Light Guns

[RTSDaddy2]

Well, obviously I've got research to do on here, but just a quickie (c'mon, SOMEONE go for it!)

1.) I am an idiot - it took me two days to figure out the only way I'd calibrate Act Labs s-video TV out gun was to put my TV on S-video....dear Lord, I wonder how I even manage to drive myself to work

2) Now the issue is this - getting them to run right with MAME.  I'm using version .94  Could that be part of the problem? 

I've got to do some reading about how to set these up with MAME, of course....but at least I know they're registering on my TV, which is a huge start!

[ahofle]

You'll probably want a post-v0.105 version of MAME, which has improved handling of multiple mice (which the ActLabs guns really are). 

Check out this page for help with the guns in MAME.

http://derrick.mameworld.info/lightgun/Act_Labs_Light_Guns_on_XP.html

[Bill Mote]

Last time I tried the Act Labs guns was on 0.86.  I never could quite get the calibration correct.  It was *very* frustrating.  I haven't tried since my HDD died and I reloaded with 0.109.  I guess I should.

dot

[RTSDaddy2]

Ahofle:

Thanks for the link - I found it last night on here while doing my research on another post, but it's great to have it on a more current post list as well.  If you're just getting started trying to get everything working with guns, THIS is a MUST read article.

I'm going to try out the versions above 105, just to see.  I actually figured out how to make the changes to the config file on MAME32FX last night and had quite a significant bit of improvement in Jurassic Park (the whole reason I have two pair of guns - wife likes to kill dinosaurs!)!   I am encouraged....the Act Lab TV guns continue to improve with every "tweak"...and I was a little fearful they might not work correctly as ours is a flat front CRT  screen.  Even so, they are pretty good - tried them with Hogan's Alley last night and got average to great results (at that point calibration was still off a bit)....very happy so far!

[ahofle]

Glad to hear of your progress.  Not sure if you've found this in your research, but the Act Labs 'troubleshooter' is an excellent patch for playing some of the PC-based lightgun games with two guns such as the House of the Dead series.  I get excellent results with the troubleshooter patch and HOTD2.

http://thetroubleshooter.home.mindspring.com/

[hypernova]

Has anyone ever been able to confirm or deny the ability to connect an ActLabs TV gun to a component hookup?  (Apparently green is the connection at question.)  I've got to assume it's not possible, because if it was, wouldn't ActLabs be all over that, and list it as a connection option?

[ahofle]

I've been wondering this too.  Not only has no one confirmed it works, but no one has even reported trying it. 

[Silver]

the gun will only read the syncs of the composite/s-video connector it is hooked up to. The green cable has probably been suggested due to "syncs-on-green" being common for RGB component.

For component usually used on TV's which is Y-Pb-Pr, you want to hook the gun up to the Y (luminence) channel.

As far as I can see, it will work so long as the syncs are roughly compatible with s-video, so it probably depends what resolution etc... the component video is at.

[ahofle]

Sounds promising...can you hook yours up and let us know if it works? 

[RTSDaddy2]

Ahofle,

Once again, many thanks.  I hate to sound as ignorant as I am related to this topic, but does the troubleshooter also help with MAME?  If so, how does one keep it running in the background.  Seems like when I configured mine it closed the window and stopped running (but could just be my lack of knowledge).

I am at that point where I am going to have to ask for help.  I have things pretty good on MAME, but I cannot seem to get the crosshair to move correctly.  I am using MAME32FX version .109 and have made the adjustments in the article above on how to set the guns up.  the cross hair does move, but it seems very slow in registering shots (or doesn't put the crosshair exactly on tartget, etc)..   Is there something else within MAME (via TAB key) that I also need to fix?

Thanks ahead of time for the help y'all!

[ahofle]

To my knowledge, the troubleshooter only helps on some PC games:

http://thetroubleshooter.home.mindspring.com/games.htm

Sounds like you may have some other issues if your shots are not immediately registering.  What happens when you shoot around the desktop in windows?  Does the cursor go where you point, immediately when you pull the trigger?  I am assuming that you've done the actlabs calibration already (set the switch on the gun to calibrate, wave the gun left to right several times and up and down several times, then set the switch back).

[RTSDaddy2]

I'm glad you brought the calibration thing up - think that's half my problem.  Now the directions made me think to only do that once, slowly, but apparently one has do make several passes?

I have tried shooting around the desktop - no, it does not move. The other thing I noticed yesterday was that while the trigger might miss, the little button on the top right side of the gun was perfect!! 

What I have noticed on the Hogan's Alley game is that each time I pull the trigger it repositions the cursor, and just slightly below or above the characters. 

I'm going to try recalibrating tonight again by waving the gun  in front of the TV and see if I can get the calibration any better.  I am wondering now if the flat front CRT is causing problems - that it's letting light in from too many places during calibration (in other words not center of gun, but far sides as well).   I think if I can ever figure out how to properly calibrate I will have solved some problems.  Then, there is of course the issue of getting everything in MAME set properly too.

[RTSDaddy2]

Was re-reading Derrick's page about button mapping, and I think I figured that insanity out finally as I had the single gun on the second position switch. 

[ahofle]

Good deal. 
Just a reminder: you need to recalibrate the guns whenever you change the screen resolution.  So if you calibrate the guns while your windows desktop is displaying at 800x600 and then you launch Hogan's Alley at 640x480, you will need to recalibrate after starting MAME.

[Silver]

Sounds promising...can you hook yours up and let us know if it works? 

I would, but I'm afraid I don't have any TV's that have component inputs. Plus my GFX card does not output component....

[RTSDaddy2]

A tip: try Act labs light gunt test.

The problem we've got now is that while the shots are lined up almost perfectly horizontally (meaning the vertical calibration is good), the horizontal calibration seems off as it doesn't place the shot in the same spot.

Translation - firing at one point on the screen yields a steady straight line of shots all across the screen.  Any ideas as to what's causing that?