If you've ever played a shooter game in an arcade, and you've ever fired a pistol, you're probably pretty frustrated by the dinky little plastic pistols in most lightgun games. Nowadays, some of them have a recoil simulator, but they're still light little pieces of plastic, with an absurdly light trigger pull, and the gun remains exactly the same as you fire it. The slide is the same chunk of plastic as the frame. There's a fat cable coming out of the bottom of the gun. For god's sake, you reload the gun by pointing at the floor and pulling the trigger! We need not suffer this way. Airsoft pistols are in widespread production and are much, much more realistic. They're heavier, the trigger feels mostly right and so on. You could put the electronics of a lightgun in an airsoft pistol and have a much better looking toy. Now, I'll admit that if the cable on the pistol was removed*, some jerk would steal it in most arcades. *(This is very easily do-able with bluetooth or an IR system these days.) But that's okay. The cable can be very useful to us. We stick a small compressor inside the game cabinet, and pump high pressure air through the cable to the gun. The air cycles the slide, which will look and sound cool, and it can even be directed out of the gun's muzzle. Rather than simulating recoil, we will create it!-- Madcat, Jan 23 2004 If you want reality in shooting, then go skeet shooting. But I like the fact that arcade games have cheap guns on them. It makes it fun and innocent.-- babyhawk, Jan 23 2004 There's very little about arcade shooters that can be called innocent babyhawk. Those aren't steel cutouts of baby ducks the kiddies are shooting at. (Though why that was ever considered "innocent" I'm not sure.)
The market for violent entertainment aimed at children is one of the great cultural institutions of the 20th centur- oh wait, no it isn't since kids have been playing war since the beginnings of civilization. And they used to get cut up and break each others bones doing it too.
Point taken about the skeet shooting though. It is fun.-- Madcat, Jan 23 2004 //kids have been playing war since the beginnings of civilization.//
We were never playing.-- Detly, Jan 23 2004 I like the general concept, though there's plysically no way to accurately simulate recoil without either some projectile leaving the muzzle or having a sufficiently-powerful blast of air to be hazardous if the lightgun was fired point-blank at someone. Though considerable protection could be provided by arranging the gun so it would only fire the air blast when facing the screen, I still think the liability lawyers would oppose the concept.-- supercat, Jan 23 2004 //There's very little about arcade shooters that can be called innocent babyhawk. Those aren't steel cutouts of baby ducks the kiddies are shooting at. (Though why that was ever considered "innocent" I'm not sure.)//
that was not the innocent that I meant. Just the fact that it is not a real gun makes it more playful and innocent in my mind then actually firing a weapon. I would not mind my children playing arcade gun games but I would not take them skeet shooting til they are much older.-- babyhawk, Jan 23 2004 Well, if it makes you feel better, I kind of agree. I wouldn't want my kids firing an actual weapon either untill they're at least somewhat responsible. This isn't throwing any sort of projectile though. Supercat might have a point though, high pressure air is *kind of* harmless. If you put one of these things to someone's ear it could be a hell of a mess. There will need to be some sort of sensor to prevent that, as he suggested.
What worries me a bit more though, is the possibility of slide bite. For those not familiar with it, if you aren't careful with your fingers firing a pistol, you can get your fingers caught in the upper half of the gun as it fires. It's sort of like what happened to the guy in "There's something about Mary", but not with his zipper or his....-- Madcat, Jan 23 2004 random, halfbakery