Problem with the NES Zapper

[adamshinoda]

Okay, so I got an NES, a Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cartridge and a flatscreen CRT TV (I repeat: it's a CRT TV). The first Zapper I used to play Duck Hunt didn't work. It did NOTHING AT ALL when I pulled the trigger: At the menu screen, I point the gun away from the TV to select the game mode and the cursor just stood still; it can't shoot the ducks in the game. I thought the gun was broken and get another one.

This time, nothing changed ! The same exact thing happened with the second Zapper.

Well, now I guess the problem is not the Zapper itself. Can somebody help me with this case?

 

[Zeliga]

Im not really good with NES accessories but from what I heard you have to be in a dark room *not too dark* and then play?
PS: Try it and tell me if it working or not

 

[raulpica]

IIRC it doesn't work with flatscreen CRTs.

Be careful if you want to play light gun games, some more modern flat screen CRTs don't work. Some have a scan feature (I forget the technical name) the processes low res images to a cleaner image. This processing takes a few milliseconds but it screws up the timing required for light gun operation. I almost bought one, but I tested it out with my light gun and found it didn't work and so I passed. On the model I was looking this feature couldn't be disabled so it would have been no better to me than a non-CRT television.

Source: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12779

 

[trumpet-205]

Only works for curved CRT.

 

[adamshinoda]

The Nerd has a flatscreen CRT TV and his Zapper still works.

 

[adamshinoda]

IIRC it doesn't work with flatscreen CRTs.


Source: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12779

But when you point the gun away from the screen to select the menu, it should still work, right? It has nothing to do with the screen then.

 

[DinohScene]

Iirc, you could also point it at a lightbulb and it would work perfectly fine...

 

[javanni9972]

The zapper doesn't work on HDTV's

 

[Foxi4]

Iirc, you could also point it at a lightbulb and it would work perfectly fine...

This is only partially correct - the "effectiveness" of this method depends on the logic used to detect hits in-game. Some games only check the gun diode once, others do some crazy intervals to check if you're "not cheating" and some make several checks across a few blanks to check which target you're actually shooting (and if it turns out that you're shooting all targets at once, as it would be the case with pointing at a lightbulb, the shot is deemed invalid) so some games will accept a lightbulb and some won't.

 

[DinohScene]

This is only partially correct - the "effectiveness" of this method depends on the logic used to detect hits in-game. Some games only check the gun diode once, others do some crazy intervals to check if you're "not cheating" and some make several checks across a few blanks to check which target you're actually shooting (and if it turns out that you're shooting all targets at once, as it would be the case with pointing at a lightbulb, the shot is deemed invalid) so some games will accept a lightbulb and some won't.

Well I only heard it working with Duckhunt.
Then again, I never had a zapper so I never could test it out ;p
Seeing I now finally got an HDTelly, I prolly will not ever get one (also complete lack of Zapper supported games)

 

[javanni9972]

Well I only heard it working with Duckhunt.
Then again, I never had a zapper so I never could test it out ;p
Seeing I now finally got an HDTelly, I prolly will not ever get one (also complete lack of Zapper supported games)

It does work with duck hunt but 9 out of 10 times I couldn't shoot a duck by doing that