Area 51 guns to PC?

PCB problems and fixes
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Jackalus
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Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by Jackalus »

Is this possible? I read somewhere that it is.

I want to MAME my other Area 51 cabinet as I otherwise have no use for it.

J-Pac + Audioamp + This guns to pc should be enough no?

Thanks in front.
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by FrancoB »

You still need a way to interface the guns to the PC, the JPAC doesn't handle the gun signals.

loldoss tried Global VRs USB2GUN [here] but he couldn't get it to work properly.

There is also the [JammASD]. Pubjoe and Crackhorn seem to have tried it [here] but it doesn't seem to work very well.

I've not seen a known solution that works for this type of thing and to be honest they always seem like a load of hard work with unsatisfactory results.

You could always just buy some more gun shooter PCBs for it :D
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Jackalus
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by Jackalus »

Yes I know J-PAC doesn't handle it.

Maybe I should just buy Act-Lab guns and those VGA boxes?
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by andygeezer »

Only real way is to use hardware with a sensor bar or sensor grid.

Sega IR Type 2 guns can work with PC using the Sega hardware + APac or similar to bring the returned analogue values into a Direct Input container.

Plus point is it will work with a lot of games, will work on LCD/16:9 screens

Negative point, the Sega gun hardware costs hundereds.
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Jackalus
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by Jackalus »

I already have Sega Gun HW, but that is reserved for my Naomi setups.

I guess I buy Actlab guns then for MAME usage :-)

They should work 25KHz with VGA boxes and J-pac to translate the signal no?
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by andygeezer »

Jackalus wrote:I already have Sega Gun HW, but that is reserved for my Naomi setups.

I guess I buy Actlab guns then for MAME usage :-)

They should work 25KHz with VGA boxes and J-pac to translate the signal no?
Probably not - I've not heard anything positive about those guns..
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by FrancoB »

andygeezer wrote:Only real way is to use hardware with a sensor bar or sensor grid.

Sega IR Type 2 guns can work with PC using the Sega hardware + APac or similar to bring the returned analogue values into a Direct Input container.

Plus point is it will work with a lot of games, will work on LCD/16:9 screens

Negative point, the Sega gun hardware costs hundereds.
Interesting to know Andy. I may quiz you about that at some point :think:
Jackalus wrote:I already have Sega Gun HW, but that is reserved for my Naomi setups.

I guess I buy Actlab guns then for MAME usage :-)

They should work 25KHz with VGA boxes and J-pac to translate the signal no?
Just out of interest, is Area 51 24kHz?

I think most of teh mamerz are using the [Ultimarc AimTrak] guns nowadayz. They are an IR setup so they will work on any monitor.
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by Jackalus »

Ohh AIMTrack looks perfect!

Mo told me Area 51 is 24KHz, he even send me new WG chassis for other Area 51 cab and said he set it to 24KHz and it worked just fine.
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by KmanSweden »

Or you could by these from me for £120 shipped.
I'll trow in Mad Dog McCree for PC in the deal.

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Comes complete with two of these..
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So you'll need 2 USB ports free on your Mame PC.
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Jackalus
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by Jackalus »

Sounds cool, does it work 15KHz with my MAME PC with J-PAC ( Planning to keep the Area 51 actually and just adding these to my already MAME'd candy cab).

Do you want to trade to anything, I got:

Naomi1 carts:
2x Crazy Taxi Cart

Naomi2 carts:
Virtua Striker 3
Virtua Fighter 4
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by KmanSweden »

PM.
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by andygeezer »

I thought Area51/Maximum Force where standard res games - I know they are complete crap of a games though - explains why Atari went bust, as there last few years of coin-op where sheer pant worthy.
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Re: Area 51 guns to PC?

Post by trmatthe »

As a general note (as this looks to be solved by your purchase) you're going to get **** results with optical guns (i.e. anything other than the IR bar/Wii style guns AndyG is talking about) if you use upscanners, LCDs or any kind of image transformation/processing.

I posted in another thread on here about how the old style light guns work but in short they need to spot the actual electron beam flying across the CRT phosphor. If you introduce doublers, upscalers, image enhancers, converters etc into that pathway then there will be a latency introduced which means the gun will register a hit at a different point than that which you're aiming at.
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