I need a light gun which one?

[mamerocks87]

I need a light gun for mame.  It needs to be able to play on an arcade monitor. Please tell me which is the best ( i know that actlabs is the best, but there gone now and i dont want to pay 80 bucks for one) next to the actlabs. Please hit me up with your wisdom,

-kyle

[NoOne=NBA=]

there gone now and i dont want to pay 80 bucks for one next to the actlabs.
Please hit me up with your wisdom.

They are NOT gone yet, and are worth every penny of the $80.
If you want to spend your money on something that works, get one.
Otherwise be prepared for severe disappointment.
Everything else out there is either terrible, or isn't in production yet.

Your other options are:
1) Wait, and see if anybody comes out with one that is as good as the Act-Labs.
2) See how much the Act-Labs ones go for on ebay when they are REALLY gone, and nobody comes up with a decent replacement for them.

That's my wisdom.

[forbiddenlyrics]

You might want to look into the GunCon2 driver being developed. I don't really know how good the driver is yet (I need a RCA splitter to try it) but the guns are really cheap! I got mine for $3

[mamerocks87]

All of the GunCon2's ive looked at are for ps2... where did you get one for computer?

-kyle

[AmericanDemon]

Thats why there is a driver being developed mang.  Its a PS2 gun.... which interfaces with hte PS2 via USB.  Hence the ability to use it on a PC.  Not 100% from what I have read, but its getting better.

[mamerocks87]

Where do i start to rig up this setup?

-kyle

[IntruderAlert]

The driver for the GunCon2 is being developed by Smog
His site is here:
http://lightgun.splinder.com/

The BYOAC thread on the GunCon2 development is here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,35416.0.html

I've posted a connection guide here:
http://intruderalert.myarcade.org/GUNCON2.htm

[jelwell]

Does this "VGA TO ARCADE MONITOR" circuit work for regular PC monitors too?
Joseph Elwell.

[Smog]

Does this "VGA TO ARCADE MONITOR" circuit work for regular PC monitors too?

NO! In anyway.

I am wondering how long will this question bounce 

[Lilwolf]

Right now there isn't any perfect solution. 

Actlabs guns are pretty good and playable.  They are currently the most accurate.  But they don't work on all arcade monitors through arcadevga but they do on some (think it might have to do with the h/v sync).  They also miss a shot completely every so often (shot shows up on the corner of the screen.  Not bad unless your playing a game where you get only one bullet (police trainer and some point blank scenes).

All the others for PC have their own issues.  Mainly in accuracy.

I'm personally waiting for the full realtime motion / no flashing gun thats also for ps2 who said they will have a pc version for e3.  Don't remember the name.

Either that or Andy is/was working on an interface for happs guns.  That would be VERY cool!

Also.  If anyone gets the gnu 'eyetoy' library working with mame.  There is some very very cool / almost working items to go here.  Basically you get a video camera to film the monitor itself.  You do the ultraviolet conversion (3 bucks to do) so its an ultraviolet camera.  Then you get an ultraviolet laser and put it in any gun.  press the trigger and boom you have a mouse click at that location.  would be very very very cool to work plug we might be able to get full tracking (with button clicks on dropping the light instead)...  But we have to worry about shooting ultraviolet light at a screen that will be bounching it back at us... IE, not the best for the eyes... but if the light isn't a real laser it might not be that bad... don't know.

Anyway... I would wait before spending too much money myself. 

[jelwell]

Does this "VGA TO ARCADE MONITOR" circuit work for regular PC monitors too?

NO! In anyway.

I am wondering how long will this question bounce

[romperwomb]

Wondering if there has been any more word on the e-real gun?  Anyone going to get to go to E3 to drop by their booth?

[jelwell]

Wondering if there has been any more word on the e-real gun?

[Lilwolf]

That was the one I was talking about.

I don't think they would have info up yet.  They said they hoped to have a prototype by E3.  I'm just curious if they still plan on making them.

Hey, if we give you a list of questions, could you have them ask?

1) Will you help / give generic support people hacking the guts into arcade guns?  (yes without the warranty)

2) Will they try it with MAME and both the light gun games (point blank) and also the gun on a stick types (T2).

3) Will they work with analog+ mame to try and get two guns working on the same system.

4) Will it work on a projection screen (assuming yes)

5) What is needed over/around the monitor.  And can it be behind a smoked glass bezel?  Can it be a few inches away (ie, sitting above or in the marqee even though the 19" screen is 6 inches below.

I can't think of any other quesitons.

[jelwell]

That was the one I was talking about.

I don't think they would have info up yet.

[Lilwolf]

actually, mame DOES NOT support multiple guns.

Its just the act labs TV guns use button 3 and 4 of mouse 1 for the second player.

Act labs seperates each mouse (or can).  So many guns which say they can't handle multiple guns/mice actually work well in analog+ mame.

So if they are using a mouse driver..  And the mouse driver / system mouse is the only problem... Then it should work.

[IntruderAlert]

AdvanceMAME does now

AdvanceMAME Version 0.96.0 2005/05

    * Improved the support for low clocks of the SVGALIB nVidia driver for DOS and Windows.
    * Readded in the DOS and Windows version the old SVGALIB drivers for GeForce and Savage boards. If you have problem with the new driver you can still use the old ones with the names "savage_leg" and "nv3_leg".
    * The `advv' and `advcfg' utilities are now compiled and installed only if needed.
    * Fixed the detection of the new `unichrome' driver in DOS.
    * Added support for multiple mice in Windows XP using the new `rawinput' mouse driver.
    * Added support for multiple mice in Windows 2000 using the new `cpn' mouse driver.

http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/download.html

[vibez]

Although the code is in advmame to support multiple mice, I dont think the author has enabled it to be used by mame. But Smog has been playing with a beta build & says it does work fine.

Cant wait to test it out

[IntruderAlert]

it's out now
go ahead and download it
i provided the link above

[Flinkly]

hmm, and i am about to buy two arcade guns...

if anyone else wants to pick up some guns like mine for cheap, let me know and i'll send you the guy's name and i'm sure you could work out a good deal too.  all mine need is a good cleaning and a paintjob and they'll be perfect.  here's a pic of one of my two guns.  i'd show the whole pic, but the size of the file was too large and i already lost my whole message body once because of it.  stupid forum, never remembers what you type in (like the search input box...).

[jelwell]

actually, mame DOES NOT support multiple guns.

I didn't say MAME supports multiple guns. I said, "dual lightguns work in (some versions of) regular MAME as well." There's a huge difference between support and works.

My friend uses a MAME version around .84 and dual lightguns work great for him. No problems at all. No need for Analog MAME. You should also check the MAME faq, it states that the DOS version of MAME supports dual mice.

Joseph Elwell.

[jelwell]

No PC prototype of the erealgames gun at E3.

They're still planning a PC gun.
Should be released 4 months before Christmas : which translates to August
1 month later: 2 player support
They're located in Buena Park, CA. You can come test when they come out.

Buy 2 to ten you can get a wholesale price.
50$ retail.
Joseph Elwell.

[Flinkly]

do you mean the pc lightgun when you talk prices?  if you do, we should put in a BYOAC order if and when they come out.

hmm, now if i could only figure out which lightgun i really want to use (wait for) ...

1. real arcade light gun with andy's help (probably best accuracy, and most authentic)
2. guncon hacked into real arcade lightgun
3. ereal gun hacked into real lightgun (would be nice to lose the flash, but wouldn't mame still flash?)

[jelwell]

do you mean the pc lightgun when you talk prices?