Author Topic: CRT Lightgun (Read 17912 times)

yo1dog · « **on:** January 04, 2012, 01:33:26 am »

Can you convert one from Happ?

Are there any solutions left for a CRT lightgun? I noticed actlabs is discontinued. It will be used on either a "Makvision Tri-Mode Flat Monitor" or a "Makvision/Weiya CRT Arcade Monitor" purchased from xgaming.com.

I do NOT want AimTrak. Already got one. It works OK, but I remember my actlabs and other CRT lightguns working much better. I could be miss-remembering. Plus no cross-hair support.

Thanks,
- Mike

yo1dog · « **Reply #1 on:** January 04, 2012, 11:56:21 am »

Update:
For this interface that looks like exactly what I need. However it is $200. I will be willing to pay that much but I would rather find a cheaper solution. There has to be some kind of hack out there... right?

http://www.nanotechent.com/opti-gun.php

Hoopz · « **Reply #2 on:** January 04, 2012, 12:27:03 pm »

Maybe David Foley will chime in this time but he hasn't posted lately that I've seen. Maybe his online access is restricted in prison now?

Regardless, the opti-gun may not be a viable option. I've yet to read any reviews or hear of anyone actually taking delivery of the product. Granted, I've not looked in the last few months as much as I did before that, but the threads I read on different forums talked about people placing orders and never getting anything from the company. YMMV.

Donkbaca · « **Reply #3 on:** January 04, 2012, 12:27:58 pm »

Light guns aren't worth the trouble, most of the good ones aren't all that playable

yo1dog · « **Reply #4 on:** January 04, 2012, 12:28:35 pm »

That is your opinion. One of my favorite games is police trainer.

Hoopz · « **Reply #5 on:** January 04, 2012, 12:34:33 pm »

Foley posted in this thread about a year and a half ago about the Optigun.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=102510.msg1085389#msg1085389

If you decide to go that route, make sure you can dispute the credit card charge before the deadline if/when you don't get the product.

yo1dog · « **Reply #6 on:** January 04, 2012, 12:36:31 pm »

Yea I'll order it soon so I have the whole month to cancel the charge.

Donkbaca · « **Reply #7 on:** January 04, 2012, 12:38:01 pm »

good luck

Hoopz · « **Reply #8 on:** January 04, 2012, 12:41:45 pm »

Quote from: Donkbaca on January 04, 2012, 12:38:01 pm

good luck

+Eleventybillion

Please update the thread if/when you order and if/when you do the chargeback. Or even if you get the product.

yo1dog · « **Reply #9 on:** January 04, 2012, 12:42:25 pm »

They have the price but no Google Checkout button as they do with their other products. Sent them an email. We shall see.

yo1dog · « **Reply #10 on:** January 04, 2012, 01:06:39 pm »

So I just found this:
http://parts.globalvr.com/

Search "usb2gun" in the top right. Now we are looking at $300 but it looks much more promising than the OptiGun.

BadMouth · « **Reply #11 on:** January 04, 2012, 01:54:38 pm »

It's been covered http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=114406.0

I think I could get it working if I had one, but it is seen as two analogue joysticks.
The light gun games in Model 2 emulator don't work with joysticks.
That alone would prevent me from buying it.

Your best bet is probably watching fleabay for used act labs guns.

Franco B · « **Reply #12 on:** January 05, 2012, 03:44:58 am »

You could always buy the real hardware. Police Trainer is a very cheap PCB,

yo1dog · « **Reply #13 on:** January 05, 2012, 10:27:20 am »

Where is a place that sells these?

CheffoJeffo · « **Reply #14 on:** January 05, 2012, 10:45:59 am »

Quote from: Donkbaca on January 04, 2012, 12:27:58 pm

Light guns aren't worth the trouble, most of the good ones aren't all that playable

* CheffoJeffo wants Donk off of his lawn ... the Exidy 440 series are great games and completely playable.

Franco B · « **Reply #15 on:** January 05, 2012, 11:11:13 am »

Quote from: yo1dog on January 05, 2012, 10:27:20 am

Where is a place that sells these?

Usual places, forums, ebay etc etc.

