[NES] Ramses Game

True in many respects, save that most true light pens work by scanline (CR) detection, rather than the simpler light-detection/lightboxing usd by the NES light guns. It was a suggestion based on hardware availability, as few people will be willing to go out and build a custom light pen, or convert anything else into one, unless they own a Vectrex.

(Then again, this will require the user to build a custom adapter or a modified controller, so it's a given that it'll entice the tech-capable crowd, on real HW at any rate.)

The emulation aspects for certain emulators wouldn't be something I'd initially rationalize, but I didn't consider the issues with newer TVs. Again, considering that I use 1980s CRT monitors for my consoles, it didn't immediately spring to mind as a problem, but I certainly see the issues with doing it that way. I only have two non-CRT displays that aren't system-integrated, and both are used as monitors on my design workstation, so I've never even tried to use a Zapper on either of them. Display properties of newer monitors therefore, are outside my experience for this sort of usage, so I didn't ponder about that sort of problem.

Further, not owning an android, and not generally using emulators, save to test stuff on occasion, I don't know what the more esoteric ones support. Many of the desktop builds support the Zapper it in some aspect, and I shouldn't see why it would be difficult to implement with a touch-screen device, aside from possibly being unpopular enough to be a non-priority.

Anyhow, my suggestion stems from this: As a youngster, I rather enjoyed real shooting galleries, long before people found them 'inappropriate'. I miss going to carnivals that had those huge displays with little mounted guns filled with lead pellets that you could use to shoot at moving targets; even when they changed over to electronically targeting versions, it was still fun, and now it's all gone, so I enjoy a light-gun game once in a while, and a new offering in that department is never unwelcome to me.

In my opinion there were too few of them in the NES library, and many of the ones that were released weren't quite what I'd desired, so I will never complain about any homebrew that uses the gun, or any one of the oddball NES accessories. Heck, I'd love another title to use with the 'Gyromite' hardware...it had a fair amount of possibilities but never went anywhere. The same gyro pieces could be used in an entirely different way to supplement a game, rather than to directly control it, which would have been ideal. In fact, with a longer timer, even 'Gryomite' could have been far more enjoyable.

Then again, I guess it probably suffers from the same issue with newer displays though as the programming data for its movements is received through light detection... ??

The issue of TV compatibility is definable an argument I can't contradict. It still shocks me somewhat that the Zapper's light-detection wouldn't work on any newer screen... I expect that it is either an intensity issue, or a synchronizing problem with the screen blank timing required by the photo-diode. (Probably the latter, given that modern 'TVs' have an all-at-once refresh-rate.)

I'm perfectly happy to accept any other answer that I didn't think about, and I might conceive of others on my own that are potentially entirely false; maybe a polarization problem...but I think the refresh rate is still the major issue. I would expect intensity problems from LCDs, but not plasma screens, for example. (LCDs lack the ability to have anything close to true-black, and the contrast is horrible on most that I've seen.)

In any event, the game concept is brill, and I look forward to a demo release. I still think the extra buttons are an interesting idea, and it gives me some food for thought for stuff in the future.