Act Labs light gun just went for 208.55 on ebay.

[Nocturnaloner]

Don't know if that's a record, but it was my bid that put it over $200 
I didn't win, but I hope whoever did is a BYOACer.

Gentlemen, with as many smart people as we have in this community, can we please do something about this stupid light gun situation?  I swear, it's a license for Act Labs to print money, if they would just get up and do it.  The economics of the situation must be beyond me.  It seems like they could just restart production any time.  How much 're-tooling' cost could they have, just to start making them again?

[1UP]

That's pretty sad.  Well, supply and demand...you can thank Act-Labs. 

[telengard]

Don't know if that's a record, but it was my bid that put it over $200 
I didn't win, but I hope whoever did is a BYOACer.

Gentlemen, with as many smart people as we have in this community, can we please do something about this stupid light gun situation?  I swear, it's a license for Act Labs to print money, if they would just get up and do it.  The economics of the situation must be beyond me.  It seems like they could just restart production any time.  How much 're-tooling' cost could they have, just to start making them again?

You gotta be kidding me.  I haven't even opened the one I bought like 2 years ago yet.  I wonder how much that would fetch on eBay.     

One of these days I have to try it with Crossbow.

[Nocturnaloner]

[

You gotta be kidding me.  I haven't even opened the one I bought like 2 years ago yet.  I wonder how much that would fetch on eBay.     

One of these days I have to try it with Crossbow.

Well hey, if you have little use for it, I'm in the market for one...

Oh yeah, here's the auction.  It was 208.05, but there you go:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5168209676

[mr.Curmudgeon]

You can pry my lightgun from my cold, dead hands!!!!

mrC

[Flinkly]

sorry bout hijacking this thread, but what i don't understand is why act labs doesn't step back in with the same gun?  just do a production run of 1000 or something and sell them for 50 bucks each, they would fly right off the f-ing shelf.  they must just be stupid or somethin...

[paigeoliver]

It is one of those supply and demand deals, they are going for huge bucks now because there is NO SUPPLY, but the demand probably isn't really all that high. Much like vector monitors, they go for a fortune because the demand outstrips the supply, BUT the overall demand isn't enough to actually make it profitable to reproduce the darn things.

[owenowen]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3945&item=6156575549&rd=1

Theres youse all go, snap up a bargain! (apparently!)

 Act labs Light guns AU$89.

I seen these the other day bugger paying $200+ for a alien looking light gun!
They've got 2 left at the time of post and only 6 dollars postage within australia.

[Sephroth57]

seriously who wouldve thought...

i never bought one back when they first came out just cause they looked so dumb and i figured eventually someone would make a normal looking one. but thats just ridiculous

[Nocturnaloner]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3945&item=6156575549&rd=1

Theres youse all go, snap up a bargain! (apparently!)

 Act labs Light guns AU$89.

I seen these the other day bugger paying $200+ for a alien looking light gun!
They've got 2 left at the time of post and only 6 dollars postage within australia.

Saw those, but they're the TV kind, so no good to me.

[vibez]

I can confirm that it was me that won the auction. I know the price was high, even the seller emailed me and asked why on earth it was so popular. I may regret it I may not. But hey, if I enjoy it then its money well spent. I wish we had other alternatives, but the sad fact is that no supplier is willing to make/sell these type of guns.

If the situation remains the same in 6 months, who knows, I might be able to sell it for double 

[Silver]

$200?

Wow I've been holding on to two (how could you get just one when there are those dual lightgun games!) of the PC VGA/USB ones for an age - sadly I'm running about 10 months behind on the 'Get-the-cab-built' front so they have only made out of their boxes for testing so far.

I had no idea they were going for so much - I could almost halve the cost of my (planned) cab by selling these on ebay. I thought Act-labs were going to start re-selling them? Or have they folden on them completely?

[vibez]

If the guy was selling 2 I would of bought them

[Fat_Trucker]

*puts on n00b hat*

Is there a reason why only act labs guns are suitable for MAME?.

How do lightguns have to work to be MAME compatable?

*takes off n00b hat*

[Silver]

If the guy was selling 2 I would of bought them

Well if I do plan to ebay them I'll give you a shout....

[Silver]

Is there a reason why only act labs guns are suitable for MAME?.

How do lightguns have to work to be MAME compatable?

There are several lightguns around that "work" on a Pc (and Mame).

There are the older actlabs systems (GS I think they are called), the actlabs TV gun, actlabs VGA gun, the 'PC Super Bio Gun' and the 'PC Virtual Gun'. All work in mame, but the problem is accuracy - PC guns are notoriously compared to console guns. Some are reviewed here:

http://www.retroblast.com/hardware.html

To cut to the chase, Act-labs are currently the best (un)available gun for a PC.

Console guns DO NOT work on a PC. No console->PC adapter makes them work either (apart from the trigger button).

