The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Lightguns => Topic started by: arcadepcnut on February 04, 2014, 03:28:58 pm
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I usually go with the cheapest choice and end up regretting it. I have a horizontal mame cab with a 27" crt monitor. Any opinions?
Im not a lightgun fanatic
but I do find them fun.
Will a usb wii sensor and wiimotes be a sufficient arcade experience. anyone used them or is using them and can chime in? Pros for this is cost. I have the wiimotes and usb sensor and Bluetooth and in my testing it seems to work ok. I also like that they are wireless and can be stored behind or inside the cab.
but in my research the aimtrak sounds pretty popular at 200$ for two guns...I guess if you can find them. and they are wired...
Also looking at ems topgun lightguns
I just want to play some time crisis and a few shooter games with the wife and have a decent experience for people when they come over.
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Do a search in the main forum for light guns.
Has been discussed ad nauseam.
My personal preference for CRT monitors is USB ACT Labs guns because they work like the old light guns did and are accurate to 3 pixels.
They aren't made anymore and require an s-vid or VGA connection though (separate model for each). They also won't work on an interlaced display or TVs that had fancy line doublers or post processing. The only reason I still keep my old CRT setup is for the light gun games.
The IR based guns like the aimtrak and wii controllers aren't accurate enough to use the gun sights IMO. You must rely on the on-screen crosshairs.
If you are happy with the performance of gun games on the wii, then you will be satisfied with them. I have to use the guns sights or I feel like I'm using an air mouse instead of holding a gun.
The biggest problem with the wii controllers is getting them to pair automatically well enough that it can be incorporated into a front-end.
To my knowledge nobody has cracked that nut.
Aim-Trak is as good as it gets for IR guns and as plug and play as you will find. Not sure what you mean buy "if you can find them".
If Ultimarc is out, then divemaster (a member here) at www.arcadeemulator.net (http://www.arcadeemulator.net) will have them (email or PM him)...or www.arcadeguns.com (http://www.arcadeguns.com) has the Aim-Trak in a different housing.
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Thanks for your assistance. I have the wii autopair with a program called dos program called wiipair and a program for windows called wiimouse also works well. so that's not to big an issue. I have see the act labs guns but I cant get past their martian blaster looks since they came out 6 years ago I never bought them. The crosshairs is not to big a deal since some games...terminator and operation wolf off the top of my head depend on them.
The aim-trak seem like my best option if I want to bit the bullet. By if you can find them I meant they were out at ultimarc.
But what you have said helps me. I would really like to hear from someone using the wimmote and what "shell" they are using and if its a "good enough" cheap method to incorporate guns into my cabinet. my cabinet is mainly used for 2 player beatemup and fighter games. I like to keep the control panel as clean and as arcade authentic as possible, so that's why I never added the actlabs when they came out.
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If you want the Ultimarc guns (including the ones with recoil), divemaster is probably your best bet if Ultimarc is out.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=profile;u=7532 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=profile;u=7532)
He has stuff in stock, but keep in mind that it is a side job, so question response and shipping times might not be immediate.
I've been happy in my dealings with him.
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/151223991670?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT (http://www.ebay.com/itm/151223991670?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)
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VGA version, although I hate the feel of the silver pistol version (not to be confused with the ray-gun)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACT-LABS-Silver-PC-USB-light-gun-MAME-Arcade-/171234030002?pt=US_Video_Game_Controllers&hash=item27de57f1b2 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACT-LABS-Silver-PC-USB-light-gun-MAME-Arcade-/171234030002?pt=US_Video_Game_Controllers&hash=item27de57f1b2)
There's one other s-vid ray gun too.
Most I've seen on ebay in a long time.
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VGA version, although I hate the feel of the silver pistol version (not to be confused with the ray-gun)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACT-LABS-Silver-PC-USB-light-gun-MAME-Arcade-/171234030002?pt=US_Video_Game_Controllers&hash=item27de57f1b2 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACT-LABS-Silver-PC-USB-light-gun-MAME-Arcade-/171234030002?pt=US_Video_Game_Controllers&hash=item27de57f1b2)
There's one other s-vid ray gun too.
Most I've seen on ebay in a long time.
that one looks great
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hey, gun from ultimarc is compatible with all emulators (http://i.imgur.com/wd16KBf.gif)
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regarding actlabs gun
"You'll need to re-calibrate the gun each time you change screen resolutions,"
has anyone noticed this to be an issue? I have 120 screen resolutions on my machine!
Edit:
Im sorry all this was a waste of peoples time. I should have tested better before posting. My 3.0 core2duo wont run any of the shooter games I was thinking of playing decently.
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regarding actlabs gun
"You'll need to re-calibrate the gun each time you change screen resolutions,"
has anyone noticed this to be an issue? I have 120 screen resolutions on my machine!
Edit:
Im sorry all this was a waste of peoples time. I should have tested better before posting. My 3.0 core2duo wont run any of the shooter games I was thinking of playing decently.
Set all the shooting games to the same resolution and you no longer have to do it.
Calibration is flipping a switch on the gun, the screen turns light, then you draw a cross on the screen with the gun like you're blessing it.
