dual light guns

[LucasBarton]

Here's the TV that I have: http://reviews.cnet.com/projection-tvs/hit...7-31975738.html It's a CRT projection, not an LCD or plasma. What I'd like to do is just get some PS2 light guns that have USB connectivity. I'd rather not have to use the little Wii-like bands on the TV.

[bkenobi]

Like I said, you will have to check the specific gun to see if it will work with projection sets. I know the ones the original NES used did not like projectors, but I think some of the more modern ones don't have a problem with it. Arcadecontrols.com has a TON of info on specific gun capabilities. I can't say what will or won't work with a certain tv with a certain gun since I only have my gun running on my cab. My guess would be that it should work, but that is purely a guess.

[Tempest]

I'm sorry to have to ask, but it says newbie under my name for a reason. I get what you are saying about not even needing a screen, but I don't know how things work so far as programming. With the Act Labs gun, after I got it and hooked it up, I found that it registered the shots 90 degrees off because of the the gun works with scanlines. After I saw it, I was "like duh!". It made sense. It would seem to me that I might have to mount the LED strips above and below the monitor in my cabinet, because that would in reality be the sides of my monitor. Does that make sense? or Would it not matter? I just want to make sure they will work correctly before I order, and I didn't find any references to vertical monitors over at Arcade controls.com.

I want you (and others like you) to know that I have a great deal of respect for what you are able to do, and an appreciation for how much time it takes to do it.

Thanks for your help.

[bkenobi]

You know, I don't know if that would be a problem or not. The way the gun works as far as I know is that it sees the led's in the strips and determines where you are aiming based on distances to those locations. The calibration software requires that you point your gun at the corners of the image/screen, so I don't know if it would even care what position the leds are in. I suppose it's possible that you could even mount them diagonally if that's what you wanted.

Not having dealt with a LED Topgun before, I am at a loss for good advice other than try asking the customer support directly. That is a really good question that probably even exists in their FAQ. If it doesn't, it definitely should.

[LucasBarton]

Well, I went ahead and bought a GunCon2 used for 8 bucks at GameStop. I downloaded the WinGun driver for XP, but I can't get the gun calibrated right. It registers when I press the buttons, but the cursor just goes all over the place. I've tried calibrating it several times and it just will not move right at all. Iguess this is the rolling X problem I've read about. I can't seem to find a fix for it though. Plus, when I go into the MAME options I can't even check enable lightgun because it is grayed out. I don't know if it's my TV or what. Any suggestions? I would do a search over at arcadecontrols but they still haven't approved my membership.

[Tempest]

You know, I don't know if that would be a problem or not. The way the gun works as far as I know is that it sees the led's in the strips and determines where you are aiming based on distances to those locations. The calibration software requires that you point your gun at the corners of the image/screen, so I don't know if it would even care what position the leds are in. I suppose it's possible that you could even mount them diagonally if that's what you wanted.

Not having dealt with a LED Topgun before, I am at a loss for good advice other than try asking the customer support directly. That is a really good question that probably even exists in their FAQ. If it doesn't, it definitely should.

I recieved an E-mail from Henry at EMS and he says that the topguns do work on vertical monitors. Once again your intuition is better than mine.

[bkenobi]

Well, I went ahead and bought a GunCon2 used for 8 bucks at GameStop. I downloaded the WinGun driver for XP, but I can't get the gun calibrated right. It registers when I press the buttons, but the cursor just goes all over the place. I've tried calibrating it several times and it just will not move right at all. Iguess this is the rolling X problem I've read about. I can't seem to find a fix for it though. Plus, when I go into the MAME options I can't even check enable lightgun because it is grayed out. I don't know if it's my TV or what. Any suggestions? I would do a search over at arcadecontrols but they still haven't approved my membership.

Use these drivers: GunCon2PC

I've tried different versions and found that the newest version doesn't work correctly, so I'm using 0.9b2 (as I recall). The newer ones remove some features that I need (calibration...)

