Phaser Light Gun

[thorr]

Does anyone know if the Phaser light gun requires a brighter CRT than the NES light gun? I have both, but only the NES light gun is working. I had to turn the brightness up to get the NES light gun working. The trigger works on the Phaser but that is it. I am wondering if the gun is broken or if my monitor isn't bright enough. Thanks!

[retrorepair]

My bet is an issue with your phaser. Think someone else had the same issue recently and turned out the cable in the gun was broken.

As far as I'm aware the requirements are no different to any other lightgun.

[thorr]

Thanks! I have another Phaser on its way from ebay. The one I have now I was finally able to get it to shoot something, but it is off by several inches horizontally and it is not reliable even when doing that. It's almost like the timing is messed up or something. Hopefully the new one will just work and I can return the original one.

[thorr]

I received my second phaser light gun and it behaves the same way. I tried different cores and the only official one that supports SNAC is the latest. I also tried an LLAPI core. I also tried the VGA port on my IO board instead of the direct video VGA cable. I also tried changing the PAL and NTSC settings. I also tried the USA and European ROM versions.

No matter what I do, at the beginning of Gangster Town when you can shoot in your name, the gunshot lands around 4-7 inches away from where I am aiming it to the left or right. Does anyone know what could be causing my problem? I don't have any SMS or NES specific settings in my ini file and my NES light gun works perfectly.

Thanks in advance!

[retrorepair]

What CRT are you using? What SNAC board are you using?

[eightbit]

I am using a light phaser as well and the first game I tried was Gangster Town For me it works perfectly. I am using a Wega Trinitron and for any light guns to work (phaser, zapper, Justifier) I need to set the TV to "vivid" mode, which increases brightness and contrast.

If you find your shots are off with the phaser you need to get further away from the TV. The cord on the phaser is long for a reason

[thorr]

Thank you for your help. I am using a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 91TXM 21" computer monitor. I tried stepping back and that is another issue I didn't mention. I can't get it to even hit anything on the screen until I am about 3 feet away from the screen. Any further back and it always misses. Once it is close enough, the accuracy is way off. With my NES gun, I can use pretty much the whole cord length. At first the NES didn't work until I turned up the contrast and brightness settings. I turned everything all the way up for the Phaser and it didn't make any difference. The monitor is pretty bright, although maybe not as bright as a blinding regular SDTV. The SNAC board is new and came from zerohimself. One issue is when using a USB extension cord with the SNAC, my Retrobit Genesis controller has button issues (intermittent rapid fire instead of being held down on the B and C buttons). Removing the extension cord fixes it. I am not using the extension cord with the light gun. It is possible it is a SNAC issue. I got a second one from zerohimself and had the same issue. He asked another contact of his and they said that Retrobit Genesis controllers don't work with SNAC. This is not true though because it works without the extension cord. He currently has one on order for testing what is going on.

[eightbit]

I am not sure about the Retrobit controllers, but i am using all real controllers and light guns with my SNAC and using a USB 3.0 4ft extension cord as well. I purchased my SNAC from Dailydeals1001 (and all of my other components for the MiSTer) and have had no issues whatsoever.

It is probably a compatibility issue with the light gun and the monitor. It's such a small display for a light gun and I would imagine does not remotely match the brightness of a consumer CRT in the way the light gun needs it. But, I could be wrong and maybe its the SNAC. I couldn't imagine two bad light phasers that function the same wrong way

[thorr]

Thanks for the additional helpful information. I heard back from zerohimself and he got his Retrobit controller and it is working fine for him with the extension cable. The problem may be with the SNAC or the analog I/O board. I got the I/O board from legacypixels. Zerohimself has been amazing with his support by the way and I definitely recommend him. He is going out of his way to help me with my mysterious issue that seems to only affect Genesis controllers.

[eightbit]

Very strange. I have heard of Zerohimself's work and from what I have heard his boards are solid, so it probably is not his SNAC board. It may very well be your I/O board. Hopefully you get this resolved. The Phaser (when working right) is incredibly awesome with the MiSTer. Gangster Town is just as difficult (in the later levels) as I remember

[retrorepair]

I am using a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 91TXM 21" computer monitor.

I'm surprised the Zapper works on that monitor, though I think a Zapper works on a much more basic lightgun system.

I would think the refresh rate is what is causing your issues. You will probably find your setup works just fine on a consumer TV.

You might try limiting your refresh in the ini to 60hz?

[lupin3rd]

I think the horizontal refresh rate may be the issue. If you're using a 31KHz VGA/SVGA monitor, that may be the issue entirely. I wouldn't expect the lightgun to work with anything that isn't 15KHz direct video, without additional ROM hackery/electronics to compensate for it.

[thorr]

Thanks. I am using the native frequency combined with the Mister's doubler that makes it work with VGA monitors, so I am not defining any specific refresh rate. It will change based on whatever the original is, just doubled horizontally. I suspect the problem is due to the same issue as when I use the USB extension cord with my Retrobit controller. Zerohimself said it works with his setup, so it might be the IO board. Once I can get a stable Retrobit controller working with a USB extension cord, the Phaser might start working. It is also possible that it is due to the frequency doubler as you mentioned. I sent back my second set of parts that I was having trouble with to zerohimself and he will be able to see if he has the problem with the Retrobit controller with those parts. If everything works fine, it is probably the IO board for at least the Retrobit controller plus USB extension issue and possibly the Phaser as well.

[thorr]

I am using a light phaser as well and the first game I tried was Gangster Town For me it works perfectly. I am using a Wega Trinitron and for any light guns to work (phaser, zapper, Justifier) I need to set the TV to "vivid" mode, which increases brightness and contrast.

If you find your shots are off with the phaser you need to get further away from the TV. The cord on the phaser is long for a reason

Made some progress with Zerohimself on the Retrobit controller intermittent button issue. It appears to be only that controller and only on the Earthworm Jim ROM. The USB extension adds some capacitance that throws off the timing a bit and causes it to have a timing issue.

I am wondering if you or anyone with a CRT can try their Phaser with the frequency doubler turned on to see if the Phaser still works. That would answer the question about whether my VGA monitor should work or not, or if it is a timing issue with the SNAC. Thanks!