DC guns on cab

[Franco]

If I get a DC VGA lead to connect my DC to my CRT monitor will I be able to use lightguns for DC games?

[Goz]

Yes... I play House of The Dead 2 and Confidential Mission on my SVGA monitor. I have the DC Interact guns (shouldnt matter).

-Goz

[krion]

not trying to hijack your thread, but similar question...

they will work on an arcade monitor as well correct?

[Dave_K.]

not trying to hijack your thread, but similar question...

they will work on an arcade monitor as well correct?

Yes works fine on an arcade monitor as well.  You may need to crank the brightness and contrast to get the gun to calibrate properly (this is true for VGA monitor as well).

Goz, you should see HOD2 or Confidential Mission on my 36" vga monitor.  Thats the real reason why I bought it.   

[pmc]

I just played HOTD2 on my VGA-based cabinet. It played awesome. I had no idea that the gun would work on a VGA display. I had assumed that it would only work with a conventional TV. Now I wish I had two guns!

How far back is the appropriate distance to stand? I can get back as far as the length of the gun cord (the DC is just behind the coin door). I have a 21" display. Too close is like shooting apples in a barrel (does that even make sense?  )

-pmc

[Level42]

Do all DC light guns also work on a 100Hz TV ? I am aiming on using my DC in my cab, but would be nice to be able to play it on my (larger, widescreen) home TV too, but this is 100Hz.
I am talking about the Wireless BioGun here and I've seen mentioning on the internet that they wont work on 100 Hz TVs', but if they do work on VGA, that would be very strange !

[Goz]

Do all DC light guns also work on a 100Hz TV ? I am aiming on using my DC in my cab, but would be nice to be able to play it on my (larger, widescreen) home TV too, but this is 100Hz.
I am talking about the Wireless BioGun here and I've seen mentioning on the internet that they wont work on 100 Hz TVs', but if they do work on VGA, that would be very strange !

DC wont output 100Hz.

100Hz would likely require some sort of upscan converter to pull it off, but then the question of if the gun could read it.(flashes).  You will likely need to find someone to test it and hopefully its all the smae hardware so you'd comparing apples to apples,etc...

I know the xbxo requires special guns in order to work with 100Hz

It will eb interesting to follow this thread.

-Goz

[Level42]

Uhm, actualy, there's no need for the DC to actualy output 100Hz. I guess this needs a little explanation for non-PAL tv viewers. Since we use 50Hz as mains frequency, and TV scanlines are bases on that frequency, our TV image was always more flickery than on NTSC systems, since they use 60 Hz.

In recent 10 years, TV's have become equiped with "100Hz" technology. This means that the original 50 Hz signal is (kind of) doubled to 100Hz. What it basicaly does is write the original lines two times. This ilimintates the flickering completely. So, the source signal can be 50 Hz (or 60, most TV's are very flexible these days) and that will be OK.

The problem is probably in the gun technology itself which (apparantly) gets confused when using 100Hz. That could be logical, but then I find it strange that it WILL work on a VGA screen, since these use REAL 70 Hz and up. Also, there is no interlacing on the scanlines on a VGA screen, so for a lightgun, it's completely different than a TV signal...

O well, it's so cheap, I'll pick it up anyway. It will work on my 2nd TV and on my cab I'll test it on the 100Hz as soon as I get my DC and gun

[Frosty]

Hey...great post--good info here.  Quick question:

Anyone had any problems with the DC guns with an arcade monitor at a greater angle than a TV?  I've converted a standard Konami cab, and have regular glass on top of the monitor.  I haven't tested this out yet, but was just curious....

[JB]

The problem is probably in the gun technology itself which (apparantly) gets confused when using 100Hz. That could be logical, but then I find it strange that it WILL work on a VGA screen, since these use REAL 70 Hz and up. Also, there is no interlacing on the scanlines on a VGA screen, so for a lightgun, it's completely different than a TV signal...

If I recall, the DC uses the strict VGA resolution and refresh rate definitions. That's 640*480@60Hz.
Everything else is not really VGA. It's SuperVGA, XGA, or some other poorly-defined quasi-standard.


Admittedly it's not an interlaced screen, but it's far closer to the design expectations than a scan-doubled set.
Particularly as the DC was designed to interface with VGA monitors as well as TVs.


As I understand things, the modern lightgun, regardless of system, sends a signal when the electron beam passes where the lens is pointed(which causes a mometary brightness flare that is imperceptible to humans, at least once the refresh is high enough to kill flicker).
The system sees the signal, and works out where the gun is pointed by the time since the last VSync was generated.

Since a scan-doubled set is scanning each frame twice, the flares aren't always at the right time for their location. Hence, the system gets confused if it isn't aware of the scan-doubler(which it isn't).

[Level42]

That explains it all

Sad thing: they're out of the Bio Guns  So still "hunting" for one ....can get it new, but double price of actual DC