There is an over priced one on ebay [here].

yo1dog · « **Reply #16 on:** January 05, 2012, 11:15:48 am »

So here's a fun question: How do you "use" a JAMA PCB?

Does it have connections for your monitor and lightguns or does it need an interface?

Franco B · « **Reply #17 on:** January 05, 2012, 12:03:51 pm »

You connect a JAMMA PCB to a cabinet by using a JAMMA harness. Its a 56 pin connector that fits on the edge connector at the side of the board.

There are a load of wires coming from this connector that are then fed to different parts of the cab, i.e the monitor, speakers, controls, coin door. There are also wires that attach to a PSU which provides 5v, -5v and 12v for the PCB.

The guns do not interface though the JAMMA harness as they simply are not JAMMA. Most JAMMA boards either have connections for the guns directly onto the JAMMA board or via a daughter or sub board that tends to come with the PCB, they will use the JAMMA pinout to connect the other common parts though. Some later gun games use dedicated I/O boards. Some games are not JAMMA wired but they can be wired to JAMMA though.

Obviously you need the right resolution monitor to run some games, most of the older ones require a 15kHz CRT. Some of the newer ones tend to use 31kHz monitors and use IRs similar to Ultimarks AIMTrack.

There is a little further reading on JAMMA Harnesses [here] if you want to read.

lettuce · « **Reply #18 on:** January 06, 2012, 02:31:56 pm »

Quote from: Donkbaca on January 04, 2012, 12:27:58 pm

Light guns aren't worth the trouble, most of the good ones aren't all that playable

Of the top of my head the only ones that are playable at the moment are, Virtua Cop 1 & 2, Time Crisis 2, House Of The Dead.

Theres loads that are playable

Operation Wolf
Operation Thunderbolt
Area 51
Crypt Killers
Leathal Enforcers 1 & 2
Beast Busters
Jurassic Park
Space Gun
Police Trainer
Point Blank

bkenobi · « **Reply #19 on:** January 06, 2012, 02:46:58 pm »

Someone on this forum bought a David Foley board off ebay a few months back. As I recall, he never got it working correctly and was soon in another thread trying to figure out how to get light guns to work with a different interface. He bought the usb2gun version as I recall.

I can't say that it won't work, but I have kept my eye on any thread related to these and have never seen one that suggests the OP bought one and was able to get it to work. I think that thread last year was the only person who actually bought one and posted though.

Donkbaca · « **Reply #20 on:** January 06, 2012, 05:11:29 pm »

None of the Time crisis works, are 51 is iffy as is crypt killers HOTD doesn't work except in M2 and M2 and light guns is just a PITA (no 2p support, can't shoot offscreeen...)

I didn't think Jurrasic park was playable...

There are a lot of good gun games out there, but setting up gun hardware is a huge pain. I have a couple of aimtraks, one of them just stopped working. Andy sent me a replacement board, but I haven't swapped it in my gun because installation was a pain (I didn't use the aimtrak shells, I used my own)

I *think* there is some sort of conflict with the drivers for my microsoft xbox controllers, but I am not sure.

Anyhow they are a pain to get running and calibrate and then all of a sudden mine stopped working. A lot of the games I enjoy I can't play such as the HOTD series and the time crisis series. Area 51 is choppy. Police trainer and HOTD work in M2, but M2 sucks because you can't have 2 guns and you can't shoot off screen.

Yes the old exidy games are fun, well, most of them are decent, but if you are looking at aimtraks, you are looking at $200 bucks for guns, plus the pain of setting them up.

In my opinion, the best way to play light gun games is to just do it on the old consoles, cheaper that way and you can play most anything.

lettuce · « **Reply #21 on:** January 06, 2012, 05:39:23 pm »

I have no problems playing Time Crisis, Area 51 or Crypt Killers

Donkbaca · « **Reply #22 on:** January 06, 2012, 06:30:21 pm »

Time crisis isn't emulated accurately, there is still that helicopter bug last I checked, and Area 51 and crypt killers bog down on older machines

CheffoJeffo · « **Reply #23 on:** January 06, 2012, 06:53:40 pm »

Quote from: Donkbaca on January 06, 2012, 05:11:29 pm

Yes the old exidy games are fun, well, most of them are decent

Who are you and what have you done with Donk ?

