Using a Wiimote as a position sensor, a raspberry pi, an arduino, and an LED, someone has "solved" the Zapper + Modern LCD issue:
[Charlie] has attacked this problem with some more recent technology and a bit of lateral thinking, and has successfully brought light gun games back to life. He senses where the gun is pointing using a Wiimote with its sensor bar on top of the TV through a Raspberry Pi, and feeds the positional information to an Arduino. He then takes the video signal from the console and strips out its sync pulses which also go to the Arduino. Knowing both position and timing, the Arduino can then flash a white LED stuck to the end of the light gun barrel at the exact moment that part of the CRT would have been lit up, and as far as the game is concerned it has received the input it is expecting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzIPGpKo3Ag
A little bit kludgy, but simple enough. The technique is demonstrated to work with lightguns for any console that uses a composite video out.
Last edited by jmr on Tue Aug 30, 2016 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I did think of the same kind of thing too (using a device that takes the video signal as input, and then look for position like Wii remote does, but my own idea was to put the "sensor bar" as eight LEDs around the picture), although I have never actually implemented it or even thought of implementation details much. It is good that someone has figured it out and has managed to implement it, because I certainly would not know how.
This could be designed to look like a gun's silencer. Wii remote device sits in front of the barrel with the LED sitting between the barrel and Wii remote. Guy seems interested in trying to make this available to others if it could be done cheaply. Imagine if bunnyboy could manufacture this for retro gamers.
dougeff wrote:That is freakin awesome. Someone give this guy a $100,000 prize...or something, because this needs to be mass produced. I'd buy one today.
Mass production might have to wait until 2026 when the Wii Remote patent will have expired.
So will it work regardless LED, OLED etc? (Difference being LED:s always have backlight turned on). EDIT: Scrap that, oh now i see. It's not having anything to do with the screen tech at all!
Also if anyone is interested in making all-new zappers... let go of the twang sound please! In a grown up age i suddenly completely understand why my mom hated whenever we played zapper games
dougeff wrote:That is freakin awesome. Someone give this guy a $100,000 prize...or something, because this needs to be mass produced. I'd buy one today.
Mass production might have to wait until 2026 when the Wii Remote patent will have expired.
I don't know the details of the patent, but would it really prevent someone from manufacturing an adapter that connects an existing wii-mote to a NES? If I understand correctly, it's a design patent on the wii-mote, which wouldn't preclude making an adapter.
I'd guess that cost and the limited size of the market have just as much to do with it as the patent.
Is the concept of a 2d sensor + ir remote in itself patented? It's such a simple concept. The wiimote+bar peripheral is btw somehow extrapolating a 3d space from its gyro and IR sensors.
If we really wanted to circumvene even that, we could extrapolate a 2d plane from a couple of theremins. Problem though is that they may be hurdle to calibrate, and your cat, dog or baby will bend your projectiles' imaginary trajectory.
Assuming for the sake of argument that the patent doesn't apply to devices that only poll an authentic Wii Remote, and that the manufacturer has the resources to prove this to a judge:
Did you mean tape the Wii Remote to the barrel? That'd add a lot of bulk and move the center of mass.
Did you mean use the Wii Remote by itself? That doesn't have the half-pulled state of the Zapper trigger, though I don't know if any commercial-era games rely on it. And for the Super Scope, it'd be a bit more involved to map A to cursor, + to pause, and - to turbo toggle.
Just using the wiimote itself as is with the video + sensor bar interpretor sitting next to your nes as an addon is probably a lot more practical than using the zapper at all. Have the box generate the proper signal instead of a LED on plugged onto the barrel. Sure, firing shots in rapid succession will be easier. Of all NES games where this might be an advantage, i'm thinking of barker bill's trick shooting and to the earth which are quite intense at times. Not too much of a problem if the balance was tipped slightly in the players' favor though, imo