Act Labs Light Guns are back!!!

[the3eyedblindman]

Take it from me, the act labs gun works great on both T2 and Revolution X, no matter what others say. Also, what have you heard about andy from ultimarc making a lightgun? I havent heard anything...

[dan57fina]

anyone had any luck interfacing a guncon 2 to a pc yet?

[markb]

I'm gutted for myself. I literally posted my guns on eBay less than an hour ago. I should have checked the forum first!

Ah well you win some you lose some eh!

[Shape D.]

have a friend bid some rediculous price on them.

[the3eyedblindman]

I can keep upping the price for you...but if I end up winning Im not paying.... Its up to you..

[MrSaLTy]

Just say your dog ate it..... 

[mahuti]

Watch it... shill biddin' is illegal.

[markb]

Not too bothered really, I think it's more important that there's a good source of guns out there than making a few bucks. Besides I genuinely would have felt guilty if they had of went for an extorionate sum and I honestly mean that.

Besides if I wanted to have made a profit I wouldn't have posted the link to the shop in Holland that sells them and would have just bought them all myself!

[JODY]

Also, what have you heard about andy from ultimarc making a lightgun? I havent heard anything...

I read Andy's post here on BYOAC that he was looking into a light gun.

On eReal's gun:

For the non-believer's, you may go to eReal's website and read the news that they committed resources to do a PC version of their gun.

[NoOne=NBA=]

No screen flash and very accurate.

The report on the board here awhile back was that accuracy was suspect on them.
If you moved too far from the original calibration point, or altered your aiming method, it required recalibration.

That, and the official word from the makers was "why would you want to aim it like a real gun? Just hipshoot like the guy in this picture".

Any gun is only as accurate as the person aiming it.
There's a reason you don't see professional shooters hipshooting.
It looks neat in the cowboy movies, but is horribly inaccurate.

[JODY]

No screen flash and very accurate.

The report on the board here awhile back was that accuracy was suspect on them.
If you moved too far from the original calibration point, or altered your aiming method, it required recalibration.

That, and the official word from the makers was "why would you want to aim it like a real gun? Just hipshoot like the guy in this picture".

Any gun is only as accurate as the person aiming it.
There's a reason you don't see professional shooters hipshooting.
It looks neat in the cowboy movies, but is horribly inaccurate.

I must have missed that.  The review I read was by a gaming magazine.  If I remember right they gave it a 8.5 out of 10.  The reviewer never mentioned shooting from the hip and left the impression he used it as a regular light gun and mentioned the accuracy was very good.  Told how the calibration was different from normal.  Due to how it tracks he mentioned it would be more accurate with large displays.  E.g. if you're shooting at a target on a screen displaying a game in 400 x 300 resolution it will be more a lot more accurate if the display is 4 x 3 feet rather than 19 x 17 inches.

With CRTs on the way out something has to take over for the traditional gun eventually or no more gun games.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I'll see if I can dig up the thread that had that in it.

And it's not truly the ACCURACY that is suspect, but rather the TOLERANCE of the system--if that makes sense.
The gun is supposed to be very accurate, when properly calibrated.
It apparently doesn't like changes in shooting position/style/angle/etc... without RECALIBRATION.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Here's the original post from the eReal guy.

Hi All,

My name is Jonathan Jaffa, I'm Managing Director of eReal Games UK. I was just browsing and noticed you have been chatting about the G1 Light Gun. So I thought I would fill in the missing gaps for you.

PC Version
We are talking to Sega at the moment about bundling possiblilites for the G1 as they are due to launch House of the Dead III for the PC in a couple of weeks. We will only develop a PC version of the light gun if there is enough demand. I am not completely clued up with the world of MAME. Maybe one of you guys could fill me in. If I felt there was enough people out there that wanted the PC version we would definately develop it this year. The PC version of the light gun will also be smaller because you don't need to be so far away from the screen. The current light gun is developed for use up to 12 feet away and is capable of being used on Projected images larger than a cinema screen.