BadMouth · « **Reply #24 on:** January 06, 2012, 06:56:15 pm »

Almost all the problems listed are from using Aim-Traks and an older PC.

All those games except Time Crisis run fine on my $250 budget build with old Act Labs ray guns.
There have been improvements to the driver for Time Crisis in recent builds, but it still requires a bleeding edge pc to run.

Even newer NAOMI and Atomiswave games like HOTD2 & Maze of Kings are playable with Demul,
although they require some autohotkey gymnastics to launch from a frontend.... and like M2, only Player 1 controls work.

I probably have 20-30 good light gun games that work fine.
(could easily double that if I included ones that I don't like)

It's one of the main reasons that I chose not to build a new LCD cab after buying most of the parts. $:-\$

Jurasic Park isn't a light gun game btw.

....one more thing.
The exidy games suck.

Donkbaca · « **Reply #25 on:** January 06, 2012, 07:55:32 pm »

I'm not interested in playable, I am in interested in it it working like it should

runawayabc123 · « **Reply #26 on:** January 06, 2012, 08:04:29 pm »

The PCBs aren't that expensive and they work. I'd recommend that route (that is what I did).

Otherwise as said... look for used act guns.

bkenobi · « **Reply #27 on:** January 06, 2012, 09:38:22 pm »

Namco guncon2's work good, not great. They require a screen flash on many games to work correctly. They mysteriously stop working for no reason (mine are currently not working on some games that were working fine without any changes). IMO, although some of the best games are gun games, they are a HUGE PITA and of questionable value. By having a pair of guns on the front of the cab that don't work, I have had a number of people walk away when they are told they don't work right now.

honkey · « **Reply #28 on:** January 07, 2012, 03:01:24 am »

To me, it was worth it to buy Aimtraks for Area 51 and Point Blank even thought it was pretty costly. Since then, I have been enjoying Time Crisis 3 on the PS2 with one of the guns. I haven't played time crisis 2 and I am not sure if time crisis one will work with aimtraks on PS2. So far though, I like aimtrak.

lettuce · « **Reply #29 on:** January 07, 2012, 02:49:18 pm »

Quote from: BadMouth on January 06, 2012, 06:56:15 pm

Jurasic Park isn't a light gun game btw.

In that case neithers T2

yo1dog · « **Reply #30 on:** January 07, 2012, 07:42:37 pm »

It seems to me the guy who was using usb2gun was able to get it working properly in windows, it should be able to work properly in MAME. I cant figure out why he was unable to.

BadMouth · « **Reply #31 on:** January 07, 2012, 08:11:15 pm »

Quote from: yo1dog on January 07, 2012, 07:42:37 pm

It seems to me the guy who was using usb2gun was able to get it working properly in windows, it should be able to work properly in MAME. I cant figure out why he was unable to.

Since it's seen as a joystick, it's affected by settings like dead zone, sensetivity and saturation.
I don't think he fully understood the huge impact those things have on precise aiming.
I've fiddled with postional guns (i.e. Terminator 2 type) a fair amount and those settings are the difference between the control being horrible or arcade perfect.

lodoss118 · « **Reply #32 on:** January 08, 2012, 06:00:23 am »

Yep it was me who bought the usb2gun and some namco arcade guns and could not get it to work as i wanted (posted a vid playing time crisis), because my knowledge sucks.
I had my kit on sale over at arcade otaku sale forum.

BadMouth · « **Reply #33 on:** January 08, 2012, 11:12:12 am »

Made a little demo of how well light gun games work on my setup.
unedited, never paused the camera, no calibration between games

(my shoddy autohotkey script for HOTD2 failed to remove the black splash screen the first time around, so I had to exit and relaunch it)
2.9Ghz Athlon X3, 8600GT, CRT TV over S-video, Act Labs guns
MAME is the only emulator that supports 2 player.
YOUR RESULTS MAY VARY

yo1dog · « **Reply #34 on:** January 08, 2012, 12:40:31 pm »

Nice job BadMouth. I bought an actlabs 5 years ago and have been looking for it. Hopefully I can find it. I will probably be coming to you for more advice in the future.

Also, lodoss118 just hooked me up with his usb2gun. Thanks again man! So when that comes in I will let you know of my findings.

