The Light GunA light gun is a for and a for and, typically shaped to resemble a. In and, it can also be a.Modern screen-based light guns work by building an optical sensor into the gun, which receives its input from the light emitted by on-screen target(s). The first device of this type, the, was used on the computer.The light gun and its ancestor the light pen are now rarely used as pointing devices due largely to the popularity of the and changes in display technology—conventional light guns work only with monitors. Main article:The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing. It was not long before the technology began appearing in shooting games, beginning with the in 1936.
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These early light gun games, like modern, used small targets (usually moving) onto which a light-sensing tube was mounted; the player used a gun (usually a ) that emitted a beam of light when the was pulled. If the beam struck the target, a 'hit' was scored.These games evolved throughout subsequent decades, culminating in 's, the company's first successful game released in 1966, which required the player to target cardboard ships. Periscope was an early, and the first arcade game to cost a per play. Sega's 1969 game Missile featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen, and their 1972 game Killer Shark featured a mounted light gun that shot at targets whose movement and reactions were displayed using onto a screen. Released the Beam Gun in 1970 and the in 1973, followed in 1974 by the arcade game, which used to display the target on the screen. In 1975, Sega released the early light gun shooters Balloon Gun and Bullet Mark. Use in video games The video game light gun is typically modeled on a weapon (usually a ) and is used for targeting objects on a video screen.
With, the light gun can also simulate the of the weapon. The first gun for a home console was in fact a big rifle, the 's, which looked very lifelike and even needed to be 'cocked' after each shot.Light guns are very popular in arcade games, but had not caught on as well in the home market until after the (NES), (SMS), (SNES) systems and Atari XEGS. Many home 'Pong' systems of the 1970s included a pistol or gun for shooting simple targets on screen. 's for the NES is the most popular example of the light gun, and its most popular game.Traditional light guns cannot be used on and, and have problems with.There are also light guns for, and several other console and arcade systems. Recent light gun video games include, and.In, released the for the, a peripheral which is actually a plastic shell that houses both the and for gun-style video games. While it does not contain any traditional light gun technology, the peripheral makes use of the Wii Remote's built-in to shoot targets that correspond on-screen. Its name is a reference to the classic for the.
Sony has also released attachments that house the motion controller in the form of a pistol and rifle, the latter named the Sharp Shooter.' S 3 also uses an infrared optical sensor system similar to the.Design The 'light gun' is named because it uses light as its method of detecting where on screen the user is targeting.
The name leads one to believe that the gun itself emits a beam of light, but in fact most light guns actually receive light through a in the.There are two versions of this technique that are commonly used, but the concept is the same: when the trigger of the gun is pulled, the screen is blanked out to black, and the begins reception. All or part of the screen is painted white in a way that allows the computer to judge where the gun is pointing, based on when the diode detects light. The user of the light gun notices little or nothing, because the period in which the screen is blank is usually only a fraction of a second ( see ).Sequential targets The first detection method, used by the Zapper, involves drawing each target sequentially in white light after the screen blacks out. The computer knows that if the diode detects light as it is drawing a square (or after the screen refreshes), then that is the target at which the gun is pointed. Essentially, the diode tells the computer whether or not the player hit something, and for n objects, the sequence of the drawing of the targets tell the computer which target the player hit after 1 + ceil(log 2( n)) refreshes (one refresh to determine if any target at all was hit and ceil(log 2( n)) to do a for the object that was hit).A side effect of this is that on poorly designed games, often a player can point the gun at a light bulb or other bright light source, pull the trigger, and cause the system to falsely detect a hit on the first target every time. Better games account for this either by detecting if all targets appear to match or by displaying a black screen and verifying that no targets match.
Cathode ray timing. The blue and pink made for the Sega Genesis.The second method, used by the 's and computer, is more elaborate and more accurate.The trick to this method lies in the nature of the inside the video monitor (CRTs were the only affordable TV monitors in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when this method was popularized). The screen is drawn by a scanning beam that travels across the screen starting at the top until it hits the end, and then moves down to update the next line. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen is drawn, and appears instantaneous to the human eye as it is done very quickly.When the player pulls the trigger, the computer (often assisted by the display circuitry) times how long it takes the electron beam to excite the at the location at which the gun is pointed. The light gun sends a signal after sensing the sudden small change in brightness of a point on the screen when the electron gun refreshes that spot. The computer then calculates the targeted position based on the monitor's horizontal refresh rate (the fixed amount of time it takes the beam to get from the left to right side of the screen).
