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Opti-Gun Adaptor - Says Works With Mame!
wbassett:
--- Quote from: TheShanMan on July 21, 2008, 02:30:14 am ---Exibar, if this interface proves to be a good solution for us, you might consider putting some of those guns in the BST forum. I wouldn't mind buying a pair of good condition used guns if it saves me a decent amount of $!
--- End quote ---
Although I think that is a great idea, it's not an ultimate answer for all of us because obviously he would have a very limited supply.
I just wrote the company and explained that I honestly feel they just over priced their target market and that they would make much more money with volume sales at a lower price than a sale here and there at their current price.
Right now we don't know how well this will work for a main controller interface, and based on the information I have an I-PAC looks like it is not only much cheaper but ten fold easier to use.
I want to be able to go back to the company with a realistic list of what people want and also what they are willing to pay for both a no frills just an arcade lightgun interface, as well as a full featured interface that will allow not only actual arcade light guns but some buttons and sticks as well. Like I said, a realistic and reasonable price. Free or $20 is obviously not going to be accepted by them, but if we can show them there is a large community willing to buy this if the price is right... maybe they will adjust the price some.
Right now though at this price, I can see only the purist die hards that want an actual arcade gun buying it and the rest will opt for either a TopGun or ActLabs setup.
I'll report back on what the company says in their response as soon as I hear from them.
Paul Olson:
--- Quote ---Although I think that is a great idea, it's not an ultimate answer for all of us because obviously he would have a very limited supply.
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I agree completely. That is why I was trying to get to on the list early. :D
I don't mind paying for quality products, but $200 might make me look at other alternatives. If it works as described though, I may have to try to sell off some extra parts to try to grab one. I would also like to see a cheaper version that includes just the gun interface.
RandyT:
--- Quote from: wbassett on July 21, 2008, 03:47:02 am ---I just wrote the company and explained that I honestly feel they just over priced their target market and that they would make much more money with volume sales at a lower price than a sale here and there at their current price.
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Well, to be fair, the home enthusiast isn't their target market. This board, assuming it works well, is the centerpiece of a PC based Coin-op shooting game. It's designed to go into a real cabinet in a real game room and help it to eat real quarters (dollars?). As such, it wouldn't make good business sense for them to sell them inexpensively.
It could probably be stripped down to cut costs, but it might be a hard sell to get a special run of them made for this market. Real arcade guns are very expensive, unless you can get them used someplace, so that definitely hurts the size of the potential market.
It would be nice if they would, but it's probably not likely.
RandyT
Circo:
Actually I am just going to be happy if they work. If I add up all of the money that I have already spent on lightgun solutions that I never used long term (Including my two topguns sitting in a drawer in my garage, then really even at $200 I could live with it if I had to. I will just be happy to have a solution that works the same as it does in an arcade, if that is what this is, then count me in. I think for that segment of the market that invests in arcadevga cards, multi frequency monitors & led wiz's with all the lighted buttons this could do very well. It's not everybody but it's a lot of us :)
But I may be selling an almost umused set of LCD TopGuns soon ;D
RandyT:
Someone just needs to make a cheap arcade-type gun that works well with a such a board. I would imagine that the market would open up quite a bit for a higher priced interface, so long as guns were affordable.
It seems that a gun designed for home use could be produced more reasonably than the arcade counterparts. Not much more than a switch, a lens and a photodiode in those things, is there?
RandyT