Act-Labs Light Gun

[gajaman]

Before I start... sorry if the answer to this is elsewhere, but if it is I can't find it or I don't understand the terms.

Anyway, I want to know if Act-Labs light gun will work with my cab set up.

My PC TV out is what I know as "line out", those little red, yellow and white cables, one for video and one each for audio left and right. This goes into a scart converter (the same used to convert a PSX to scart). Then into a scart switch box then into the TV scart socket.

If required I could loose the scart switch box.

Can I use the Act-Labs gun with this set-up?

[Malachai]

You would need the TV-Out version of the Act-Labs gun if you're using a TV as your monitor.  I don't think they are available yet, but I think you can still pre-order.  They say you can use 2 guns at once with the TV-Out version.  Once someone can confirm that dual guns work well in MAME I'm going to have to get a couple.  

[anthony691]

I am not 100% sure of the connections there will be on the TV lightgun. You could go check thier site. I know it does S-Video and I could only assume it does composite as well. P.S. they are going into production!

[NY_in_TX]

Hey, I was just on there site....here's what they say about the TV out version of the gun....

Requirements:

o PC with available USB port
o Win 98SE/Me/2000/XP
o Video card with TV-out capability (supports S-Video output only)
o Composite video cable (male-male) or S-Video cable (male-male)
o TV with S-Video-in or Composite video-in connection

NY

[BASSOFeeSH]

I think they're going to include an S-Video -> composite converter.

Also regarding the two players, I emailed them about this and the response was that the MAME team was working on including support.

[anthony691]

I think they're going to include an S-Video -> composite converter.

Also regarding the two players, I emailed them about this and the response was that the MAME team was working on including support.

Yeah, about the 2 player support you could just use analoge MAME; I am 99% sure.  Ask U_Rebelscum see what he says. It would be such an easy change in MAME compared to some of the stuff that they are doing; I am beginning to think they don't like that a company like that is trying to get something changed in MAME (or something like that, but you know it's just a thaught/guess)

[u_rebelscum]

Also regarding the two players, I emailed them about this and the response was that the MAME team was working on including support.

Yeah, about the 2 player support you could just use analoge MAME; I am 99% sure.  Ask U_Rebelscum see what he says. It would be such an easy change in MAME compared to some of the stuff that they are doing; I am beginning to think they don't like that a company like that is trying to get something changed in MAME (or something like that, but you know it's just a thaught/guess)

I have to see how actlabs is doing the TV dual lightgun to see how easy it will hack into mame.  If they're just doing what I've read, you could get "almost playable" with just a one-line change to standard mame ("don't pull the trigger at the same time" problem), but to get "real playable" would take some pretty big changes (change from unbuffered to buffered input reads).

Of course, I haven't haven't received my TV lightguns yet, and until I test 'em, all my talk is speculation.  (I'd need a new vid card w/ TV out, a TV, and space near my computer, too.)

[anthony691]

Also regarding the two players, I emailed them about this and the response was that the MAME team was working on including support.

Yeah, about the 2 player support you could just use analoge MAME; I am 99% sure.  Ask U_Rebelscum see what he says. It would be such an easy change in MAME compared to some of the stuff that they are doing; I am beginning to think they don't like that a company like that is trying to get something changed in MAME (or something like that, but you know it's just a thaught/guess)

I have to see how actlabs is doing the TV dual lightgun to see how easy it will hack into mame.  If they're just doing what I've read, you could get "almost playable" with just a one-line change to standard mame ("don't pull the trigger at the same time" problem), but to get "real playable" would take some pretty big changes (change from unbuffered to buffered input reads).

Of course, I haven't haven't received my TV lightguns yet, and until I test 'em, all my talk is speculation.  (I'd need a new vid card w/ TV out, a TV, and space near my computer, too.)

Oh no, are we getting into the if you don't pull the trigger within the same 1/16 of a secound thing?

[u_rebelscum]

I have to see how actlabs is doing the TV dual lightgun to see how easy it will hack into mame.  If they're just doing what I've read, you could get "almost playable" with just a one-line change to standard mame ("don't pull the trigger at the same time" problem), but to get "real playable" would take some pretty big changes (change from unbuffered to buffered input reads).

Of course, I haven't haven't received my TV lightguns yet, and until I test 'em, all my talk is speculation.  (I'd need a new vid card w/ TV out, a TV, and space near my computer, too.)

Oh no, are we getting into the if you don't pull the trigger within the same 1/16 of a secound thing?

Yup.  Actually, ~1/60 of a second depending on the game's refresh rate: 1/60 for area51 & police trainer, 1/53 for terminator2, and 1/60.60606060 for gollyghost and luckywild for examples.

Of course, it depends if all they're doing is having the second TV lightgun "shoot" with buttons 3 & 4 as they mentioned.  The more I think about it, the easier it looks to buffer the inputs, but I hate the idea of any real game handling buffered window mouse events; directX is so much cleaner and faster.

[gajaman]

Thanks, so the little red, white and yellow cables are composite?

No wonder I don't understand TV inputs...

[anthony691]

Thanks, so the little red, white and yellow cables are composite?

No wonder I don't understand TV inputs...

Oops! Did I say composite? Those are called Component.

[shmokes]

No, no, er...yes, those are composite.  Those cables are NOT component.  Component cables would look similar to those but they would likely be fatter and definitely use a different color scheme.  The yellow cable is for video, red is for right channel audio and white is for left channel audio (though it doesn't matter which color is used for which, the colors are just there to make it easier to track the cables from one end to the other).

Component cables have no audio running through them.  They are only for video, but instead of having the whole video stream go down one cable (e.g. the yellow composite cable) it splits the stream into thre separate colors (red, blue and green I think) and has one cable for each color.  Your setup is for composite, not component.

[anthony691]

Thanks, so the little red, white and yellow cables are composite?

No wonder I don't understand TV inputs...

I always get that stuff confused! If it weren't for the DC I would always use blessed S-Video!

Oops! Did I say composite? Those are called Component.