Either the computer provides a time base for the horizontal refresh rate through the controller's connector (as in the Super Scope), or the gun reads the composite video signal through a T-connector on the A/V cable (as in the ). Once the computer knows where the gun is pointed, it can tell through collision detection if it coincides with the target or not.Many guns of this type (including the Super Scope) ignore red light, as red phosphors have a much slower rate of decay than green or blue phosphors. As a result, some (but not all) games brighten the entire screen's green/blue pixels somewhat when the trigger is pulled in order to get a more reliable fix on the position.Display timing is not possible with plasma, LCD, and DLP monitors, since they do not have an 'off' state between refreshes.
Their digital signal processing electronics also may introduce a nontrivial lag between the signal input and display output, which is not predictable because it varies between monitor models and brands and even between mode settings of a single monitor. A lag which is not very significant for player feedback may be enough to completely destroy the accuracy of a display-timing based light gun system.Infrared emitters A new method was developed to compensate for display technologies other than CRT. It relies on one or several light emitters placed near the screen, and one IR sensor on the muzzle of the gun.
When the trigger is pressed, the gun sends the intensity of the IR beam it detects. Since this intensity depends upon both distance and relative angle to the screen, angle sensors are located in the gun.
This way a is solved, and the muzzle's 3D position relative to the screen is calculated. Then, by projecting the muzzle on the screen with the measured angles the impact point is determined. An early example of this technology (though not using IR) can be seen in the, which used three ultrasonic sensors serving the same function as the IR emitters used in some lightguns.A simpler variant is commonly used in arcades, where there are no angle detectors but 4 IR sensors. However, this can prove inaccurate when shooting from certain distances and angles, since the calculation of angles and 3D position has a larger margin of error.Other variants include 3 or more emitters with different infrared wavelengths and the same number of sensors. With this method and proper calibration three or more relative angles are obtained, thus not needing angle detectors to position the gun.Sometimes, the sensors are placed around the screen and the emitter on the gun, but calculations are similar.The uses an infrared video camera in the handheld controller, rather than a simple sensor.This family of methods are used for the, and modern light gun games.The downside of this method is that it's not as accurate as a traditional light gun. The additional IR image processing results in lag or 'cursor drift', i.e. When quickly sweeping the light gun across the screen the crosshair will seem to drag slightly behind where the light gun is actually pointing.Image capture When the user pulls the trigger the screen is replaced for a split-second with a seemingly random display of black and white pixels, or groups of (blocks).
The light gun contains a fine-resolution but low pixel count digital camera with a very narrow field of view. With just a handful of the dot image pixels captured, the gun converts the small image into a which allows the computer to locate the exact position the gun was pointed at. This method is compatible with any screen of any size. The size of the screen and distance to shooter is entered into the gun driver software to determine the dimensions of the random blocks/pixels to best allow rendering on the light gun CCD.Rectangular positioning Similar to image capture, except rectangular positioning disregards any on-screen details and only determines the rectangular outline of the game screen.
By determining the size and distortion of the rectangle outline of the screen, it is possible to calculate where exactly the light gun is pointing. This method was first introduced by the Sinden Lightgun. The light from the LCD TV or screen is used as reference point.
Optionally, a thin rectangular border can be added to the display content, for games with a dark graphics theme.An advantage of this method is that the size and distortion of the rectangle screen outline can also be used to determine the position and angle of the gun relative to the screen. Theoretically this can be used to create a 3D tunnel effect, by moving the gun around the screen to hide behind scenery or peek around corners.Multiplayer A game that uses more than one gun reads both triggers continuously and then, when one player pulls a gun's trigger, the game reads that gun until it knows which object was hit.Positional guns Positional guns are fairly common in.
A positional gun is a gun mounted to the on a swivel that allows the player to aim the gun. These are often confused with light guns but work quite differently. These guns may not be removed from the cabinet like their optical counterparts, which are tethered and stored in a mounted holster. They are typically more expensive initially but easier to maintain and repair. Games that use positional guns include, the arcade version of,. Sometimes use light guns.A positional gun is essentially an that records the position of the gun to determine where the player is aiming on the screen.
The gun must be calibrated, which usually happens after powering up. Early examples of a positional gun include 's in 1972, 's in 1976 and in 1977, and 's in 1978. Some games, however, have mounted optical guns, such as Exidy's.Light gun models. Ashcraft, Brian, (2008) Arcade Mania!
