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Post by ninjabearhug on Feb 28, 2011 10:08:16 GMT
Right then, as the title says, I'm going to attempt to modify a phaser to work on an LCD TV. Why? because I want to be able to play phaser games without having to worry about always having a giant heavy TV, that is soon to be an obsolete item, somewhere in storage  . So basically I'm fishing for ideas here ;D. I think I'm going to start out by buying the original Time Crisis 4 pack for PS3 and seeing how that light gun works, and from there see if I can create something that will work on an SMS. I think it will be rather tricky though and will problem need a programme creating to work with the games maybe using some kind of passthrough cart so it can be used on any phaser game. Another (easier) option will be to design something to place in front of the screen to act like a CRT, but that will probably ruin the gameplay a bit, it's a bad enough picture on LCD to start with. Any other ideas are welcomed, I'm still very much in the brainstorming process with this one, but I am very determined to get a working phaser. I fear classic phaser games are going to be lost to us in the future If we don't do something about it and that would be a great shame as the SMS has some great ones |
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Post by Private Joker on Feb 28, 2011 16:42:11 GMT
Very honorable project!!
Good luck and if your project ends well, maybe you'll be looking to refining the idea into a commercialised item?
I can imagine not a lot of people will be buying a huge frontscreen for their flat screen tv and I don't really see how you would be able to cover all different sizes.
As for ideas, sorry mate but I'll have to leave that up to other people...
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Post by playgeneration on Feb 28, 2011 17:42:09 GMT
Its a pity that the Wii Virtual Console doesn't fix this problem. The Wii controller is perfect for light gun games, and theres plenty of plastic bits to make it more like a gun. But from what I have read, the Virtual Console light gun games like Operation Wolf that are available don't use the wii mote properly, and just just the dpad and buttons instead. Really the best answer is the one nobody likes to hear or accept - get a CRT TV. Everyone's houses haven't suddenly shrunk in the last 5 years, so the excuse of "I don't have room" doesn't wash with me |
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Post by ninjabearhug on Feb 28, 2011 19:01:55 GMT
Really the best answer is the one nobody likes to hear or accept - get a CRT TV. Everyone's houses haven't suddenly shrunk in the last 5 years, so the excuse of "I don't have room" doesn't wash with me It's not that I don't have room for a CRT, it's that I don't have room for another TV. Plus, everytime I buy a decent sized CRT TV it breaks after a few months, last three have had tube problems too so were proper broken. And while it's pretty easy to pick CRT's up at the moment, it won't be too long before everyone has sent their CRT's to the tip, especially with the introduction of Digital. Plus, I like tinkering  . |
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Post by Tears of Opa-Opa on Feb 28, 2011 19:18:23 GMT
Yeah, I really wish they would put the gun games on VC.
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Post by Private Joker on Feb 28, 2011 19:26:54 GMT
Exactly what Ninja said, it's not that people can't buy them anymore or don't have room. They will soon be extinct and then what??
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Aypok
Sonic the Hedgehog
Posts: 2,372
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Post by Aypok on Feb 28, 2011 20:26:13 GMT
It's not that I don't have room for a CRT, it's that I don't have room for another TV. Plus, everytime I buy a decent sized CRT TV it breaks after a few months, last three have had tube problems too so were proper broken. And while it's pretty easy to pick CRT's up at the moment, it won't be too long before everyone has sent their CRT's to the tip, especially with the introduction of Digital. It sounds like you need to invest in high-quality CRTs. :) But seriously; good quality tubes won't die for decades. The circuitry around them may fail a bit (especially the capacitors), taking it a few minutes to "warm up", but they're generally easy to fix. Look at arcade machines: the tubes get burnt (if left on with a fixed image for too long) and the remote boards have problems, but the tubes rarely die. Admittedly, it's not easy to find those monitors in sizes much larger than 29" inches, but that's a decent size. Anyway. My point is: research which TVs use large, high-quality tubes, then get yourself one of those. Or buy an arcade cab and put your SMS inside - connected via one of Viletim's SCART to JAMMA adapters (which is something I plan to do in the future). That way you also get the benefit of proper controls. :) And you could always stick in a real arcade game every once in a while. :P Having said that: they do take up a lot more space... Heh. Totally worth it. :) Working CRTs are not going away any time soon - unless people actively destroy them (which will happen to a lot of them, I imagine). |
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on Feb 28, 2011 23:42:08 GMT
I really want a quality widescreen CRT... but not until I can afford a mortgage, because there is no way I'm buying something that heavy and moving a few times - the little 14" box I've got in my bedroom is bad enough!
