Let's talk lightguns

Let's talk lightguns.
I can't get enough of this genre, but sadly it didn't survive the jump to the 7th generation of consoles. I hardly see them in arcades anymore, and I'm rapidly exhausting my backlog of home console ports.
What's the best light gun game? What's the best light gun? Does anyone still play them?

guncon 2 and time crisis 2 and 3 are the best. I have a great passion for the genre too, and there are fortunately some 7th gen light gun games. PS3 has two more time crisis titles and the wii itself using its pointer controls became a major attraction for light guns.

The 7th generation was the pinnacle for light gun shooters. They didn't survive the jump to the 8th generation because of handicapped Xbone/PS4 gamepad fanboys. We will maybe see a come back with NX if the rumour is true about mini wiimote and sensors.

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They died off because of the death of CRT televisions, the increased popularity of modern first person shooters and the death of arcades.

Most of the biggest lightgun games, like House of the Dead, were designed with the arcade in mind and ported later. After CRTs were steadily being replaced with LCDs and later LED televisions the method of actually processing input from lightguns vanished. It's why a lot of home ports of 7th gen games require you to plug in some kind of sensor on your television, and why it's almost impossible to play a game like Time Crisis on the PS1 on your LCD/LED without using a controller.

After games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare came out people lost interest in actually holding a toy gun and shooting at the screen. And because arcades slowly died off people stopped wanting to shell out coins to do it.

MAME is a thing

It's not like many new titles are being made anyway, the most recent release I've heard of was Time Crisis 5 last year, and I haven't even played it.

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Another reason lightgun games died off was due to how it was kind of seen as childish to have a plastic toy gun you shot at the screen. They were also not particularly replayable due to fixed movement. And it was hard to get immersed in a lightgun game when you're given frequent video game messages like ACTION, RELOAD, TAKE COVER etc.

At least with the latter 2 you can actually you know, play the games. And not just wish you could.

MAME doesn't get you the Time Crisis pedal or the pistol that blows back when you shoot. It doesn't get you Silent Scope's rifle with the tiny LCD display in the scope. MAME is great for a lot of things, but it's not a substitute for games with specialized peripherals just as it isn't a substitute for full-immersion deluxe cabinets.

Well if you want another recent lightgun shooter. Try Blue Estate, it's great and it's on steam(or pirate) with many controller supports. Don't let be deceive by the negative reviews a lot of them are bitching about the sex/violence or because it's on rail.

Time Crisis 5 is really awesome with two foot pedals per player. That and Terminator: Salvation are the last big light gun games I've seen. There is probably an arcade that has them within driving distance.

It's been a decade since we got a new House of the Dead and since Sega keeps shrinking it is unlikely we'll see another. Such a shame considering how much the genre contributed to the development of video games as a whole. There is a slim chance that arcades will see a resurgence in North America if and when Sony goes out of business and Micro$oft shuts down their laughably unprofitable Xbox division.

You can wire one of those to use on your PC though and MAME could likely use those or be modified to do so, pedals would be even simpler as those exist in USB already and can be mapped to KB keys, the SS thing would be more involved but likely doable too, not that MAME can even emulate it anyways.

Y'all niggas need to play Starsky and Hutch for the PS2. You can drive with a wheel and shoot with a lightgun AT THE SAME TIME!

pic unrelarted

have fun playing time crisis 1-5 and house of the dead 1-4

BECAUSE ITS ALL DEAD!

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The wii was indeed the king of lightgun games, 7th gen was a fantastic return to form.

Buy a wii for 40 bucks, mod it, buy the handgun attachment for like 10 buck-a-roos, and blammo.

Fun for the whole family.

Picture related, I remember riding my bike to the game store and lying about my age when my pre-order game through, me and a friend play the living SHIT out of it.

Time Crisis 5 is good, the dual pedal system works well

Well, with the VR trend, we will get a lot of games using lightguns, at least there is that. It's a shame that a good light-gun cost so much outside of the US though.

Oh god no. That sensor was shit.

You had to find a sweet spot away from the display, the sensor sucks up close.
You can't go wrong for the amount of ports though, Ghost Squad is incredible.

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Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you played videogames for the wooden boxes you're used to having them come in, rather than for the actual videogames themselves.

Is there a console/PC lightgun with actual blowback recoil? Screw wireless, I refuse to play lightgun games without that shit.

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You know the funniest thing about all of that?

the Wii versions of Call of Duty were great lightgun games

I was just thinking about lightguns when I saw this thread.
Is the AimTrak worth it? Have an old CRT and a PS2, would love to play Time Crisis.

I am just now reminded Konami made some of my favourite light gun games.
JUST

Whats a goodway to play PS3 lightgun games?

I'd go with a GunCon2

r u srs?

I make a lot of stupid choices and I have no idea why.

