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LCD TopGun as HID-Mouse

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wbassett:

Well buying one off the net for a high price... fighting to get it to work even reasonably... Like Mulder, yeah I 'want to believe' this is the best Mame gun out there! 

It does work, but has issues.  I'm not going to say something is perfect when it isn't... but I do want to believe that they will fix this, but right now... it's okay but not what I expected it to be. 

Now that I finally got it to work (after fixing a broken wire in the IR unit myself) I hope it lasts... I've read many people report guns broke within a few months- just from casual use.

The gun itself is a PS2 guncon style that was converted... look it up, this isn't an original design.  The electronics seem okay but the drivers suck, at least up until now but I haven't tried the new drivers yet, I just got the thing to work!  I'm half afraid to uninstall what works to try a company driver when the original company driver didn't work at all.  The recoil... it's worthless, but I don't fault hkems totally, like I said this is a mod of another gun and the recoil on that one for the PS2 probably sucked too.

If this was $20 I would blow it off, but at $40-60 per gun, this should have worked out of the box, with good instructions, drivers that worked...  I am not impressed and by saying they 'finally' came out with a driver that works... well I am still cynical.  I paid and expected a product out of the box to work.  It was advertised as the 'best' but is marginal at 'best'.

If anyone thinks I am too harsh... equate this to buying a car... or even a TV, or anything else- an AV receiver, a BD player... or to be closer to the price, if you bought a joystick and it didn't work what would you do?  You'd take it back for a refund and get something that worked out of the box.

If you had to jump through hoops like this after a purchase when it was said to be 'revolutionary and the best' and then it flat out wouldn't work without fixing it yourself and then using a driver a private individual wrote... how many would still say it is 'the best'?  It's a beta gun at best.  The Guncon3 blows it away, but granted the GC3 doesn't have PC drivers.  The point is should PC and MAME just 'settle' for 'acceptable'?

I bought my gun before finding this site.  The UTube and online reviews made it look like it was the cat's meow...  Yes out of the box it has worked for some, but for many it has not been a plug and play experience.   I got mine to work (as stated, after fixing a hardware problem myself) but I read about many that have said their gun just 'quit' after a couple of months... that's not a good track record and I constantly wonder when mine will break, and just from normal use.

I'm not cheap and I earn a good buck... but I still don't like wasting money.  If hkems has a better product, they owe us a rebate- or a discount on their new gun, that's my opinion.

Right now they have the only 'PC' gun and one that works with LCD and CRT, but if any competition comes along with a better quality and perfected product for he same price or lower,   the EMS LCD TopGun will just be a blip in the arcade radar.  They have something unique, but they really need to do right by everyone that bought a beta gun and make this right or this is a passing fancy and one shot wonder.   It might be the 'gun that could have been'.  Let's hope it's the gun that sets the standard for all PC and MAME guns. 

Right now, as you can tell, I am not totally impressed.  Some may not like or agree with my comments, but they are honest and accurate.  This gun works for some but not all, and does have some major problems.  It works, but is far from perfect.  I'd rate it two stars out of five, but it could have been a five out of five if the company put just a little more effort into it.

Lilwolf:

I understand the complaints... but they where right, they where the best on the market then (and now).  I have two and had very high hopes...  I think they are better for games with guns mounted on analog joystick games (T2, ect).  Because others really need pixel perfect resolution to play well... I never got police trainer to work with these guns.

Act Labs better?  Not really, they are better in different ways, and suck in so many others... crt only, resolution based, need to be calibrated ALL the time, white flashes, random misses in the bottom right corner....  When they work, they work really well...  But for those other moments...

Right now, I'm wondering if a wiimote connected would be better... last I checked the pc drivers, linux version had the light gun support, but not PC... that was a year ago so it probably is working now....

As for testing the new drivers, I would consider doing it on another pc first...

wbassett:


--- Quote from: Lilwolf on June 07, 2008, 07:20:08 am ---I understand the complaints... but they where right, they where the best on the market then (and now).  I have two and had very high hopes...  I think they are better for games with guns mounted on analog joystick games (T2, ect).  Because others really need pixel perfect resolution to play well... I never got police trainer to work with these guns.

Act Labs better?  Not really, they are better in different ways, and suck in so many others... crt only, resolution based, need to be calibrated ALL the time, white flashes, random misses in the bottom right corner....  When they work, they work really well...  But for those other moments...

Right now, I'm wondering if a wiimote connected would be better... last I checked the pc drivers, linux version had the light gun support, but not PC... that was a year ago so it probably is working now....

As for testing the new drivers, I would consider doing it on another pc first...