Spacedueler · « **Reply #35 on:** January 08, 2012, 08:18:49 pm »

Are you still interested in the Act Labs. I bought a Red and Blue pair about 2 years ago before I even built my CP - try them - My P4 didn't run the games that well (area51 if I remember) They've been sitting in a box ever since. My CP is pretty much up and running, but I don't have much desire to use the guns. Considering putting them on ebay for a while now....but...

yo1dog · « **Reply #36 on:** January 08, 2012, 08:24:33 pm »

I am still interested. They will be a great fallback in case usb2gun never works and I can defiantly use them on future projects.

Sending a PM.

yo1dog · « **Reply #37 on:** January 08, 2012, 08:56:25 pm »

Hopefully I will be able to buy those two newer ActLabs guns from Spacedueler.

Also, I just bought one of the old ActLabs Alien zapper looking guns off ebay for $20

Is there any notable differences between the old alien looking ones and the newer ones?

Thanks,
- Mike

Spacedueler · « **Reply #38 on:** January 08, 2012, 09:02:43 pm »

Wow - mine are different. Is that a complete setup? Mine uses one of these for each gun:
http://www.act-labs.com/scripts/proddetails.asp?Pid=994

Plus the gun:
http://www.act-labs.com/scripts/proddetails.asp?Pid=866

x2 ~ $200

I may as well keep them if new technology has dropped the price down to $20...

Quote from: yo1dog on January 08, 2012, 08:56:25 pm

Hopefully I will be able to buy those two newer ActLabs guns from Spacedueler.

Also, I just bought one of the old ActLabs Alien zapper looking guns off ebay for $20

Is there any notable differences between the old alien looking ones and the newer ones?

Thanks,
- Mike

$20 bucks on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Act-Labs-Proline-PC-USB-Light-Gun-4-Gaming-VGA-Video-Cards-CRT-Monitors-WORKS-/180790971951?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a17fb4e2f#ht_2002wt_952

Not sure how much you are looking for though.

BadMouth · « **Reply #39 on:** January 08, 2012, 09:23:43 pm »

Quote from: yo1dog on January 08, 2012, 08:56:25 pm

Is there any notable differences between the old alien looking ones and the newer ones?

I had one of the newer ones as a backup, but sold it because I figured I'd move on to LCD eventually.
The boxes that the guns plug into look the same, but the gun can be unplugged from the newer versions.
I seem to remember something about newer guns have a switch to set for whether it is gun 1 or gun 2.

With MAME being the only emulator that supports 2 guns, I'm not sure a 2nd one is worth it unless there is a particular game that you are into.

Quote from: Spacedueler on January 08, 2012, 09:02:43 pm

Wow - mine are different. Is that a complete setup? Mine uses one of these for each gun:
http://www.act-labs.com/scripts/proddetails.asp?Pid=994

Plus the gun:
http://www.act-labs.com/scripts/proddetails.asp?Pid=866

x2 ~ $200

I may as well keep them if new technology has dropped the price down to $20...

These are the old Ray-Gun style that were the first ones Act Labs came out with. They originally sold for $35 each.
There was also a set that came with 2 guns, some kind of mouse pointer thing (or maybe it's just a gamepad to move around in first person shooters), and a holster for everything.

They stopped making them, then MAME became popular and suddenly used ones were selling for $100+.
So they started making them again, made them look more like happ arcade guns, and charged the going rate.

Since they are useless with LCDs which have taken over, the price of used ones have gone back down and they stopped making them.


Main	Restorations	Software	Audio/Jukebox/MP3	Everything Else	Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements	Monitor/Video	GroovyMAME	Merit/JVL Touchscreen	Meet Up	Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing	Woodworking	Software Support Forums	Consoles	Project Arcade	Reviews
Automated Projects	Artwork	Frontend Support Forums	Pinball	Forum Discussion	Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board	controls.dat	Linux	Miscellaneous Arcade	Wiki Discussion	Old Archives
Lightguns	Arcade1Up	Try the site in https mode		Site News


Unread posts \| New Replies \| Recent posts \| Rules \| Chatroom \| Wiki \| File Repository \| RSS \| Submit news