Main > Lightguns
WOW New LightGUN Info !!! Woot!!! :)
arbrandes:
--- Quote from: wbassett on April 27, 2008, 08:53:19 am ---Looking through my digital cam I only saw one IR dot.
--- End quote ---
Well, there's your problem. You got defective LEDs. While you're completely in the right to be pissed off, a DOA is something that happens to all products nowadays, including high-end electronics. Agreed that in this case it's worse because there's no cost-effective way to RMA the gun.
The point is, defective LEDs and DOAs are not a design flaw per-se. They're more of a fact-of-life. As I wrote previously, the gun *does* have some design flaws, specifically the inherent troubles of an IR solution (maybe that's why the Wii uses accelerometers in addition to IR), and the fact that hardware calibration is a bit off. But for around US$50,00 with shipping, can you show me another gun that doesn't need messing around with video signals (much worse than messing around with USB)?
Also, if Mame is what you play, I strongly recommend you to ditch Windows and use Linux. I got the TopGun driver working beautifully with sdlmame; you can find it a few posts up.
One other nitpick: $60? American dollars? I got mine for less than US$50 including shipping, and that's to Brazil (i.e., about as far from Hong Kong as you can get).
wbassett:
--- Quote from: arbrandes on April 27, 2008, 09:58:58 am ---
--- Quote from: wbassett on April 27, 2008, 08:53:19 am ---Looking through my digital cam I only saw one IR dot.
--- End quote ---
Well, there's your problem. You got defective LEDs. While you're completely in the right to be pissed off, a DOA is something that happens to all products nowadays, including high-end electronics. Agreed that in this case it's worse because there's no cost-effective way to RMA the gun.
The point is, defective LEDs and DOAs are not a design flaw per-se. They're more of a fact-of-life. As I wrote previously, the gun *does* have some design flaws, specifically the inherent troubles of an IR solution (maybe that's why the Wii uses accelerometers in addition to IR), and the fact that hardware calibration is a bit off. But for around US$50,00 with shipping, can you show me another gun that doesn't need messing around with video signals (much worse than messing around with USB)?
Also, if Mame is what you play, I strongly recommend you to ditch Windows and use Linux. I got the TopGun driver working beautifully with sdlmame; you can find it a few posts up.
One other nitpick: $60? American dollars? I got mine for less than US$50 including shipping, and that's to Brazil (i.e., about as far from Hong Kong as you can get).
--- End quote ---
Oh I totally agree with there aways being a chance of something being DOA. I've run into this with server and router replacement parts from time to time as well as the occasional electronics replacement part.
It seems there is a much higher percentage of bad guns going out though than there really should be. That along with the company not having rock solid drivers and setup procedure is what I am talking about as far as this really being a beta stage product.
I envy those that got their guns to work, but from all the sites I read it doesn't have a very good track record when you look at things as a whole. I also understand that MAME will take some tweaking too, but when the gun is this difficult to setup right out of the box, it only makes things more complicated. As I mentioned, the Guncon 3 works flawlessly and sets up in a minute, albiet it only works on the PS3. That is somewhat how I am gaging the TopGun and there really is no reason it shouldn't be as solid as the Guncon 3.
My advice to people is to make sure you buy from a company that will support the product and if need be take the TopGun back and send a replacement. Again I really like the look and feel of it, but after several attempts and a ten hour marathon this weekend my gun is a no go, so I can't attest to how well it actually works.
I see a slew of cordless guns out there for the PS2, so it looks like only a matter of time before they make their way over to the Mame world. I'll see if I can get replacement LED strips, but still don't like the dangling wire aspect and look. If it's the only option available, then I'll have to suck it up and accept that.
arbrandes:
--- Quote from: wbassett on April 27, 2008, 08:35:31 pm ---If it's the only option available, then I'll have to suck it up and accept that.
--- End quote ---
Which is why this thread is 46 pages long. ;) I guess we all, even the ones that *got* the gun to work, know that it is imperfect. But as I said, once and if you tame it, it solves a complicated problem cheaply but in an relatively elegant manner.
There might be, however, an even more elegant solution for Mame, and that is the Wiimote. I have yet to investigate this fully, but have wanted to hook up a Wiimote to the PC for a long time. If it works, for the approximate price of an LCD TopGun you get a fully wireless lightgun *that works with LCDs*, albeit with no recoil. I know there are more than a few working drivers out there, but the question remains if any of them work in absolute mode, i.e., for aiming at the screen.
wbassett:
arbrandes I've been looking at that too. One of the uncertainties is will it support two?
One thing that will support two is a Gyration GyroTransport air mouse.
I'm going to try something, most likely it won't work but I'll give it a try... I'm going to try using the LEDs from my Guncon3 since they appear to be much higher quality and construction. I suspect that the TopGun is looking for a certain pattern though but I'll give it a try.
I haven't gutted the gun nor done anything to damage it but I did do an initial inspection of it. The slide comes off very easy with no fear of breaking it. A slightly stronger spring (or stretching it slightly) could give a little more pop to the recoil for those that use recoil. I did notice with mine that when it recoils it strikes the 'hammer' D Pad quite a bit. I don't know if this causes any play issues or not, but depending on the game and system I can see where it might. It's nothing that a light filing won't fix though.
Inside the gun it's packed. The recoil is done via a gear mechanism and there is a rather significant size circuit board in there too. The handle grips don't have anything under them except what looks like access to another jewelers screw for opening the main body housing of the gun. It is surprisingly well engineered (the gun housing and grips I should say which are actually two pieces per side). This gun looks identical as far as I can tell to the PS2 guncon version, so I doubt EMS made the gun itself, it looks like they just made the electronics and retrofitted them into the housing.
A major step up would be if they dropped the bulky ugly LED setup and went with a gyro system like the Wii mote and Gyration uses. (Interesting note: Gyration helped develop the tracking system for the Wii mote). What sets it apart from the Wii mote is it does not require an LED at all, and there are no cords to contend with either. It comes with an RF dongle and... I called the company and confirmed that you can indeed run two of them on one PC at the same time. So theoretically since they are a mouse device, they should work fine with Mame.
That's really how EMS should have gone in my opinion, and yes, this would allow it to work with any display and not just a CRT, plus it should be plug 'n play too. I've been scouring the net the past couple of weeks and I am seeing some pretty cool looking wireless guns for the PS2 that don't use LED strips... So maybe EMS will go that route, or hopefully soon we'll see someone release a gun that works on a PC and uses this technology.
wbassett:
--- Quote from: arbrandes on April 28, 2008, 06:01:08 am ---Which is why this thread is 46 pages long. ;) I guess we all, even the ones that *got* the gun to work, know that it is imperfect. But as I said, once and if you tame it, it solves a complicated problem cheaply but in an relatively elegant manner.
--- End quote ---
Sadly I didn't find this site until after my actual build was underway and I had already purchased the TopGun.
That's why I'm making a link to this forum from the Home Theater site I moderate on. I am chronicling my cab build over there too and people are starting to take an interest! It makes perfect sense if you think about it, every movie theater I've been in has at least one or two arcade machines, so for a person setting up a Home Theater, a MAME cab fits in perfect with the decor and feel! :)
This site and you guys really are amazing and this should be the first place anyone goes before starting a cab project.
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