NB Other future options: (you could be waiting a LONG time)

Happs re-sell an interface that lets you use standard arcade optical guns on a PC. This actually looks pretty good, costs $160 - but no one has tried it at all. It looks like there are some issues that would involve someone coding a driver for it perhaps - there was interest but I have not heard anything for a while.

A company called http://www.erealgames.com/ make a lightgun based on a camera mounted on top of your camera. This has potentially HUGE advantages over all the above guns, as they do not mess with the video of the system at all - no white-blanking of the screen on every shot.
It is not avaiable for the PC although a guy from the company posted on these boards saying they were looking into making a PC version.

Another option is a conversion/copy of the 'Gun Sense' system used on  more recent Sega arcade games (Lost World, Vcop3, HOTD3 I think). This basically sticks 10 infra-red LEDs around the monitor, and has a detector in the tip of the gun. It works extremely well - its basically a pro version of the erealgames 1camera option. Ultimarc - makers of Ipac/Optipac - plan to look at this idea. The catch is that they will basically be designing it from scratch.

[Fat_Trucker]

Thanks.

[Layer01]

whoah! thats a lot of moolah....well lucky for me they still have some of their TV guns in stock and i just bout 2 (seeing as i will be using a tv in my cab, i'd say the situation couldn't have worked out any better lol)
i wonder how long it is before the TV guns start fetching insane prices....*sneeky eyes*  hehehe

oh one thing though....seriously why the hell does act labs ship air mail almost everywhere but not to places like...say...Australia!!! man 6-10 weeks is a long time to wait...sheesh its not like they're that big either..

[Lilwolf]

btw, I looked at building a solution a while ago.  I just started to find out the hardware needed to do it.  But didn't even look at the software side.  I've never written a driver for 98 or XP in the normal sense and that would probably be as much work as creating an interface that allowed for the sensors.

I was hoping to have multiple sensors around the monitor and shooting a led back.  This would have been more expensive but would have allowed for a wireless gun.  And then have more then one model.  Have 1 or 2+ led frequency ranges per gun.  One for real time tracking and one for a gun shot.   Or the tracking frequency in a pulse when a trigger is pressed.

The trouble was knowing the range of the sensors... The wide areas that could be used where expensive.  You needed a code that allowed for an acceptable range based on how direct the led was too it..  The ones for the buttons (because they where near infanite ranges) where pretty cheap though.  These couldn't tell how string the signal is... but just that there was one. 

But I was looking at 3 or 4 sensors per joystick tracking...  There is a chance that 10 sensors around the edges might be cheaper (since you can use smaller more directed sensors).  But you need to have the range from the edges for max to a bit above the minimum at the center.  Each producing a circle... Then you calculate the location based on that. 

Now, having the leds pointing back at the peoples faces.  I was worried about damaging people visions.  Your shooting ultraviolet lasers at peoples faces.. It seemed like a bad thing.  Plus you would need to have the sensors in the gun (where ever it plugs into) differentiating between the 10 lights being shot at it... (ie, you need to know that you are closest to X1, then X2, then X0, then X10... So you must be in this area....

The other idea I had... But was a little far fetched... but might have been a LOT cheaper... if you could do it... Is get a laser splitter like you get with a digital level.  This will shoot off a big X (or +) with laser....  Then have a BUNCH of super cheap led sensors around the screen..  And basically try and find the 4 places it crosses...  Then figure it out from there.  But I don't know how to make the big X... And you would probably get a bunch of reflective laser light coming back at you from the monitor (if the monitor is at a 90*)....

Anyway... I think if someone had the knowhow... it wouldn't be all that hard... but the people that know the hardware usually doesn't know the software that well... 

Maybe we can get a few people together to make the perfect solution.  Heck... you could probably make a ton of cash.

[Silver]

Interesting thoughts....

I would not worry about extra frequencies for triggers, or sending the info back wirelessy. Gunshot is just a switch down a wire - If you really need wireless then use RF to send the info or something...

Also the driver - the easiest way is to get a PIC or IC to process the data from the LEDS for you and just send the relative X/Y info to the PC - ie it just looks like a HID input device with 2 axis, that way you can use a basic/inbuilt driver. You'd have to program the microprocessor though....

You can just use infra-red LEDs round the monitor - which should be completely harmless to anyone using it.

The akward part is writing a program for the chip to calculate the position off the LED data. I know the Sega system (10 LEDs round monitor - 1 detector in the gun) has all the LED boards daisy chained together from a wiring point of view so its possible that it just pulses all the LED boards on 1 by 1, and takes a reading from the gun each time. This would give you 10 readings to calculate the position every cycle - presumably by comparing the readings to the defaults generated at calibration. This would also make it nice and easy to add a 2nd gun - use the same pulses and just calculate P2 postion with the seperate readings.

