NES Light Gun Adapter

[Tahnok]

I have been working on an NES adapter and began wondering if there is a way to hook up an old NES light gun to a computer. It would seems that if you can create a port that works with the NES controller it should be able to work with the light gun as well (since it worked off the same port in the real NES). Here is a link to the adapter I am going to be making, except I am modifying the plans to an old NES controller socket so I can unplug the controller if I want.

http://snespad.emulationworld.com/nes_adapter.html

[TalkingOctopus]

I really wish that you could connect the NES lightgun to a computer but there are a few things that prevent that possibility.

1) The gun works on a TV only not on a computer monitor.
2) There is no driver for it.

[Tahnok]

Hmm... well... most people on this forum are using TVs as monitors. So that shouldn't be a problem.

As for the driver, yes, that is a problem. I wonder where I could find a programmer willing to try out this experiment.

[DarkKobold]

To do this would be quite the undertaking. A Lightgun requires that the screen "flash" for a moment, which then the light gun reads in the location, based on where the flash is at the time. (Read up on Monitors if you want to understand this more)

The NES actually worked a little different, as the screen blacked, and the targets whited out, which would make it easier to program for.... well, duckhunt.

But meanwhile, You have to be able sync the monitor refresh rate and the reading of the gun. The act-labs pc and tv gun have a passthrough which adds the flash to the screen, and does the location calculation internally, I believe. This means you would need to design an actual piece of electronic hardware.