[LucasBarton]

I've found the problem by looking at that site. I have no way of hooking the yellow cable to my TV, which I don't see how anyone could unless they bought a 6 foot RCA extender or something. There's less than a foot length between the USB end and RCA end. I don't see how you could hook one end to a PC and the other to the monitor. Am I missing something here, because it just doesn't seem feasible to hook the GunCon to two seperate machines given the length of the cable.

[bkenobi]

Well, guncon's are designed for the Playstation, so you aren't exactly using it for its intended purpose. Thus, it won't work exactly how you want. You will more than likely need to use an extension cable to connect the gun to the tv and maybe even a usb extension cable to the computer. If you have 2 guns, they should be able to be daisy chained, so that saves one cable.

[LucasBarton]

Well, I went out a bought an extension for the RCA plug but it didn't help at all. The cursor still goes all over the place no matter how I configure it. I've tried WinGun and GunCon2 and gone through both calibration processes and neither work. In WinGun, I wave the gun from left to right to left, then along the red lines on the sides and top and bottom of the screen, yet the cursor is going haywire the whole time. Talk about a waste of time. Oh well....

[bkenobi]

Sounds like it doesn't recognize the gun. Also, make sure you are using a TV that the gun says it works with (50/60 Hz and not 100Hz CRT).

[Oqqalz]

I recently got a pair of LCD TopGuns and are having a heck of a time getting them to work. I finally got one of them calibrated and tracking in Windows and Mame using GunCon2PC driver 0.9b6. However, for the life of me, I cannot get it to working in MAME. The firing mechanism works; but it does not track. I have tried Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, Steel Gunner, etc, none of them work. It just fires at the center of the screen, always. Are there some magical mame command line parameters, mame32.ini settings, etc., that I am missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[gerble1000]

I recently got a pair of LCD TopGuns and are having a heck of a time getting them to work. I finally got one of them calibrated and tracking in Windows and Mame using GunCon2PC driver 0.9b6. However, for the life of me, I cannot get it to working in MAME. The firing mechanism works; but it does not track. I have tried Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, Steel Gunner, etc, none of them work. It just fires at the center of the screen, always. Are there some magical mame command line parameters, mame32.ini settings, etc., that I am missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

first off you have to get them both working in windows,,

i got my 2 topguns working for a short time

first of all i got the first gun to move the curser like a normal mouse and then got the second gun set up like the first but this did not move the mouse it just emidiatly move to wherever i fire at on the screen then went back to the centre (it appeared that it didnt move from the centre of the screen but it did)

i dont think i had to do a lot to get it working in mame i set it up for area 51 first wich was easy

start the game then press tab and set the player buttons up,,

oh if i remember i had to set both guns up using the 5 mouse buttons on the guns

so basicly i had mouse button 1 on the fire of gun 1 mouse button 2 on the reload button on gun 1

mouse button 3 on the fire of gun 2 mouse button 4 on the reload button of gun 2

and used the arcade machine controls mapped to the keybourd to press start and navigate throught the game

this settup worked for a while for me then failed

it wouldnt recognise the controllers after a while or the drivers

the drivers i used were wingun I THINK

let me know how u get on as i want to buy another set of guns as i think my old motherboard just had problems with the usb controllers

the guns were great when they worked a lot of fun

but i garantee u wont use the laser's as they are shit lol

p.s

i also made gun slots for them to sit in , and in the slots i put another button so when i pull the gun out to use it turns off all the lighted buttons and stuff (its a LIGHT gun and light interfere's with it a lot)

a good tip for you to do

[Tempest]

I'm taking a poll.

Which light guns (I would like to use 2) work the best?

In case you've read my earlier posts, I turned my monitor back to its original horizontal position, so that is not an issue anymore.

[bkenobi]

Cheapest option is a pair of GunCon2 compatible guns (check ebay, Game Stop, Game Crazy, Craigslist, etc.).

The better option for eliminating monitor compatibility issues is the LCD Top Guns.

I have Scorpion3 guns and they are ok, but I would look at others first (they are highly rated on arcadecontrols.com, but are a little small and have plastic trigger components). I would get Top Guns when these fail except that I don't have an easy way to mount the LED strips.