CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

Gday people and happy new year to you all Smile

Does anyone out there play any older style video games that use a light gun on their CRT projector?

I have a Panasonic 3DO console (have 3 of them) with a game gun, this gun is known to have not worked last time it was used a few months ago on a Toshiba rear projection TV, however it did work perfectly well on the Panasonic TX-47WG25-H i had years ago (the gun had failed during that time, cause it mysteriously stopped working).

I tried it today on my Sony VPH-1001QM, and it wouldnt work at all, although when i pointed it into the green or blue lens, it worked. It would also work with all the incandecent lights on in the room, which suprized me quite abit as the old Sony aint so viewable like that with the screen about 130 inch diagonal.

The gun itself doesnt work properly, and the reason for this is not yet known. I have only recently started trying to figure this issue out.

If i was to use a gun for a PC or the GunCon for the Playstation console (the Namco GunCon worked faultlessly on the rear pro TV, and light guns have worked for years on rear pro TVs in arcades, but the screen is dark to look at, where as the projector screen is white), would this work correctly on a CRT projector?

Thanks in advance people Wink

Dave Lister · Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject:

Not with front projection as there is not enough light for it to operate, if it did work for front projection I would have bought a light gun for my 3DO years ago.

I have tested it with a Silent Scope Light Rifle for my Xbox and my Sony VPH1000QM but that didn't work although there was some very slight response but nowhere near anything worth worrying about.
I had to settle for using an old TV to play House of the Dead.

Maybe if you had a stack of 3 or 4 CRT projectors it might work.

With rear projection you have more light so the guns work.

I think they might work with [cough]digitals[cough] due to their higher light output.

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

They dont work with digitals at all, the guns work by timing the raster scan from the top left to the point where the gun sees the light, from that, the console can know where youre pointing the gun. Doesnt work on anything digital cause they refresh the pixels all at once, and the console thinks youre aiming at the top left all the time.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:33 am Post subject:

Digitals suck....again! Laughing

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

Yeah, i know that, im glad i was deep under that stage and found that Sony CRT under there or i wouldve never known just how bloody good CRT is!!

noos@xp37+ · Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 464 Location: Berlin/Munich

Hello,

what about small fp screens? Or: Curved high gain silver screens for best brightness?

Peace

noos

PS: I even managed to get a cheap guncon clone (Ps1/2) to work on an old and moldy Barco 701 data on an 125" (!!!) low gain (!!!) screen. I only had to turn up the brightness and contrast to 80 (yes, some blooming...) and I had to get very close with the gun (50"). So with an smaller screen and better screen material....

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

I am not so sure it wont work mate, but i would like to hear from someone that has used one reliably, if you got yours to work on a screen of that size, im sure it can be done!!

I dont know what the lumen output of a Panasonic GAOO wide rear pro TV was, but all the game guns i ever had worked fine on that as long as the screen mode was set to the full stretch, even during the day when the room had lots of light, the picture wasnt that bright. Certainly not nearly as bright a picture as what the Sony CRT projector has when the sun isnt shining in.

I also had a "cheap GunCon clone" as you call it, it was blue, i think it had 2 red buttons on it, the plug had Playstation on one angle and Sega Saturn on the other, and also a yellow composite connection for the Playstation.

A guy i work with says he used his very old Nintendo Zapper gun on the Mitsubishi LCD projector i sold him and swears it works, but he said it isnt working right, if you do hit the target, it will always think you hit the target closest to the top. That particular gun works differently though, cause only the targets flash white instead of the whole screen, so it worked fine for Duck Hunt where there is only 1 duck to shoot, but when there was 2 ducks, he said you would always hit the duck higher up the screen. Although, with that said, this same gun will also tell the console you hit the target if you point it at a fluro tube and pull the trigger, so it aint a fair call to say it works.

If you got that gun of yours to work, that is good enough for me to want to try another gun and see what i can see, but still, if anyone else has tried, i want to hear your experience Smile

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:02 pm Post subject:

I had the PS1 gun, haven't seen it i years but I do recall seeing it in storage. Next time I trip over it I should pull it out.