The Turbo Charged World of Japan's Game Centers, p. 133, Kodansha International. at the. (2000), The First Quarter: A 25-Year History of Video Games, p. 83, BWD Press,. at the.
at the. , Nintendo Land. at the. at the.
at the. ^ Teger, Daniel; Rogowski, Scott; Dinerman, Julie; Ramkishun, Kevin (May 13, 2011). Retrieved Jan 21, 2015. Retrieved 2011-06-01. Brian Ashcraft (2007-06-13). Archived from on 2010-02-12.
Retrieved 2011-06-01. Yin-Poole, Wesley.
Lightgun Gamer. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
at the. at the. at the. Morgan McGuire & Odest Chadwicke Jenkins (2009), p. 408, retrieved 2011-04-03, Light guns, such as the NES Zapper or those used in the House of the Dead series, are distinctly different from positional guns used by arcade games such as SEGA's Gunblade NY. Light guns differ from positional guns, such as in Gunblade NY (bottom), that are essentially analog joysticks. Positional guns are essentially analog sticks mounted in a fixed location with respect to the screen. Light guns, in contrast, have no fixed a priori relationship with a display.
Yo-Sung Ho & Hyoung Joong Kim (November 13–16, 2005), p. 688, retrieved 2011-04-03, The two routes to conventional gun control are light guns and positional guns. Light guns are the most common for video game systems of any type. They work optically with screen and do not keep track of location on the screen until the gun is fired. When the gun is fired, the screen blanks for a moment, and the optics in the gun register where on the screen the gun is aimed.
That information is sent to the computer, which registers the shot. Positional guns are mounted stationary on the arcade cabinet with the ability to aim left/right and up/down. They function much like joysticks, which maintain a known location on screen at all times and register the current location when fired. at the. at the. at the. at the.
'Area 51' and 'Maximum Force' were often packaged together into a 2-for-1 cabinet. Both of these games are like the peanut butter and jelly of light gun shooters. They are simple, yet oh so satisfying. Each game features digitized graphics that scream the '90s. When you shoot the enemies, they explode into a million little bits. You can collect power ups for better weapons as you traverse through an Area 51 infested with aliens or through exotic locales to take down terrorists.The light guns typically attached to this cabinet were perfunctory at best and felt cheap to handle. There were no additional buttons on the guns.
However, if you were quick enough, you could reach down to the start button to lob grenades and clear the enemies on screen. 'Area 51' and 'Maximum Force' barely squeak onto the list for being basic solid light gun shooters. Each game’s greatest asset is the insane progression of levels. Players are liable to get whiplash from how quickly the game transitions from one sequence to the next. 'Star Trek: Voyager – The Arcade Game' was released after the end of the 'Star Trek: Voyager' television show. Players take on the role of new cadets on board the USS Voyager. The enemies appear mere moments after the players get a chance to have a meet and greet with other characters aboard the ship before getting to do battle with popular villains like the Borg.
The game includes innovative sequences that are set in space, and features various branching missions the players can take on as well.' Voyager' is lower on the list because of a fairly egregious inconsistency, that being with the light guns in these cabinets. In some, the light guns do look like phasers. In other cabinets they look like run of the mill light guns. It may seem petty to give the game a lower rank because of that, but the inconsistency affects the immersion of the game.
How many 'Star Trek' fans would relish the opportunity to wield a phaser and take down the Borg? 'Gunblade NY' tasks the player to take down terrorists in New York City from the gunner seat of a helicopter. The game was released in 1995 and has charming low resolution polygon graphics that were cutting edge at the time.
While players are taken on a tour of a highly fictionalized version of New York City, the game does a good job of selling the idea that you are in a helicopter. The camera swoops from side to side quickly as if you were actually flying the not-so-friendly skies.The best part of this light gun shooter is the presentation.
The best version of this arcade cabinet featured a massive 50” monitor and the game could be played with one or two players. Each player got to handle a huge mounted gun on a bar-top surface.
The gun feels massive in your hands whether you’re a child or an adult, emulating the feel of a mounted gun on a helicopter. 'Lucky and Wild' is an ‘80s buddy cop action movie in arcade form. Player one always controls the character Lucky, a sophisticated gentleman about town. Player two always controls Wild, a well-named surfer bro and adrenaline junkie. Together they must take down six notorious criminals. The game was released in 1992 and has fun faux 3D graphics similar to SNES’ 'Mode 7.' The biggest selling point is the arcade cabinet’s presentation and controls.
Player one must use a steering wheel, pedals and a light gun to control the character of Lucky. Player two only has to use a light gun. Of course, gamers are always wont to think outside the box, so it is possible for one player to focus on driving while the second player controls both guns. The most popular version of the 'Lucky and Wild' arcade cabinet was a sit down booth that truly sold the concept of driving a sports car while chasing down criminals. Everything about this game screams ‘80s buddy cop movie, and as such, it is one of the most unique arcade presentations of a game, light gun or otherwise. 'Silent Scope' boasts one of the most daring concepts for an arcade game.