The way forward with this is Wii/Move/Kinect technology. Kinect is getting a proper PC release, so no doubt some clever people will design an emulator plugin that registers pointing at the screen. To use traditional light guns on an LCD TV, you'd have to modify the TV itself - program in a scanning refresh like you got with a CRT. I don't know if it would work though - you see ghosting on cheap LCD TVs on regular programmes, so doing a pixel by pixel refresh could come out looking awful. I seriously doubt you could modify the existing SMS hardware to do it, but emulation ought to be possible.
Not only was I disappointed that Virtual Console Operation Wolf didn't use the pointer... they also ported the NES version for some bizarre reason as well.
Sega should get together their old light gun games, like the SMS library and the older arcade releases like Line of Fire and chuck them in as unlockables for a Virtua Cop collection!
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Post by ninjabearhug on Mar 1, 2011 15:13:53 GMT
It's not that I don't have room for a CRT, it's that I don't have room for another TV. Plus, everytime I buy a decent sized CRT TV it breaks after a few months, last three have had tube problems too so were proper broken. And while it's pretty easy to pick CRT's up at the moment, it won't be too long before everyone has sent their CRT's to the tip, especially with the introduction of Digital. It sounds like you need to invest in high-quality CRTs. :) But seriously; good quality tubes won't die for decades. The circuitry around them may fail a bit (especially the capacitors), taking it a few minutes to "warm up", but they're generally easy to fix. Look at arcade machines: the tubes get burnt (if left on with a fixed image for too long) and the remote boards have problems, but the tubes rarely die. Admittedly, it's not easy to find those monitors in sizes much larger than 29" inches, but that's a decent size. Anyway. My point is: research which TVs use large, high-quality tubes, then get yourself one of those. Or buy an arcade cab and put your SMS inside - connected via one of Viletim's SCART to JAMMA adapters (which is something I plan to do in the future). That way you also get the benefit of proper controls. :) And you could always stick in a real arcade game every once in a while. :P Having said that: they do take up a lot more space... Heh. Totally worth it. :) Working CRTs are not going away any time soon - unless people actively destroy them (which will happen to a lot of them, I imagine). Last one I had was a 32" Sony, don't know what went wrong but the colours just died off slowly until it wouldn't fire up any picture anymore. Started off mottled green, like when you put a speaker next to a tube. Sound was still there and everything appeared to be functioning correctly, I used to fix TV's and everything just pointed to the tube. It's more about space for me anyway, if I had unlimited space I'd just raid freecycle and stockpile all the decent CRT's. Same with an arcade cab. I would love one and in all honesty I do have room for one, the missus however disagrees as it would have to go in her 'shoe room'. My games room is 4 times bigger than her shoe room though, so I can't really complain :). |
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Post by Maxim on Mar 4, 2011 11:51:01 GMT
Note that SMS Plus GX on Wii supports light gun games with the Wii remote properly, although it does it with an on-screen cursor rather than a full-on gun calibration system like in the true Wii shooters. Needless to say, if you could gut a Wii remote into a light phaser it'd then be wireless and very cool.
Also, the emulator does reasonably well on letting you get down to a 240p video mode so it renders a lot like the original system, or stretching to 480p widescreen if you prefer.
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Post by neogeoman on Mar 27, 2011 5:35:29 GMT
The newer guns arent "light" guns. They dont see the screen at all, they see a sensor bar placed near the TV, and will probably never reach the same level of accuracy you will see with a good quality light gun used on a CRT.
480p isnt a widescreen resolution, it is 640x480 which is a 4:3 resolution.
If you get a good CRT display, it will easily match the best digital in terms of picture smoothness and contrast ratio. It should also last you a VERY long time too, as well as being quite easily repaired.
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. So basically I'm fishing for ideas here ;D.
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