[shmokes]

I've I've got a couple of TV ones that have never been used (hooked one up to test it) for the same reason.  It's taken me over a year to get my cab done, I'm so damn busy all the time (and I'm secretly building it at work since I don't have work space at my apartment so I can only work on it durring the weekend).  This almost makes me wonder how much I really want light-gun support.  If these things top $250 apiece I'm selling them.  Of course, mine are the TV ones and apparently the demand isn't quite as high for them yet.

[portwojc]

I know  I was one of those bidding on the thing and gave up around the $85 mark.  I couldn't believe it went for that much money.  It's the highest one I've seen so far and I've been watching and trying to get one for a couples months now.

I just wish I was smarter in the past and bought one when Act Labs had them in stock.  Or even when they had the refurbs.

Why Atc Labs doesn't wake up and make more is beyond me.  If they're worried they could just take pre-orders until they had enough for a run of them.  I know I'd sign up for a couple.

Jason

[unclet]

Wouldn't it be funny if "ActLabs" is the seller of these guns via Ebay .........  that would explain why they are not in a hurry to start production again....they would take a hugh profit loss ... hehe

[jelwell]

NB Other future options: (you could be waiting a LONG time)

A company called http://www.erealgames.com/ make a lightgun based on a camera mounted on top of your camera. This has potentially HUGE advantages over all the above guns, as they do not mess with the video of the system at all - no white-blanking of the screen on every shot.
It is not avaiable for the PC although a guy from the company posted on these boards saying they were looking into making a PC version.

Minwah emailed these folks and got this reply:
'Thanks for your interest in our RGT G1 light gun.

We are developing a PC version. Hopefully, we will have a PC version in May
at E3.'

So if we're lucky we'll see a release this year. There's quite a bit of discussion about this option here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,29359.0.html

Another option is a conversion/copy of the 'Gun Sense' system used on

[markb]

I've just wrapped mine in cotton wool and won't be using it again!! If the prices for them are this high in the US what will they be like in the UK?
Ridiculous situation isn't it when you can pick up a Playstation lightgun for about

[TOK]

nocturnaloner, drop me a PM!

[Fat_Trucker]

Are the act labs TV guns any good for use with an arcade monitor?. I've added my comments to the wish list for the PC guns. Just wondered if you are MAMEing with a TV or Arcade monitor if the TV guns were just as good?.

Also, anyone know if its possible to put them into a more attractive casing because they aren't the most exciting looking guns in the world?. I've got a couple of G-Con guns laying about that I wouldn't mind stealing the casing from to house an act labs gun.

[the3eyedblindman]

Act labs should make one gun that works on TV's and Computer Monitors, I never understood why they made 2 different ones.

[daveg2000]

hOLY cRAP!

I can get that much for my Act Labs Gun...??!!??

 

::daveg2000 considers selling::

[menace]

I bought two awhile ago (when thy were selling) and thought i had just dropped a bunch--in hindsight i guess 35$ each was reasonable.  As far as swapping cases go, I had considered that but considering no replacements are available, its never going to happen 

by the way they're sweet  <runs from room as shots are fired>

[sWampy]

Are the pc light guns like total crap that just work in one resolution like 640x480, and only win windows 98?

[Nocturnaloner]

Are the pc light guns like total crap that just work in one resolution like 640x480, and only win windows 98?

I haven't heard a single first-hand thing about them. They use a game port, and there's no guarantee they will even work with MAME.  You will see these on ebay all the time, old American Laser games guns, and one that was made for a Nerf Foam Blaster kids game.  They can be had for cheap,  so it may be worth it to you to find out, just be aware.

[ften]

.... Damn it's time to sell my USB Light gun.
               I'll miss it, but that would pay for most of a new motherboard and processor. Now I just have to find the stupid box.

-FTen

[fredster]

I'll say it again in this thread.

Act labs is ran by a Chimp. It is so stupid not to make more of these guns.

He has a box on the website to ask them to make more, they still list it, and yet they won't.

Why? Because they are chimps.

[danny_galaga]

is this the gun you guys are talking about? i have a feeling a local shop has one or two of these. time for a bit of opportunism 

[cholin]

Haha, wanna know the best thing ever?

[sWampy]

is this the gun you guys are talking about? i have a feeling a local shop has one or two of these. time for a bit of opportunism 

  That's what I wondered, if it is, I don't think the drivers for them will load in anything but windows 98, and they work like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---,  I have 2 sets of them here, I'll box them up and dump them on ebay. ;-)

[Chris]

They work just dandy in XP.

[fredster]

I sold my a while back for $161.  I didn't use it. It fell out my closet.  With the version I had, you could only use one. 

Who is buying these things for that much money?  Anybody here?

Can I sell you something else? 

[Gamecab]

You know......