--- End quote ---
Lilwolf, sorry about my tone.  I really do like the look and feel of the gun but the performance (at least with my current drivers) is far from what I expected.  As far as being the 'best on the market', that's pretty easy when you're the only one! ;)

I was able to get Police Trainer to work with mine, but accuracy isn't the best.  The gun works great for what I call 'blob shooting'...  that's when you play a game where you only have to hit the bad guy or monster anywhere on its body for a 'kill'.  For precision, at least in my case, the further from the center of the screen the target is, the more inaccurate the gun is.

The only real viable alternative for someone using a PC and PC monitor is ActLabs and I have seen a gun made in China that plugs into the VGA connector and USB port, but as far as I know that gun isn't sold in the US so it's not even an option.

The Wii mote does look interesting and there is some work being done in that area, but I doubt we'll ever see a commercial version that a person can just walk into a store and buy and just hook up to their PC right out of the box.  That is really what I was expecting with the TopGun... just plug it in, install a driver, calibrate and start playing within a couple of minutes.   It took me a couple of weeks to get mine to work and that really isn't acceptable.

The very first thing was a poor instruction manual that wasn't written that well, and the CD that came with the gun wasn't very clear as to what drivers were for what.  It looks like the company put drivers for all their products on the disc and setup wasn't totally intuitive.  I work on computers and servers for a living so I'd like to think I know my way around them some, and this was a royal pain to get working.

I also have Time Crisis 4 and it came with that big ugly orange GunCon3 gun.  The GC3 looks horrible, especially compared to the TopGun, and the side handle controller just doesn't feel natural.  Why they didn't mount it under the gun like a RIS style grip is beyond me, but... it works flawlessly and is very accurate on my 55" HDTV.  Sadly it only works on the PS3. 

If the TopGun was as easy and accurate as my GC3, I'd say the gun would be perfect.  If the company does come out with a new version, better firmware and drivers... I'll be ecstatic!  Based on my current personal experience though, I'm not going to hold my breath.

I do have a new PC I just got and setup to replace my current MAME PC and I will use the newest company drivers on that system.  I'm hoping they are right and they finally got their drivers working.  I really want to like this gun, but right now it's not blowing my socks off.


MKChamp:

Just a FYI on the new drivers (released May 9)....
I installed them just a couple of days ago and must say...they are great. I use to not like playing games like deer hunter or police trainer because the more off center you aimed the gun, the more off it was. After installing the new driver and then using their panel to fine tune the edges, accuracy was increased tremendously. I would venture to say that the new driver has brought a renewed interest in all my gun games now.
I have 2 EMS guns installed and 'so far' I haven't seen ANY issues....
Also, before I purchased the two EMS guns (when they first came out), I had 2 act-lab guns. So, I can give a comparison based on personal experience. The EMS guns are the best guns for MAME at this time (IMO). The main reason is the real time tracking. Forget T2 or Rev X with act-labs. Carnevil is fine with act-labs until you pick up the machine gun or flame thrower...

As far as EMS documentation...it is obvious English isn't their native language. Maybe it would help for them to contract a guy name Bob or Frank to help them in that category.

Xiaou2:

wbassett,

  You are way too hard on them.

  Ive owned both Act Labs guns and they are both  Steaming Dog Piles!

 The accuracy is Wretched!  Getting every Nth shot fired several inches away from
where I pointed!   That was with perfect calibrations, recalibrations...etc.    The things
are garbage.

 The feel aweful on the hands to hold.  The trigger button broke on mine after very short time (and it feels horrible too).     The reload button is on the wrong side for me...
and is useless.   

 AND,  furthermore, if you looked at  Act Labs forum back in the day... You would
see that they have a bad reputation for customer satisfaction and service.   They
designed a highly flawed racing wheel and pedal set... which constantly breaks
the springs they try to send put as a 'fix'.   As well as many other issues.

 Their phone support techs are rude and dont offer much help.   Basically, they tell
you that you are screwed,   and that there is nothing you can do about it.

 
 On the other hand... my  LCD Topguns are always within a cm or less of where I aim.
They never missfire at a random location like the Crap Labs guns.

 The guns are comfortable, and have Dual handed reload buttons - AND - the
buttons they use for this are better and easier to press.

 To date - there is NO other PC gun that matches or exceeds their accuracy and
quality.


 And, the price for them was Dirt cheap.    I think $20 a gun.    VS the +$60  CrapLabs
gun the was completely unusable.

 
 If Anyone is going to make a  "Perfect"  gun for PC, then its most probable that its
EMS.   Certainly not ACTLABS,  Happs,  nor anyone else that makes mame devices.



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