You are an elite soldier wielding a sniper rifle and are tasked with taking down terrorists who have kidnapped the president’s daughter! The game takes the player through multiple different scenarios including a football stadium, the busy streets of a city and even a level at night using night vision. There are even boss battles that the player must overcome!That might all sound cliched but it’s the giant mounted sniper rifle on the arcade cabinet that puts this game above and beyond. The sniper rifle has its own scope display, which the player must physically look through in order to make their shot.
It honestly feels like you are firing a rifle in order to stop the enemies, and can be as difficult as such an activity sounds! The best arcade games’ ultimate selling point is immersion and experiences that cannot be replicated at home. In that,'Silent Scope' proves to be one of the all-time greats.
'Police 911' is another game in which the presentation and immersion it provides is what separates it from other light gun games. The player acts as a police officer who is tasked with taking down a crime syndicate that spans from Los Angeles to Tokyo. During the game, the player can rank up through the police precinct from lowly officer to commissioner.What sets this game apart from other light gun games is that it physically requires the player to move in a 3D space in order to dodge incoming enemy fire. Of course, this being an arcade game, there is a timer ticking down to force the player to quickly progress through a stage. The game was released in 2000, which is several years before home consoles like the Wii or Microsoft Kinect were released for consumers.
It’s another instance of the arcade creating an experience that would be mimicked in home consoles. The unique immersive experience of 'Police 911' is what puts it on this list. Behold, the power of rock!
In the far, far dystopian future of 1996, you must rescue members of the band Aerosmith after they’ve been kidnapped by the evil New Order Nation. Your weapon is a machine gun that has been modified to shoot special CDs. The soundtrack is high energy and gets players hyped to do battle with the New Order Nation.
There are even real Aerosmith songs playing within the game!The light guns for the game are mounted on the cabinet, certain deluxe versions of which had light guns for three players! Each of the guns had a side button you could press to launch the CDs. The light guns even look like real guns that were modified to hold a CD launcher, which was a nice touch. The game is like a time machine into 1990s aesthetics, as everything about that decade is amplified in its depiction of a future dystopia. 'Revolution X' gets on this list for having intense action with satisfying music and graphics. And because Aerosmith, obviously.
Possibly the scariest game on this list, 'CarnEvil' pulls players through a haunted, demonic carnival of terror. Players travel trough roller coasters, bumper cars, torture chambers and other twisted takes on classic carnival attractions.
The game features a huge variety of enemies including undead corpses, nasty gremlins, literal spider monkeys, flying specters and more. The carnival music that plays throughout the game is high pitched and sinister, adding a nice atmospheric touch similar to old school haunted houses.One of the biggest draws this game has is its light gun, resembling your classic pump-action shotgun. Players can either shoot off screen to reload or physically pump the handle to reload. 'CarnEvil' is another light gun game that features three player action. The innovative light gun is one reason why 'CarnEvil' is placed so high on this list, another of which is the creepy atmosphere and setting of the game, which is unlike many light gun games. 'Lethal Enforcers 1' casts players in the roles of modern day (1992) police officers responding to high tension situations like a bank robbery, hijacking and a factory overrun with criminals.
'Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters' takes the players back to the wild, wild west to take down outlaws. The third game, 'Lethal Enforcers 3,' was released and set in 2005. The player is a modern day Tokyo police officer who must navigate different scenarios throughout the city.'
Lethal Enforcers 1 and 2' share super fun digitized graphics for the time while 'Lethal Enforcers 3' has more traditional artwork seen in modern video games. The commonality between all the games is that in each, there are six different stages for the player to traverse. Each of the game's arcade cabinets has great design.
The first one makes you feel like a hard boiled cop in the early ‘90s. The second features a light gun that looks like an old six shooter.
The third game features a high tech cabinet. The Lethal Enforcer games are classics in the genre that deliver amazing light gun action.
'Teraburst' was released in 1998 and set in the distant future of 2017. In the game, players are soldiers defending Earth from an alien invasion. It then takes players through New Chicago City as they ward off aliens, the designs of which are fun and fantastic: bug-eyed alien beasts with triangle heads and humanoid bodies. It may seem a bit campy by today's standards, but at the time, it had a creepy look and fun sci-fi feel.The main draw to this game, and why it’s so high on this list, is the light gun itself.
