The new Act Labs gun

[MajorLag]

I recieved my replacement VGA box today, and as advertised the calibration screen works. Unfortunatly my monitor doesn't like it and goes into no-signal mode after a few seconds. I can manage to configure the gun by turning the monitor back on, and then again, and again, but not surprisingly the calibration results are lackluster.

So I'd just like to say that Act-Labs' customer service really does live up to their reputation. Good job guys.

[rosborn]

I'll second that.  The replacement unit works fine with my Trinitron.

Thanks!

[AC.]

I got my replacement today - Oct 10, 2005. Hopefully I can see if it works tonight.

[MajorLag]

My trigger broke a while ago. For those of you who don't have one of the new guns, they have kindof a funky trigger. Instead of hinging like a regular trigger, they're more like a button that just slides back. I think someone else in the thread broke their trigger and was able to get replacements. I'm not going to do that because I think my trigger works better broken. Before I broke it, it took alot of pressure to activate the trigger, which really hurt my ability to play police trainer! Its much easier to pull now (but I'm still worse with it then the real PT gun).

[jdjuggler]

Do I need one of their VGA boxes if I use an Betson Arcade monitor?  It uses a regular 15-pin vga cable an goes directly into my existing nvidia card.  I would be using it for mame.

JD

[RetroACTIVE]

Received my VGA box today!  Excellent response!  Looking forward to testing it.

[Orders at ACT LABS]

has anyone use our PC Gun with viewsonic 21" (model  G810)? Please advise the result.

Cheers

[RetroACTIVE]

I had an opportunity to test my new VGA box... Now I can actually target things on my windows desktop, which I could not do before. 

So it looks like the VGA box was the ticket here.

However... I am having some difficulty within MAME getting the thing to hit anything at all.... I suspect it is a calibration issue now... this is why:

My guess (actually I know)... launching MAME game(s) is switching the resolution of the monitor.  I am currently using ArcadeVGA and used MAMEWAH Resolution Tool to configure my monitor settings.  Most likely the lower resolution games do not bode well with the gun...  I'm pretty sure I will need to run the games at 640x480 minimum.  When I get some more time I will experiment with this.  (BTW: I did calibrate the gun after the game was launched, not before)

At any rate... I am confident it is now my problem and not the gun.

Thanks ACTLabs for such a prompt response.  I will be returning my incompatible VGA box and keeping the system.

[Orders at ACT LABS]

Thanks very much, glad to know the new VGA boxes work for most.

To use Windows Desktop for calibration for shooting will isolate the problem as what RetroACTIVE has done here.

In fact, the gun can be calibrated anytime when you think your system setting has been changed, each calibration (the VGA box sends the commands to you system to have a white cursor to run from left to right, from top to bottom) will enable the gun to learn the size of your monitor, its resolution, reflesh rate etc, this is the basic to keep the gun accurate.

Any further problem, please email us at orders@act-labs.com and note to use "Act Labs enquiry" to avoid spam filtering.

Cheers

[AC.]

My new box works.   Calibration in MAME still needs tweaking.  If the shot is too far to the left, for example, you can adjust the monitor properties (on the monitor itself) to move the screen image to the right, then do the calibration, then adjust the screen back to where you want it.  Experiment with the monitor adjust buttons before and after calibration to test your effect and which way you need to adjust.

Naturally, my monitor controls are behind the bezel and not easy to get to.