WOW New LightGUN Info !!! Woot!!! :)

[mwinter77]

OK, got it working!!  It was a calibration issue - even though the laser was tracking correctly (on screen vs off) it wasn't really calibrated and therefore was not generating mouse events or a least so it seems.  Now to do some mame testing woohoo!!

[Silver]

I downloaded Smog's latest drivers but the control panel that comes with it no longer has the calibration button.  There doesn't seem to be a way to manually calibrate anymore via the driver.  Does anyone know if that's by design?

I believe smogs had a checkbox for "LCD Topgun mode" which means you don't need to calibrate manually (NOTE: you DO need to do the initial hardware calibration).

The LCD Topguns actually send out a fixed range of data. This is now known, so it is not actually necessary for drivers to calibrate - just the guns own hardware calibration is required.



I just created a wiki page for all this setup stuff so anyone can update:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/LCDTopGun

All info I lifted from wizards FAQ here:

http://www.wizardsworks.org/chod/gun/topgun.htm

[mwinter77]

Can't seem to get it to work with Zero Point - only one I tried so far, but always worked great with my other lightgun (actlabs).  I can move the crosshair aorund with the mouse, but the gun won't move it.  Weird since the gun moves the cursor around fine in windows.  I am using smogs driver and mame 114.  I have all mame ini settings as described - shouldn't this continue to act like a mouse in mame just as it does in windows like my other mouse.

[Silver]

yes, although I think all the lightgun code has been replaced recently in mame IIRC.

In fact I think the -lightgun options are now completely defunct. you just need to have -mouse.

if you run mame game -mouse -verbose, then the command prompt will show the mice/lightguns detected by mame. You need to have the correct one (that matches the lightgun) selected in the games tab menu (input control menu).

More info: http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mame_Lightgun_Setup

[mwinter77]

What doesn't make sense is the game is responding to mouse input correctly from several mouse devices, just not from the gun (which really is just a mouse at this point right) yet the gun produces proper mouse input in windows.  Wait a minute - I got an idea...  Yep its what you 'silverfox' were saying.  Since Mame now supports multiple devices all devices of the same class don't automatically run the same input now - each mouse is different.

[Silver]

I believe that in windows (xp) with multiple mice - all mice control the mouse pointer.

In mame, you MUST specify which mouse is to be looked at for each game/lightgun games.

[MacroX]

yes, i agree with you.

[atom]

Need help with T2 in Mame32.115 on XP all games seem to work fine except T2. The problem it that when I aim the gun on the screen the courser goes crazy but the mouse seems to work and aim fine. I can't calibrate the gun for this reason.  When I hit tap under the game control settings there is no light gun listed just the mouse. Any ideas

[Carsten Carlos]

Anyone else have a problem where after installing smog driver and these guns, screen saver won't kick in/monitor won't go in standby.   Is there a solution other than unplugging the guns?

Yeah, I was investigating this problem since yesterday - as I've programmed my frontend myself, I thought there went something wrong, though the screensaver function worked perfect for days! 

Is there any thing you can change on your driver, Smog? As soon as I deactivate it, everything works fine. Just an idea, as the guns are lying in the cab when not in use (though connected), does your driver send offscreen-reload commands everytime the lcd topgun doesn't sees it stands?

[jdmagoo]

Hi all,

I'm currently using Mame32b 0.117u1 but am having difficulty configuring the Top Guns to work. I have successfully calibrated the gun in windows with all buttons working along with correct tracking, however when I run a game it doesn't register a shot when the trigger is pulled. It does have correct tracking in the game, but when I go into the TAB menu to assign a button to P1, it doesn't recognize the trigger pull on the gun, hence I cannot assign the button. This is the case for all Mame shooting games.
I am using the EMS v3.2 driver and am unable to try smog's driver as it seems to be removed from his website ( all you can download is a html file pointing to nothing). So does anybody have any suggestions on how to fix this, I have spent hours reading this forum along with plenty of Google searches and my own experimenting but to no avail. And I bet its as simple as having a box ticked somewhere.

Many thanks

James

[northerngames]

do these TopGuns work on 15k arcade monitors?


I read to many pages and did not find my answer yet 

[mrserv0n]

Yes mine works perfect on my arcade monitor

[northerngames]

cool just wanted to be sure becuase of the low res.

would hate to order a pair and find they dont work with them 

also I read for an hour or so in this topic and found no answer so thanks for the reply.

 your set-up appear's to be mounted well in your cab and looks good 

[chazbeenhad]

I'm having the same problem as jdmagoo (post a few up from this one).