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:35 pm Post subject:

I haven't played with my Guncon gun in years. Not since before we packed the old house and moved to the new one... 4 years ago. I assume you'd need to run in 480i mode for timing, right?

I LOVED playing Time Crisis, but DAMN my arms got tired playing that game! It would be fun to try on the big screen.

SC

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

Yep, it should work fine on 480i. What ever the standard res of a normal CRT television was over there in the 80s and 90s.

Let me know how ya go if you give it a try Smile

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:45 pm Post subject:

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

The original Time Crisis is on the PS1 though.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:33 am Post subject:

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

Mustve been number 2!! It would work in a PS2 if it was either though i believe, i had the first time crisis on the PS1 way back when it come out, it wasnt a bad game, but not one of my favorite shooters for the gun Wink

I just got home from a night out on the turps at a mate's joint, i took the VPH-1001QM with me (who ever said 7" CRT projectors are not portable? They lie....) to avoid the use of such screens as a 32", although we did test the gun on the 2 screens, it did indeed work exactly the same on the projector, which was not properly, cause the gun aint workin the way it should.

So no definate assurance that it will work fine on a projector, but it did indeed do the same as on a direct view 32" Panasonic GAOO CRT.

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

To dig up an old thread, we can now assure 100% perfect accuracy on both the Sony 1001 QM, and also on an NEC 9PG. Many hours of Point Blank competitions have been had, and the only time anyone complained about gun accuracy was when it was callibrated by the person before them and they were c*ck eyed due to excessive alcohol consumption Wink

Works like a machine, so anyone that didnt want to go to the trouble only to find it didnt work can rest assured that it is worth the small amount of effort if you want to play proper gun games on a CRT projector.

drice1234 · Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 1309 Location: Allen, Texas

ecrabb · Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:42 pm Post subject:

Turps... As in turpentine? A night out drinking alcohol at a friend's house/establishment?

Thanks for the update, Case! I've thought about hooking up the old PS1 and trying out Time Crisis... Might be fun! The 480i scan lines will look like bookshelves on my G70, but it still might be fun for an hour or two.

Jeremy... I think Time Crisis was on the PS1 with the original Guncon, then Time Crisis 2 and 3 with the Guncon 2 on the PS2 later. I'm about 99% sure you'd need to run 480i only, as the timing input for the Guncon came from the composite video connector... If you switched to 480p, not only would the composite output be disabled, I'm pretty sure it would mess up the timing. I don't think I can even test, as I don't think I have the Guncon 2 (for PS2). Mine's the old gray one like Case has (for PS1).

Thanks,
SC

damien55 · Joined: 20 Oct 2008 Posts: 101 Location: UK

Just to say that it works perfectly on my setup too:

Video chain to the PJ:
PS2 with Guncon II
Inline 1424 (very old line doubler)
BG808 (RGBHV from the doubler)

So basically I get a 50hz progressive signal to the projector thanks to the doubler. The picture is not a great but it looks better than if the projector was directly fed with the composite signal with the interlaced signal.
I need to try to connect it to my lumagen HDP, who knows, it might work too

Damien

ecrabb · Posted: Sun Aug 22, 2010 10:57 pm Post subject:

Wow, so the Guncon works through the doubler running progressive? I would have never guessed that. Cool!

SC

noos@xp37+ · Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 464 Location: Berlin/Munich

Hello,

there is also the (I think Blaze) hdtv player software for the PS2. With this software you can force the PS2 to output lots of games in 480p, 720p, 1080iand 576p via component or vga, svga via VGA (VGA with sync on green via normal component cable). But only 480p and 576p makes sense, as it cant generate pixels where they were not meant to be. 720p will be 480p or 576p in a window of a 720p scanned area. Some lightgungames will work!

http://www.amazon.de/Playstation-2-Xploder-HDTV-Player/dp/B000HG3J8M ....german Amazon....

Peace

Marc