Although all my games are set to the same resolution, I still do it when starting a game that I intend to take seriously. :lol
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I bought an Aim-Track to try out and I don't think I'll be able to use it in my setup. I'm running a 55" LED TV in Portrait mode for a "virtual cab" (being able to display Marquee and Bezel). Do to the vertical nature of the screen, I can only get the sensor to track until about the middle of my screen before it cannot see the IR light. I've messed around with angles and distance a bit and it seems I'd have to stand so far back as to make it pointless to play.
It seemed to work just fine while I was messing around on my 16:10 24" monitor in landscape mode. I'll probably play with things a bit more to see if I can make it work for my soon-to-be MAME cab. I suspect, since you have a CRT, that the aim-tack will work just fine.
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Has anyone seen this yet? Looks like some promising technology. An alternative to IR guns, I hope he keeps developing it.
https://youtu.be/Dxh0vtaOHlc
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I'm skeptical. It's a smart way to do it, but for a gun to calculate the position that way would require a decent amount of processing. That probably means lag. Even in the video when he jumps the gun around you can see the cursor lagging behind and he didn't even move it that much.
That being said, you'd be surprised how much lag you can have in a gun game and still have a acceptable gameplay experience. Games like HOTD give you quite a while to shoot the enemies on screen before they attack.
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There is a whole thread dedicated to it on here somewhere ;)
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Has anyone seen this yet? Looks like some promising technology. An alternative to IR guns, I hope he keeps developing it.
https://youtu.be/Dxh0vtaOHlc (https://youtu.be/Dxh0vtaOHlc)
It requires you to be far enough away for the camera to always have a full view of the TV.
That isn't going to work on my arcade cabinet.
It works by using a light colored border in the form of overlay files in MAME.
So it isn't going to work for other emulators or PC games without software to place an on-screen border around them.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,157572.msg1655760.html#msg1655760 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,157572.msg1655760.html#msg1655760)
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That trick I use for Outrun 2k6 would work for the border. I just create a transparent window and draw graphics on it. Games would have to run in windowed mode to support it though.
Honestly I can think of any solution that's going to work on a lcd that wouldn't require the full screen to be in view unfortunately. That's why I really like the zapper rom hacks I mentioned in that other thread. At least they work.
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Honestly I can think of any solution that's going to work on a lcd that wouldn't require the full screen to be in view unfortunately. That's why I really like the zapper rom hacks I mentioned in that other thread. At least they work.
The Sega arcade systems flash the IR LEDs around the screen at different rates, so the gun only has to see a corner. It can tell by the pattern of flashes which corner it is in.
I'd like to see a setup that inserts a full screen pattern (fast enough to barely be noticeable) when the trigger is pulled and then be able to tell where you are aiming based on what part of the pattern the camera is seeing.
The camera could be extremely close. Wouldn't work as well for positional gun games unless it was fast enough to be imperceptible.
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They've already solved this problem with LCDs on modern arcade games. Maybe whatever technology they're using will trickle down to us peasants some day.
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TBH I dont see why you would want to be close enough to a monitor to not see the whole screen?
I mean me personally I like the challenge of playing from a short distance not to mention its smaller movements to cover 1 side of the screen to the other!
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They've already solved this problem with LCDs on modern arcade games. Maybe whatever technology they're using will trickle down to us peasants some day.
It already has (kinda). The newer flatscreen arcade gun games use IR sensors (or cameras) like the current home guns. It's just that all of the currently available home IR guns all use cheap crappy Chinese sensors (and too few of them).
It's not that different with light guns. For the most part, arcade light guns were awesome. Accurate, sturdy, nice recoil and playable without visible crosshairs. While 90% of the home light guns I have used are flimsy lifeless clickers with inconsistent accuracy.
The exception for me has been the Namco Guncon 2 (and 1) for the PlayStation 2. They are fantastic. So accurate. You still have to add your own recoil to make it arcade-like but it's actually worth the effort.
I wish that someone with coding experience would take on and finish the Guncon 2 drivers for Windows 7 as that be solve all gun game issues for me.
For flatscreen gun gaming, I'd rather have nothing than what's currently available. The Raw Thrills LCD arcade guns connect via USB to a PCB which is basically a PC, so I assume they could be made to work with mame if anyone has a spare $800 to try it out...
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TBH I dont see why you would want to be close enough to a monitor to not see the whole screen?
I mean me personally I like the challenge of playing from a short distance not to mention its smaller movements to cover 1 side of the screen to the other!
I'm not wanting to stand so close that I can't see the whole screen. My field of view is different from that of a camera mounted in a gun barrel. I want to stand as close as I did in the arcades.
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TBH I dont see why you would want to be close enough to a monitor to not see the whole screen?
I mean me personally I like the challenge of playing from a short distance not to mention its smaller movements to cover 1 side of the screen to the other!
I'm not wanting to stand so close that I can't see the whole screen. My field of view is different from that of a camera mounted in a gun barrel. I want to stand as close as I did in the arcades.
I know you meant the camera :p
I still stand a good 3-4 foot from the screen with my 51 cab.
I would probably stand further back but limited by cable lol