I tried the command line mame and mame32 (.118) and can not get the trigger mapped to shoot the gun.
Right now I'm using the EMS 3.2 drivers and the gun trcks in game fine.
I tried SMOGS driver but I couldn't even get the gun to track.

Any ideas on why the trigger (and other buttons on the gun) can't be mapped in mame?

[topher0002]

Ive tried everything that I can think of to get the gun to work in 118,  calibrated fine in windows,  works fine with mame revision 116 but not with 117 or 118 with same settings.   I just downloaded 119 and am going to try it tonight when i get home to see if its any better....otherwise im going to stick with 116 until an answer is found.  Ive done alot of research as well and cannot find an answer that works.  Also mine tracks fine in mame but will not register a shot with trigger,  however it registers a shot with left mouse button.   I know my gun trigger is set to the left mouse button so i dont know what else to try really.   Anyone?

[Malenko]

Ive tried everything that I can think of to get the gun to work in 118,  calibrated fine in windows,  works fine with mame revision 116 but not with 117 or 118 with same settings.   I just downloaded 119 and am going to try it tonight when i get home to see if its any better....otherwise im going to stick with 116 until an answer is found.  Ive done alot of research as well and cannot find an answer that works.  Also mine tracks fine in mame but will not register a shot with trigger,  however it registers a shot with left mouse button.   I know my gun trigger is set to the left mouse button so i dont know what else to try really.   Anyone?

I have the EXACT same issue. if you figure it out, msg me, if I figure it out, I'll msg you

[S2Martin]

Could you guys not disable the mouse via device manager and see if it works then? i don't have a gun to test etc but it might be worth trying?*

*just to add i had to do that to change priority over the mouse and trackball i use in mame.

Mart

[chazbeenhad]

I can verify that mame32 .116 works fine with this gun using the EMS drivers as of this date.

Some tips with .116 might be to delete all the files in the CFG and INI folders.
Run mame32 and set the default game options , enable mouse, and in the controller mapping tab set lightgun to lightgun.


mame32 .118 just would not work correctly.

[lotec25]

what is the cost of one of these in US dollars?  And from what i see the only way to get one is to fill out the form and send it in?  is that correct?

[Dariusz]

Hi There,

This is one large post……

I’ve briefly read some pages of the post and have some question I hope some one can answer:

1.   Is this light gun the best available at the present time for a mame arcade cabinet?

2.   Is there a post and web sites (like with past light guns) to instruct how to connect / setup the light gun with mame?

Thanks,

Kind Regards,

Dariusz

[ARTIFACT]

Ive tried everything that I can think of to get the gun to work in 118,  calibrated fine in windows,  works fine with mame revision 116 but not with 117 or 118 with same settings.   I just downloaded 119 and am going to try it tonight when i get home to see if its any better....otherwise im going to stick with 116 until an answer is found.  Ive done alot of research as well and cannot find an answer that works.  Also mine tracks fine in mame but will not register a shot with trigger,  however it registers a shot with left mouse button.   I know my gun trigger is set to the left mouse button so i dont know what else to try really.   Anyone?

SAME problem here

ACT LABS Lightgun (USB/VGA box)

works great in Model2 emu (HOTD, VCOP, etc) ... mame doesn't see the trigger being pushed. if i press the button 1 on my cab, I can see a shot beinig fired where I last tried shooting the gun (if that makes any sense)... so it DOES calibrate and aim correctly... just the trigger button isn't firing the Player 1 Button 1 correctly (and I tried assigning it via the TAB menu in MAME)

[brock.sampson]

Try this edit your mame.ini as follows

#
# CORE INPUT OPTIONS
#
lightgun        1

#
# CORE INPUT AUTOMATIC ENABLE OPTIONS
#
lightgun_device           lightgun


I was told setting lightgun_device should set lightgun to 1 automatically but I set it anyway.  Also don't set dual_lightgun  1.  That is for older actlab guns.

[mjthompson]

Anyone else have a problem where after installing smog driver and these guns, screen saver won't kick in/monitor won't go in standby.   Is there a solution other than unplugging the guns?

Yeah, I was investigating this problem since yesterday - as I've programmed my frontend myself, I thought there went something wrong, though the screensaver function worked perfect for days! 

