Ultracade USB Lightgun Board

[romperwomb]

Just got a juicy bit of info from Dave Foley from Ultracade.  Seems Ultricade will be "offering a USB Lightgun board that is fully MAME compatible and works with Arcade style lightguns from Happ Controls and Betson / Imperial."

Dave let it slip in one of his posts on Virtual Pinball Forums HERE (some other VERY interesting things going on in the VP world because of Ulticade) that the plunger interface board for their upcoming Pinball Legends or Ultrapin is based on a "lightgun board".

I e-mailed him and he replied with the above info.

[ahofle]

LMAO, now he's trying to profit off of others' work on pinball emulation?  Better get your tables now while you still can haha.

[TOK]

LMAO, now he's trying to profit off of others' work on pinball emulation?  Better get your tables now while you still can haha.

As long as there are binary newsgroups, there will be easy access to VP tables.

[jelwell]

LMAO, now he's trying to profit off of others' work on pinball emulation?

[Silver]

Just got a juicy bit of info from Dave Foley from Ultracade.  Seems Ultricade will be "offering a USB Lightgun board that is fully MAME compatible and works with Arcade style lightguns from Happ Controls and Betson / Imperial."

That board has been available on the Happs website for a long time, can't remember the part number.

In the end, I don't think anyone tried it as it was $200 or more for just the board if I recall - no idea how much now. Someone was talking the company who made it to try and test one but I think the thread died....

[romperwomb]

That board has been available on the Happs website for a long time, can't remember the part number.

In the end, I don't think anyone tried it as it was $200 or more for just the board if I recall - no idea how much now. Someone was talking the company who made it to try and test one but I think the thread died..

I must have missed that thread, did a search...was it in with the Guncom driver thread?  Can't seem to find anything on the Happ site either. http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/optical/op_guns.htm

[Silver]

Hmmm, thats intereesting - it seems to have gone from the happ site... (unless I'm confused, but I thought they were selling it.....?)

Anyway, the board is this:

http://www.r0r3.com/productsusbopticalgun.htm

I think the main discussion was in the BYOAC Lightgun thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=32950.0

[Kremmit]

I don't recall Happ selling the Ror3 board, although that doesn't mean it isn't true.  Are you sure the Ror3 is the same one Foley's talking about?  I thought the Ror3 was an independant project.

[Silver]

I don't remember happ selling the Ror3 board, but I do remember them selling another board that connected arcade (happ style) guns to a pc.

However, I can find no reference to it nor does anyone else seem to remember, so I've decided that I probably just had a large bump on the head and imagined it. (although I'm still sure it was there!)

[DaemonCollector]

I remember in the discussion of the Ror3 that it is designed to work with the PS2 and someone would need to write a driver to make it work with the PC, and no one wanted to drop the 200 bucks to invest in the board.

[Silver]

The Ror3 is designed (it says) for Windows or Linux Pc's with a USB connection....

It lists windows 98/Mr specifically, so maybe its a bit old?

http://www.r0r3.com/productsusbopticalgun.htm

[KevSteele]

I remember in the discussion of the Ror3 that it is designed to work with the PS2 and someone would need to write a driver to make it work with the PC, and no one wanted to drop the 200 bucks to invest in the board.

Nah, I offered to use some RetroBlast review fundage to finance the purchase of a board for driver development (since my coding days are long over), but nothing ever came of it.

Kevin

[davidrfoley]

1) We have already developed the hardware and have built the first production run of boards.  They work wiht low (320x200 15.75KHz), 1)   We have already developed the hardware and have built the first production run of boards.  They work with coin-op style monitors, both low res (320x200 15.75KHz) and med res (512x384 24.5KHz), as well as VGA (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 31KHz).  The board is USB based and supports several digital inputs and outputs to allow it to be a single I/O card for a coin-op gun game with no other I/O devices required. 
2)   This board was developed in house based on our standard USB processor that is used in several of our other I/O boards. We have it working on our proprietary OS that is used in our classic arcade machines.  The board features the ability to program into it rapid fire settings with software selectable repeat timings.
3)   We are having a MAME compatible driver built for the board and hope to have a complete package available before the end of the year.
4)   The software interface to the board will be published and the boards will be sold on our web store as soon as the software is complete.  Target MSRP is $159 with a target street price of less than $99. 
5)   We are happy to work with software developers that are interested in developing drivers and/or games based on the board and have a development discount agreement available.

