Let's Talk! Homebrew Light Gun Games

[Paul Westphal]

So I have been on this lightgun kick recently, revisting the 7800 and 8 bit offerings, and I'm thinking to myself that this is an unexplored avenue, homebrew wise.

I talked to one programmer and two of the problems on his end is that he is using emulators to develop, and the light gun needs a crt to test on. I get that.

 

Maybe we could just upgrade the graphics? How about a Crossbow with improved graphics? That would be a easy start. Use raster converter to place a backdop picture and animate sprites on top? Thowing spahgetti here..

 

I saw a video on youtube where the guy was using the Aduino in the Uno cart as a co-processor. Immediatley, I thought of the possibilty of doing a Virtua Cop type game wher you have a 3D enviornment with enemies that pop out..

 

You could even make a modern, updated version of Midi Maze with multiplayer mode as well, maybe even give it Fujinet support..

 

I'd love to hear about the pro's and con's of developing a 8bit or 7800 light gun game.

 

How many light gun games are in the Atariage store? Hmmm.. If someone was to do a GOOD, FUN one in a market that has none..

[+sramirez2008]

I have a couple of light guns and would love to see a homebrew light gun game.

[TrekMD]

It would be cool to see new homebrew games that take advantage of the light gun.  There weren't that many to begin with! 

[Justin Payne]

Well, I love any new ideas for the Atari line BUT I'm also practical. First off, let's take one of the most popular light gun games of the 8-bit console era; Duck Hunt. I had this back in the day and even though I had other games, we'd always go back to this from time to time so an example of a well designed light gun game is, obviously, available. Crossbow, on the other hand, was an OK arcade game, but suffers from one of the worst aspects of gaming. It's basically an escort mission. ? If I have to do an escort mission, I'd rather have it be a two player game where one person moves the character with the joystick with the other plays support. Maybe the gunner is the sniper while the joystick plays the team moving in to take out the terrorists. I think, with a little brainstorming, a better concept can be created. I could help with that if you'd like.
I think the 7800 has the best opportunity for providing multiple things to shoot at. With the Atari computer, you might have to force elements into more of a horizontal plane. The 7800 sucks for sound but there are Antic clones that could be added to the cart to improve things.
I also watched that video and he was pretty much using the Atari as a video output. It's not really an Atari game at that point. Now, what I would like to see is game that used midi. They do have midi devices for the 8-bit computers and some 7800's have ports on them so maybe it's possible to add a device to put out better sound, including digitized, without the system coming to a complete halt. 

Let's talk about the elephant; that being it requires a CRT and a large one since playing light gun games on a smaller CRT sucks. Still, people give away CRTs these days so if you have the room and love retro games, having at least one isn't out of the question.
Remember, the ST also has the RF modulator so that's a system that would give you more horsepower right out of the box. Back in the early 90's I REALLY wanted to adapt Konami's Lethal Enforcers to this system but my coding skills weren't up to the task.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Justin Payne
clarification and bad grammar

[+MrFish]

I was looking into Duck Hunt last year. I think it'd translate well to the Atari.

 

If I end up doing it, I'd enhance it though. It would be nice to have a selection of various backgrounds/environments (overlooking a lake, fall time of year, etc.).

 

I got as far as converting all the duck animations and most of the standard background (some of it is just roughed in).

 

 

[Mr Robot]

For emulation you can now use lcd's with the Sinden Lightgun. https://www.sindenlightgun.com

No drivers for Atari8bit though, so not useful for playing on the real thing.

[+CharlieChaplin]

15 hours ago, TrekMD said:

It would be cool to see new homebrew games that take advantage of the light gun.  There weren't that many to begin with! 

 

some A8  lightgun games

some more lightgun games

[Irgendwer]

Problem with most (not only) homebrew lightgun games is, that they are missing calibration or even the needed "flash" when shooting for the position estimation.

There are only a very few usable ones.

While still missing a calibration, I had the best experience with "Barnyard Blaster".

Edited October 6, 2021 by Irgendwer

[Irgendwer]

13 hours ago, MrFish said:

If I end up doing it, I'd enhance it though. It would be nice to have a selection of various backgrounds/environments (overlooking a lake, fall time of year, etc.).

Go for it! There is no better argument for powering on the real gear, than a lightgun game...

[+bhall408]

We're in the process of adding support for light gun games to Argon...

 

Initial support will be for touch devices (phone, tablet, chromebooks with touch screens), and Atari 8-bit for the console (after that, we can do the same for 7800 and other systems).

 

Any developer that has done their own existing light gun game, or is working on a new one, and willing to share their game with us (privately) for testing should PM me so we can test against it and provide feedback/work out any issues together if needed.