Is there any thing you can change on your driver, Smog? As soon as I deactivate it, everything works fine. Just an idea, as the guns are lying in the cab when not in use (though connected), does your driver send offscreen-reload commands everytime the lcd topgun doesn't sees it stands?

Has anyone figured out how to get standby to work with Smog's driver?

[ARTIFACT]

Try this edit your mame.ini as follows

#
# CORE INPUT OPTIONS
#
lightgun        1

#
# CORE INPUT AUTOMATIC ENABLE OPTIONS
#
lightgun_device           lightgun


I was told setting lightgun_device should set lightgun to 1 automatically but I set it anyway.  Also don't set dual_lightgun  1.  That is for older actlab guns.

Thanks,

I already have those setup yes

Trigger does NOT shoot in MAME... pressing the P1 Button 1 on my cab "shoots" where I last had fired the gun (makes any sense? sorry its hard to explain)

[brock.sampson]

Can you post your whole mame.ini file?

[ARTIFACT]

My ACT LABS works in MAME 119 now!

I was moving the gun while trying to assign the trigger to Button 1

Simply keeping the gun from moving while pressing the trigger did the trick.

[SgtSlaughter]

I just purchased from play-asia.com, if anyone doesn't read all of this thread, Randy mentioned that if your shipping to Canada and you only select 1 then then you can choose standard parcel mail.  I definetly recommend anyone to do this, if your going to buy 2, then buy 1 at a time and go this method.  It only takes getting hit once by Customs to learn from your mistakes. 

[salty]

I've recently bought a second topgun and I've noticed that it has "BR.1" stamped on the left side of the handle towards the bottom. My first gun did not have this marking. Can anyone tell me if they have this mark (or not) on theirs?

The only reason I care is that my second gun doesn't seem to calibrate properly.I'm using Smog's driver with the LCD gun default calibration and my first gun tracks the mouse perfectly, but the new one is just 'off'. It works, but it seems uncalibrated (there is not a consistent offset), even after hardware calibration. Adjusting the edge offset in the gun2con control panel doesn't seem to make any difference.

I was thinking that they are perhaps from different manufacturing runs and that there is some hardware difference that is causing the problem - or is ths second gun just broken in some way?

[MacroX]

I've recently bought a second topgun and I've noticed that it has "BR.1" stamped on the left side of the handle towards the bottom. My first gun did not have this marking. Can anyone tell me if they have this mark (or not) on theirs?

The only reason I care is that my second gun doesn't seem to calibrate properly.I'm using Smog's driver with the LCD gun default calibration and my first gun tracks the mouse perfectly, but the new one is just 'off'. It works, but it seems uncalibrated (there is not a consistent offset), even after hardware calibration. Adjusting the edge offset in the gun2con control panel doesn't seem to make any difference.

I was thinking that they are perhaps from different manufacturing runs and that there is some hardware difference that is causing the problem - or is ths second gun just broken in some way?

why not return the product to them ?

[salty]

Yay, a reply!!

I'm in touch with Henry at EMS about this problem as well. I'm trying to ascertain whether it is actually faulty or not, because if it's not, then I'll just have this same problem with any second gun. And I must have a second gun, or how else can I prove my superiority at point blank to my friends? 

Henry's confirmed that the BR1 stamp on the handle just means that the gun is from a different manufacturing run, but he said that shouldn't cause this problem. Anyone else have two guns that are from different manufacturing runs?

[xbrnchefx]

I just got my topgun and have been having the same trigger problems as others in mame. It works fine in windows, but in mame the trigger doesn't work. I'm using ems 3.2 and mame .119, if anyone could help thanks.... also I tried smog's drivers but they wouldn't even see the gun.

[GreatLamer]

Only Smogs 0.9b6 works with the topgun. You must use AutoCalibration. After press save/refresh you need to plug out and plug in the gun. After this, your gun calibrated during use, not in calibration procedure. Just move the mouse pointer with the gun all 4 screen edges, and the cursor moves perfect after doing this. It must be perfect for all game/apps.

[andressauceda]

Hi to all:

I read all.... the topic and it was a great one (and a long one), and help me to set the guns.

I had 2 topguns working great with smog´s driver for about a year in mame32, but I had 2 problems:

1st.- I can not play games with Adstick control (aliens 3 or Operation thunderbolt), because in the tab control mame do not detect the guns.

2nd.- the last weekend we were playing and windows make a sound like one gun (gun 2) was disconnected, I quit the game and look at sys and it detect only one gun, I unplug and replug the gun and it was detected, but as soon as I point to the screen it make the sound and end the gun, it continue to turn on the laser when pointing the screen but it not works.

can any had this problem before?