For Teraburst, they are not in the traditional hand gun style; rather, these guns are massive purple rifles that take quite a bit of effort to hold – especially if you are a young child (or a very weak adult). These rifles rattle in your hands, giving you feedback to the impossible amount of bullets you spew at the alien enemies. There’s even a special button on the rifles to deploy rockets and bombs.
The arcade cabinet features an enormous screen to go along with the giant guns, giving everything an appropriately grand feel. The 'Virtua Cop' series started in 1994 and was one of the first light gun games to feature 3D polygon graphics rather than 2D graphics. While the graphics in the first game have not held up well, at the time they were considered quite advanced.
The graphics were also in line with Sega’s other Virtua titles including 'Virtua Fighter' and 'Virtua Striker.' The second and third game improved the graphics substantially, with the latter in particular looking like it was part of the Xbox 360 era.The gameplay in all the 'Virtua Cop' series is what puts it on this list, being particularly singular to the genre. The action, meanwhile, is basic but refined.
'Virtua Cop' is a series that uses a philosophy that 'simple can be harder than complex.' The players might see a fairly basic game, but it takes immense skill to create that experience, let alone master it. The 'Virtua Cop' series delivered that polished experience in three separate games, all of which hang in the hallowed halls of arcade game history. The 'Time Crises' games might be the most stress-inducing light gun games on this list. On the screen for every game is a fairly large countdown timer ticking away while the players try to pick off enemies one by one. Over the course of five games (so far), the series continues to deliver rock solid light gun gameplay.
It’s a great feat to stay consistently on-brand for the series while adding new elements like different guns and power ups, but 'Time Crisis' does it with suitable aplomb.Whenever anyone thinks of 'Time Crisis,' they think of one thing. It’s all about that pedal as it is most definitely the defining feature of the 'Time Crisis' series. In fact, mechanic to get in cover and reload is one of the most innovative and unique mechanics in any arcade game, light gun or otherwise. The back and forth between shooting and stepping on the pedal can make playing 'Time Crisis' almost feel like a rhythm game, and is an impressive and lasting innovation that makes 'Time Crisis' a top tier light gun game. 'The House of the Dead' games succeed on their atmosphere. All four of 'The House of the Dead' games feature grotesque monsters, dilapidated environments and eerie music. The frequent boss battles the player encounters showcase truly disturbing character designs.
When you play these games, you feel grimy afterwards, which, in a way, is what makes them so satisfying to play. Also, it must be said, that these games feature hilariously bad voice acting. Which is also part of the fun!The light guns for this series started off fairly basic. The first two games featured a red and blue gun for player one and two, respectively. For the third game players got to wield a light gun shaped like a shotgun. This shotgun did not have any pump action mechanic.
The fourth 'House of the Dead' game gave players mini Uzis to use in their hunt of the undead. For all of these reasons, the world of arcade games would be a lesser place if these games hadn’t existed. One of the greatest action movies of all time gets one of the all time greatest light gun shooters. Players take on the roles of T-800s reprogrammed to battle against Skynet.
The plot of the game is a rough approximation of the plot of the film. Players start in a future warzone before traveling back in time to iconic locations like Cyberdine Systems and the steel mill. The game features digitized graphics of key characters from the movie like Sarah Connor and the evil T-1000.Players get to use light guns mounted on the cabinet that rattle and shake with the feedback of the rapid fire machine gun. Each gun has a special button to deploy explosives. The aesthetics of the cabinet are fantastic.
On either side of the cabinet are massive portraits of Arnold Schwarzenegger, while the dark blues and red trim on the cabinet mimics the look from certain scenes in the movie. This game is fantastic and a great companion to a great film. 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park' arcade cabinet is a sit-down booth that is completely covered in the famous red and black logo for the franchise. The booth itself looks a little like one of the famous Jeeps featured in the movie. There’s even a small curtain on either side to envelope the players and fully immerse them in the experience of surviving against wave after wave of dinosaurs, including the T-Rex, velociraptors, dilophosaur and more!The arcade booth forces players to sit close to an already giant screen, which is terrible for your eyes but great for adventure! It creates an illusion that the dinosaurs are larger than they really are.
![Arcade light guns Arcade light guns](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1a/9c/ba/1a9cba8b9f0c1d62977292340ac9e6fe.png)
When the T-Rex chases the players, it really feels like a giant carnivore is mere moments away from an attack. What makes this the best light gun arcade game is that all the elements of the game and its presentation combine together to make an experience that simply can’t be replicated unless you go to an arcade.What light gun game was your favorite?
Did we miss one? Let us know in the comments!
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