HOW IT WORKS
The G1 system works by tracking 2 infra-red LED's that are positioned at 2 points on the light gun itself. The camera does all the magic. It is incredibly sophisticated and calculates the position of the light gun relative to your original calibration point. The calibration process can be adjusted at any point before or during game play and only takes 3 seconds. So even if you do change position its no problem. One of you mentioned that you get sore shoulders when playing for a short while. We discovered this was a real issue and we actively promote that you don't use the gun in a Military Down-the-Barrel shooting position. There is no need to use a gun like this anyway, your brain is capable of calculating the position of your target relative to your position with out accurate sighting. So we recommend that you calibrate and then continue playing games from a relaxed position. After a short while you soon get used to it and realise it is much better, especially when you play a game for 30 mins or so.

2 PLAYER G1
We are actually developing the 2 player version at the moment and hope to launch it in time for E3. We are still discussing whether we will make it 1 gun that is switchable or have 2 separate guns.

So....I hope this info is helpful to you, if any of you have any other comments, please let me know, you can email me direct on jjaffa@erealgames.com.

Happy Shooting.

[JODY]

That is kind of funny.  Sounds like they just came up with that to prevent sore shoulders.  Haven't done enough pistol shooting myself to be accurate from the hip so I guess I'll just have to work out more and get used to holding that thing up... .

He did mention the PC version would be smaller so I assume lighter.

I gave my email address to Act Labs but strange they haven't emailed those people yet.  Also, what is the final verdict with the wild shots?  Do some people have defective guns or is there a problem with certain TVs and / or monitors.

We just need a great product that works...

[NoOne=NBA=]

I haven't had any accuracy problems with either of the Act-Labs guns I have.

There are certain games that have accuracy problems, but I think that's an interfacing/emulation/game calibration problem, rather than a defect in the guns themselves.

For the Digital Leisure series, the guns are absolutely dead-on for me.
Same with House of the Dead 2.

I may pick up one of the eReal guns, when they come out, because they will work with my big-screen.
I've even been toying with the Idea of picking up a PS2, solely for shooting games.

[JODY]

I haven't had any accuracy problems with either of the Act-Labs guns I have.

You don't experience any wild shots?  Keep reading about people saying a shot once in awhile will occur way off target.  Not a simple accuracy issue, more like the gun just malfunctions or has a problem reading the tv.  Haven't heard about regular accuracy problems except with specific games like you mentioned.

Haven't noticed anyone mention a fix or reason.  Since they require a flash, maybe the monitor / tv just isn't bright enough.  Don't know...

[Flinkly]

it sounds like the act lab guns are reading a spot on the screen as the flash, before the flash gets to that point, so it reads it as farther up the screen.  this will make sense if you understand how the flash guns work, but i'd have to explain a bit if you don't.  hope this helps.  most flash guns have this problem that weren't designed with certain games in mind.

for instance, most nintendo games that use the light gun don't use white to cover this issue, but with todays ever-realistic games, people tend to forget about the gun and it's flash.

[NoOne=NBA=]

You don't experience any wild shots?

I haven't ever seen a "wild" shot.
My guns hit exactly where I aim them on any game where the shots aren't just completely off to start with.

I'm using a PC monitor though, so that may cause better accuracy somehow.

[the3eyedblindman]

You have to recalborate the gun to every game or you experience wild shots, if you simply take the 2 seconds to move it up and down and left to right on the screen before each game, you dont expereience this. also, heres the email I got from andy regarding work on the gun...Doug,
 
That's correct but the project is at a very early stage. It's something that I do some work on now and then. I don't have any target date at all for launch of this.
 
Cheers
 
Andy

[Will]

Thanks for posting this...Anyone know if it will work right out of the box with a wg k-7000?I remember reading about having to add a wire for synch for this gun?Can anyone comment on the k-7000 with this bun?I went ahead and preordered it thinking it will work...