I was interested about hacking the gun but... I will wait till hear some one else with any idea of what is happening.

[u_rebelscum]

I had 2 topguns working great with smog´s driver for about a year in mame32, but I had 2 problems:

1st.- I can not play games with Adstick control (aliens 3 or Operation thunderbolt), because in the tab control mame do not detect the guns.

Which version of mame32/mameUI are you using?
Assuming it's semi recent, make sure you are mapping the AD Stick Analog items, and NOT the AD Stick Inc/Dec items.  For more details, follow the instructions here (even though it's written for actlabs).

2nd.- the last weekend we were playing and windows make a sound like one gun (gun 2) was disconnected, I quit the game and look at sys and it detect only one gun, I unplug and replug the gun and it was detected, but as soon as I point to the screen it make the sound and end the gun, it continue to turn on the laser when pointing the screen but it not works.

Sounds like the gun is shorting somewhere when it senses the LEDs.    This could be anywhere from the optical sensor to the chips to the power convertor in the gun, to the USB cable, to the USB port in the computer.  Is recoil plugged in?  This was the first to go in one of my LCD guns; try leaving the recoil power unplugged (even though I doubt this is the problem, it's the easiest to test).

[brandon]

I really wish Ultimarc or RandyT would come up with some relativelyl fool proof gun system...  I"d drop some money in a heartbeat but from everything I read Guncon2 and topguns seem to be more trouble than they are worth..  Hell, I have enough trouble just trying to get Pacman to run at the right resolution

[andressauceda]

Hi u-rebelscum

Which version of mame32/mameUI are you using?
Assuming it's semi recent, make sure you are mapping the AD Stick Analog items, and NOT the AD Stick Inc/Dec items.  For more details, follow the instructions here (even though it's written for actlabs).

I´m using mame32 V 0.123 in Windows XP, I make another attempt yesterday and found something interesting, I select the "lightgun" games in mame but alien3 and operation thunderbolt are not present, then select "trackball" games and there thy were, so I change all the mame default control to lightgun and operation thunderbolt works great, but alien 3 still not.

Also change the cfg file of alien3 ad stick for player1 with a text editor and still the same, I change the analog control, NOT the Inc/Dec.

Sounds like the gun is shorting somewhere when it senses the LEDs.    This could be anywhere from the optical sensor to the chips to the power convertor in the gun, to the USB cable, to the USB port in the computer.  Is recoil plugged in?  This was the first to go in one of my LCD guns; try leaving the recoil power unplugged (even though I doubt this is the problem, it's the easiest to test).

Also plug again the gun (the bad one) and now windows pop a USB failure, telling the item had fail and is not recognized by windows (I will post the exact text when I get home), I think the gun is death, but I will plug it to my brother's PC just to be sure.

thanks again u-rebelscum.

[andressauceda]

UPS, the color can not be seen, I also forgot to say I NEVER EVER plug the recoil NITHER ONCE, as most of the guys advice in this post

[AndyWarne]

I really wish Ultimarc or RandyT would come up with some relativelyl fool proof gun system...  I"d drop some money in a heartbeat but from everything I read Guncon2 and topguns seem to be more trouble than they are worth..  Hell, I have enough trouble just trying to get Pacman to run at the right resolution

I have done a fair bit of work on light guns in the past. I slowed down on this when the LCD Topgun came out as this seemed like the "killer" product at the time. Then stopped completely when the Wii came out as the system the Wii-mote uses is far superior to anything thats come before and cannot easily be replicated as the custom imaging chip is proprietary.
I don't know why more people have not tried the Wii-mote as a gun. It should work fine as it uses standard Bluetooth and PC drivers are available for it. It looks a bit naff so someone needs to come up with a proper gun housing rather than the white plastic gun holder which is available at the moment.
Another problem with light guns is there are quite a few patents out there which cover the various technologies which can be used, and this would be a risk for any new product.

[Paul Olson]

Hi Andy,
I do not have a clue what it would take to do it, but I would really like to see an interface for the original arcade guns. Is there any possibility of this?

[Games001]

So are you saying Andy that this item, with the remote in it:

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Id=4200212&JRSource=googlebase.datafeed.CTA+WI-LP

could be used to act as a light gun on a PC MAME build?  Would it work with a TV, PC, or Arcade monitor??