joke in the first post.

[brandon]

I have a spare MS mouse with mechanical sensors.

[TalkingOctopus]

...It's too bad the TalkingOctopus ruined the joke in the first post...

Awww... I didn't mean to ruin it .  Sorry!  It seems like a lot of people still thought it was plausible even after my post.  I thought the picture with the altoids tin gave it away.  Also, I know a bit about software and hardware.  What you described would require a powerful co-processor.  Finally, there were some weird phrases that I thought gave it away.  Anyway, it was a good joke!