[KevSteele]

Wow, great news!

I've been dying to hook up real arcade light guns, and now it looks like there's a viable solution.

Kevin

[btoddkelley]

Sounds really neat. Too bad I don't support unethical companies.

Todd

[Popcorrin]

Foley, let me ask you a question.
It's clear that you are against people having illegal roms, and

[versapak]

I gotta say Foley...

You got some big balls to be makin an appearance around here. Kudos to ya.

I too find your business tactics with MAME disgraceful, but I give you props for your latest dealings with the pinball project.

It definitely looks like something I'd be interested in, and these lightgun boards sounds great as well.

[davidrfoley]

In answer to supporting MAME:  There are many legal ways to play games within MAME, and more and more ROMs are becoming available for puchase and play.  We will soon be launching our own iROMs, including several Gun Games that will allow people to have legal copies of games to play with MAME. 

[clanggedin]

If this board is released and allows us to use the happs recoil guns on it as well as regular arcade guns, then I may have to end my boycott of Ultracade products. Especially if they offer roms like HOTD and others that aren't available in MAME

[Xiaou2]

 
  David,

    Thanks for the news.   Im very happy that you are comming arround, and seeing how many viable sales are available for quality arcade parts.

  Please..please.. please,  allow a force feedback coil to be added as an option to your new gun.   Maybe not all can afford the extra cost... but many will pay for it.  Also, if its made in such a way, one might be able to purchase the gun now, and later, grab a force feedback add-on kit when they can afford it.

 (not a cheezy vibration motor.. but a real coil like those in the Time Crisis or T2 guns)
 
  As for the gun..  Act labs gun really stunk as far as ergonomics.  I hope this will be very well designed to fit many hand types.   One major gripe was the placement of the Reload button on only one side of the gun.  This was then nearly impossible for an opposite handed gripper to push it.

 I recomend a dual trigger setup.   The top trigger will be a classic trigger.  Directly below it, will be another button.   One then can use the middle finger to
easily reload.   

 An option to use an Svideo conection for use with a tv would be nice too... as many use tvs because they are cheaper.   However, it seems some tvs do have strange differences.. and so my paticular panasonic 27" tv model would not work properly with the act labs guns : (   Maybe you can figure this out.

 - Rapid fire dial ?  use pot to adjust repeat speed? (and or software changable)
 - Force Feedback modes:
       a) mame feedback  (not developed yet ):
       b) Auto  - pulling trigger will click the feedback coil once
       c) Rapid Auto - auto by continous pulses untill trigger let go (machine gun)
       d) Shaker - feedback games will cause the coil to work like shakers joys do.
       e) programmable - maybe a keypress will active a coil pop?

 - Blacklight reactive (or even UV led lit!)  Translucent Tron blue shell : )
 (based on the Trigger joystick handle that was in the game 'Tron')

 - space for a removable metal weight inside the gun.  this weight could be custom tailored to the owners preference.

 - can use the gun as a mouse,  to shoot icons open and manipute windows..ect.

 
 Thanks for your time,
 Steve


 BTW -  Any chance of you guys sending in a working  Surround Sound driver to be used in mame?   Such a thing will surely boost your popularity : )    Aaron put the groundwork in there.. but has not completed the rest. 

 Force Feedback driver also needed.  Outrun without a shaker motor output just isnt the same.

[armax]

That's alot of feedback on gun design for a company that only announced the board.

[versapak]

That's alot of feedback on gun design for a company that only announced the board.

Was thinking the exact same thing.

[Stingray]

Despite how much I might like to add such a thing to my MAME cab, Ultracade will never see a cent of my money.

-S

[JCL]

Despite how much I might like to add such a thing to my MAME cab, Ultracade will never see a cent of my money.

-S

Stingray, Stingray, look into my eyes.