Question for those with the EMS topgun in an arcade cab

[chazbeenhad]

Now that I have my topgun working in mame on a computer not in a cabinet, it seems like we have to stand too far away for the gun to see both stands and work. By too far I mean we have to stand about 4-6 feet away.

To me that seems a bit too far away. It is even farther away than you stand when playing House of the Dead 4 in the arcades. The supper deluxe widescreen huge models.

Right now I have a cabinet ready for converting to a mame cab and a 19" crt svga monitor ready to go.

I'd like to know how the gun is working for people who are using it in a cabinet and how far away you need to stand for the gun to be working.

Thanks!

[acro-ii]

I have mine in my mame cabinet, and LOVE it.  I have the stands mounted horizontally on the top and bottom of a 25" tv, and as you have noticed, I do stand about 6-8' from the cabinet.  In my opinion, it's worth it, as the LCD Topgun tracks soooooooooooo  much better than any of the other guns I tried!

[Green Giant]

About 6' away is just where you have to stand.  You really only have three options here.  Don't play shooting games, stand 6 feet away and use the lcd topgun, or get an original house of the dead with original guns.

Chances are you will go with option 2.  Using a 19", if you mount the bars horizontally, you shouldn't have to stand more than 4 feet away since the closer the bars are together, the more accurate the track.

[chazbeenhad]

Thanks for the replies. I would LOVE a real HotD cabinet.....

I'm going to move ahead and use the topguns in the cabinet mounted horizontally as suggested.

The other option is the ACT labs gun, but I think the topgun is better for this application based on what I have read on the net.

[Malenko]

I was going to post about mounting the bars horizontally but they beat me too it.  Im having trouble getting MAME to recognize when I pull the trigger... do you have that issue?

[acro-ii]

I am running .115 (i think, maybe .116) and smog's guncom2 drivers.  The trigger and other buttons work correctly once setup in mame as mouse 3 on my setup.

I had a HE*L of a time getting it to register at all with my trackball and spinner connected too.  Then someone said to use smog's drivers instead of the EMS drivers, and walla!

[ahofle]

The other option is the ACT labs gun, but I think the topgun is better for this application based on what I have read on the net.

FWIW, I used to have the Act Labs lightguns setup and I thought they were excellent (not sure what negative press you read on them).  My only complaint was the annoying flashing of the screen when you shoot.  I had to get rid of them when I went to an arcade monitor.  I was going to get the LCD Topguns, but standing 6 feet away from a standard upright arcade cabinet is totally ridiculous to me.  Here are some old gun cabinets for perspective:

[brock.sampson]

I was going to post about mounting the bars horizontally but they beat me too it.  Im having trouble getting MAME to recognize when I pull the trigger... do you have that issue?

Do you have

lightgun_device             lightgun

set in your mame.ini?  I was told that setting that is also the sets lightgun  1 by default.  I had some problems once I switched to 118 but they are working great now.  Also don't set dual_lightgun 1 that was one of my problems that is only needed for older act lab guns.