Positional gun(s) question

[kspiff]

I just bought a Beast Busters positional gun off ebay and had a few questions.. though it will probably end up a matter of preference, does anyone know how far the barrel tip should lie from the monitor when mounted? I assume the center of the level gun barrel should line up with the center of the monitor, but can the monitor be tilted?

I just don't want to mount the thing in place and find that it won't calibrate properly.. which is another issue: will this be accurate using a 19" monitor?

I need to check out how MAME lets you calibrate, I guess.. as long as it lets you define a center and the extreme four corners of the screen, I would assume I can calibrate it properly.

k-spiff

[JustMichael]

Well the cabinet had 3 guns so I am betting the gun is an analog joystick with a gun as the stick.  If this is so, you wouldn't even need a monitor for the gun to work.  You could use that MS joystick writeup to interface it with the pc.

If it is an optical gun, I have no idea how you would interface it to the pc.

[1UP]

If the guns are pot-based, and you're displaying crosshairs on the screen, it really doesn't matter how things are lined up.  I play T2 without properly calibrating the guns, using the crosshairs like a laser sight.  But to do things properly, you need to see what the range of motion of the guns is.  No matter what the angle of the screen is, you need to be able to point the gun, looking through the sights, at all four corners of the screen.

My T2 guns are interfaced thru a MS Dual Strike board.  You can learn how interface any analog arcade conrtrols with a Dual Strike at http://www.1uparcade.com/project-swyoke.html

Good luck!

[k-spiff]

That's what I was wondering.. how important the mount position is to the gun lining up properly.. so I'm not trying to hit something in the bottom corner of the screen by pointing the gun somewhere away from the cabinet.. better off using an analog stick or mouse if that's the case.

I'll just have to experiment with the mounting point by taking the monitor mounting depth and the gun's range of motion into account; too bad the effect would likely be ruined by an angled monitor, especially when it's a 19".

Still need to check out the calibration method in MAME.. if I can set it up so that the full range of motion isn't used at all, I can be sloppier about it and still get near-perfect results.

k-spiff

[Johnny the MAMEr]

I was wondering the same about gun mounting position. My cabinet was a Mortal Kombat with a 25" monitor (TV). The positional gun games I have looked at in arcades have a mirror and the monitor is mounted below. It gives the appearance of the monitors front surface being in the rear of the cabinet (hope that makes sense).  When I put the Steel Gunner guns near the position I could mount them, they're a bit too close to my 25" monitor and can't quite point a the corners of the screen. Looks like I might have to make an extended control panel to get the distance right. 1up, how far are your guns fron your monitor?    

[enemyace]

BTW, has anyone ever made a MAME cab with the monitor mounted that way? That would be pretty sweet, although you'd have to mirror or flip the image somehow.

[Dav]

BTW, has anyone ever made a MAME cab with the monitor mounted that way? That would be pretty sweet, although you'd have to mirror or flip the image somehow.

I've got an omega race mame cab, you just swap the yoke wires to invert the image so the reflection looks OK.  Everything else is normal.

Dave