Light Gun for NES

I seem to be one of the few who didn't get a defective one, so this review applies solely to the one I received.While it lacks some of the nostalgia factor (that spring twang and stiff trigger) I'd say it works better than the original. The smooth trigger lets me spam it for some real sharpshooting, making me feel like I'm in a western or something. With this design, one can shoot both ducks in a split second. I squeezed the trigger a bit hard as a stress test, and it holds quite well on its own. The plastic's a bit softer and thinner. Added on to the fact that it has less internal workings thanks to slightly more modern and less costly parts, it feels quite a bit lighter. But it doesn't really feel like it's just a cheap knockoff, in spite of it being exactly that. So, as long as you're not taking a hammer to it, it should hold up all right. They used a slightly modified mold, so it looks near identical to the original with the exception of the stock. It's just as comfortable to hold, too.If you want to save a few bucks over a used original Zapper, then go for it. My expectations for this were pretty low considering the brand and price. I figured it was only 6 bucks and this thing greatly exceeded my expectations based on the reviews. I'm guessing that the worst case scenario is that you get one of the few defective ones and you'll have to exchange it.And no, it doesn't work on flatscreen TVs. The way the games are designed to work make it impossible to use anything but a curved CRT. If you want to play on a modern TV, get the Wii U virtual console version and use the Wii Remote..

Says it works. It does not.And what is a compatible cartridge? Your saying the original won't work.They should say you need an illegal copy to play on a fake cartridge to work.This is too much. What a waste of money. I should have just bought an old TV at the thrift store.

In the early 80s, light gun games became a popular attraction in arcades around the world, offering a more immersive experience for shooting-based games than what would be possible on a traditional joystick and button-based cabinet. Soon after, they would be popularised on home consoles thanks to the NES Zapper. With a total of 17 licensed Zapper games and 7 unlicensed Zapper games, the NES offered a decent library of light gun games to choose from. Unfortunately due to technical limitations, these light gun games were thought to be impossible to play on modern TVs, but you read the headline correct: you can now play light gun games on an LCD TV! There are a few caveats to this, which we will discuss in a bit, but you can, in fact, use this light gun from Tomee along with some additional equipment to play five classic NES Zapper games with a modern display. I will explain what it takes to get that set up; however, let’s start with the quality first.QualityTo get this out of the way, Tomee’s attempt at creating a third-party light gun for the NES feels exactly like you would expect: like a third-party controller, which, for those of you not in the know, means it feels cheap. While there are certainly third-party controllers that break that mold (such as the 8BitDo SF30 Pro), that was clearly not Tomee’s priority with this product.Picking up the light gun requires as much effort as picking up a piece of tissue paper, as there is virtually no weight to it. One could argue that it being so light is a good thing, as it will not tire out your arms quite as easily, but I personally find it to be quite distracting as I almost expect there to be more weight from it, especially considering the original Zapper included a steel weight in the handle to increase the immersion of holding a gun. The plastic appears to be quite thin and most likely would not hold up to much abuse. I can feel the plastic creaking in my hand as I apply any amount of pressure to it, indicating too loose of a tolerance in between the two halves of the gun mold. In comparison, the first-party Zapper is solid in the hand and doesn’t have that crunchy feeling that you’ll get with the loose tolerances of the Tomee gun. The colour scheme is inoffensive but screams third-party; I would much rather have had colours closer to the original or a colour scheme to match the colours of the NES or Famicom itself. I did find the length of the cable to be sufficient for its job, but I would have preferred to have it a bit longer. And as for the trigger, it certainly isn’t providing any hefty click or tactile feedback. I personally don’t mind that as much, as it is quieter (or, to put it differently, less obnoxious) than the first-party Zapper, and has a much shorter travel distance, so shooting multiple things back to back requires less effort, but it won’t provide the sweet retro experience that many NES enthusiasts are looking for. Having said any and all of that, this light gun does work perfectly on a CRT, and is just as reliable as an original Zapper in my testing.Playing on an LCD TVThis is where things get interesting. For many years rumours have persisted about how you can get a light gun working on a non-CRT based display, most of which involved adjusting the display’s brightness and contrast settings, or by enabling or disabling the display’s native gaming mode. In my experience, none of these hacks ever worked. True, contrast does play a role in how the light guns work, but the main hindrance in getting these games to work on an LCD TV is the amount of lag produced by the modern display in comparison to a CRT. That’s where the ROM patches found on the NESLCDMOD website come in.The patches require that you either have an Everdrive for the NES or have the ability to create repro carts, but thanks to Alexey from NESLCDMOD as well as the community of testers, light gun games such as Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman are fully playable on modern TVs. Alternatively, you could use a NES to USB adapter to play the games on your computer as well via emulation. There are plenty of tutorials on how to patch ROMs and make repro carts out there, which is outside the scope of this review, so I won’t go into further detail on that, but YouTube is a great start if you need help in this subject. The patches simply detect the amount of lag generated by your display and changes the timing of the game to match. Currently, patches exist for Duck Hunt, Duck Hunt VS, Wild Gunman, Hogan’s Alley, and Barker Bill’s Trick Shooting. While that certainly doesn’t cover every NES Zapper game, it is amazing to see any Zapper game working on an LCD at all, and I imagine a similar approach could work for most, if not all, other Zapper games. Unfortunately, the first-party NES Zapper does not work without modification, which is where this product comes in.The reason why Nintendo’s Zapper won’t work is because the photodiode (an electronics component that produces current when exposed to light) isn’t sensitive enough to detect the light coming from an LCD TV, as it was calibrated for the much brighter CRT. The Tomee Light Gun has a more sensitive photodiode than the original, and thus should be able to detect the light of your modern TV. You may still need to tweak the settings of your display in order to increase accuracy, but the Tomee Light Gun is currently one of the most recommended light guns for the LCD patches and should eventually work with your setup. You may also need to dim or brighten the lighting in your room, or stand closer or further away from your display in order to find a sweet spot. It took me about an hour's worth of trials to get consistent results. Admittedly, even with the patched ROM, the Tomee Light Gun, and a calibrated display, it won’t reach the level of accuracy that you can find while playing on a CRT, but the results are impressive nonetheless when you do find the sweet spot for your setup.ConclusionIf you’re looking to play light gun games on the NES, this product will get the job done fairly well. I can’t say it feels good to hold or interact with for the most part, and I would seek out a used first-party light gun before buying one of these, but the accuracy rivals that of Nintendo’s own light gun when played on a CRT. However, if you’re wanting to try getting the light gun games working on modern displays, this is currently one of the best known guns for compatibility, and it is worth checking out if you have the ability to. While I can’t say I’m impressed or enthusiastic about the way the product feels, it gets the job done, and sometimes that’s all that matters.

I have an NT Mini console with custom firmware allowing me to play games from an SD card. I have the console connected to a 49" Samsung 4K TV. I just tried out this light gun along with the following patched games (the patches were downloaded from 'NES LCD Mod dot com'):-Duck Hunt-Hogan's Alley-Wild GunmanI can't believe it - it actually works. It might actually work better than I remember it working on my childhood NES + CRT. Remember though: the games have to be custom patched, and the three games I listed are the only ones that are currently supported. You won't be able to use your original light gun game cartridges.I've uploaded a quickly shot video to show the gun in action with Duck Hunt.Update: The gun must be plugged directly into the console. It does not work when connected through my NES controller extension cable.