There weren't very many lightgun games for the wii. Definitely more than now but the wiis potential for those games was never fully realized.

Try VR guns m9, you gonna love that shit.

I don't think wagglan will ever replace my love for traditional light guns, there's something about that weight and physicality with blowback guns that will never be replicated by the Vive.
Maybe in about a decade when PS2 emulation isn't as garbage someone will hack it to support consumer headsets and arcade parts.

It's not wagglan you dumb shit, it's literally like light gun, except you're not pointing at a tiny ass screen in front of you, you're pointing 360 degrees around you.

By the 7th generation most people were starting to get LCD HDTVs and were throwing their CRTs out

Remember, light guns only work on CRTs. Because it used the CRTs interlaced white scan to track targets and HDTVs are progressive scanned

Are you retarded or just pretending? TV automatically sets input method to exactly match what goes through the cable. If the thing gave interlaced on the output, there would be interlaced on the input.

The reason why light guns don't work well (if at all) on modern televisions because they're not beam-scanning, instead they buffer the whole picture and only then actually put it on the screen. Most TVs do some extra buffering on top unless you go into options and disable it, it's always called bullshit things like "game mode". All of that crap adds up light gun input signal latency, and so it happens that the thing is extremely sensitive to input latency. Because it fucking uses precision timing to figure out if you hit anything or not, if timing is off of course it will be fucky if functional at all, fucking duh.

I agree that VR's going to be the future of lightgun games (holy shit dude roomscale was fucking built for rail shooters), but as is the lack of haptic feedback would make it less satisfying than the arcades.

I never played an arcade with a feedback gun. I mean there was one that vibrated but that a shit, doesn't count.

Also when VR goes a bit further than current state, expect there to be shit ton of VR guns, with feedback and pump action and all the other shit.

You should literally kill yourself. It won't bring my childhood back, but it will sure as hell be a step forward for humanity at large.

But i will

OP here, did some research and plan to order one of these from Innovation, apparently it's a pretty solid gun in regard to build quality.
Not completely sold on the pedal, but the B button is in an easy to reach place, and it has recoil, unlike the Gcon45.

Bless you OP, glad to see that you get where we're coming from with the hardware argument.

I didn't know what I had when my only game was a duck-hunt/SMB combo

speaking of LGGs, I remember playing one a long time ago at an arcade, where you played as some sort of scientist or researcher in the amazon (or some sort of jungle) and you were in a jeep most of the game, and had giant insects, spiders, and other creepy crawlies coming after you. Any of you guys know what game I'm talking about?

I'm surprised the House of the Dead series never gathered any controversy, mainly over Goldman bein the baddie

Pretty sure thats Jurassic Park mate

no, there were no dinosaurs in it. At one point, you rode an elephant instead of being in the jeep. It was after a cave level, and there was a branching path. One path led you to a level where you were riding an elephant. Giant bugs. I wish I could remember the name of the game…

Let's Go Jungle!: Lost on the Island of Spice

That's it! Thanks a ton user.
damn this game is worse-looking than I remember it being

Wii is THE console for light guns, and PStriple has a few that are genuine light guns.

RIP CRTs

I didn't like most light gun games, but I adored elemental gearbolt and could play it for hours with my guncon. That atmosphere and OST.

How do you get Time Crisis on mame?

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Speaking of, i wonder how silent scope on the Dreamcast with the Dreamcast gun Madcats Dream blaster is, let alone the xbox port.

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I've heard mixed reviews about the Xbox Silent Scope peripheral. Worked for some, not for others. Seen video of it action, pretty snazzy.

pssh u think ur toy gun can banish the darkness?

bump, because arcades must never die.

I never really got into lightgun games because they always have super fixed on-rails movement. No choice of where to go, not even any choice in the speed in which to proceed the one direction you're allowed to go. That to me is an absolute fun killer to me regardless of any further gameplay specifics. If you could somehow combine lightguns with traditional freedom of movement I'd be fine with them, but as long as they come with on-rails movement, NOPE.

Certain Wii games, like the MW4 and Farcry ports, played pretty much like arcade light gun games with freedom of movement, you'd aim with the Wiimote and the gun wouldn't be fixed in the middle of the screen, you could even turn off the crosshairs in some of them.

Wished PS3/4 and it's copycat wiimote controller had as much support as the Wii had, it's an extremedly neat concept that could revolutionate how FPS and Lightgun games are played.

The Resi 4 predesscors: Resident Evil Survivor(Not US), Survivor 2:Code Veronica, Dead Aim and Dino Stalker.

Time Crisis 4 and Razing Storm has a First-Person Shooter mode.

And try out every FPS games with Wiimote/nunchuck or Playstation Move.

anyone tried the Silent Hill Arcade emulator?
is it any good?

Damn nigger, I need to play Elemental Gearbolt