Finally... A Lightgun Worth Buying

[@NerdyWeaponXGames]

I feel like we’re so close for the return of light guns. Sure this is cool, but imagine if you could plug this into a home console and it just works…I’ll be all in at that point

[@kalofkrypton]

Aimtrak works on PS2.

[@davidhamilton9129]

There is a console it just works on...pc

[@serlancerlot315]

I remember the days playing Die Hard games with light gun on PS1. Good memories.

[@El3ctr0Lun4]

@@davidhamilton9129Well it doesn’t really. There are a LOT of configurations you have to make with Sinden light guns, and each game in particular has its own special config requirements. It supposedly works out of the box in Batocera, but even there there are games which require a bit of work to get it right.

[@MinisterRoy205]

consoles seem to be becoming the thing of the past, at least, from xbox, they are working with amazon, to create an xbox app for the amazon fire stick. but, i say this opens the door to lightgun games to make an in-home comeback.

[@BATMAN-nb6nc]

Thanks Rob. I imported a PS2 lightgun from Japan years ago that was an Uzi replica with rumble action.

[@charlesgriffiths4901]

Making these more accessible or easier to set up for emulators etc will hopefully open up a bit of a bigger market. Who doesn't want a way to play time crisis the way it's supposed to be played! Still a really impressive bit of kit.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

The main issue I've had with these is just how much of a pain they are to set up. That being said, I have my connected to my Mister FPGA and it sort of works. I have no doubt that it will work better as times goes by given that the mister support is pretty recent.

[@BeamerTime354]

I bought a 2 pack with recoil and have them hooked up to a onexplayer mini 6800u docked to my 85” living room tv. Everyone who comes over loves to play the games.

[@draculaman]

Even if you had someone set up presets, you'd still need to do a bunch of calibrating in the per-game service menus for the arcade games, there's just no escaping some level of calibration and setup. Even these plug n play setups you see floating around wil still ultimately need some level of tinkering, even if they take a lot of the upfront legwork out of it I had one of these and eventually sold it and replaced it with a Gun4IR. It's a great middle option I think - it's much better than the Aimtrak, but it's nowhere near as good as the Gun4IR imo - it's just too reliant on your setup being optimal to get the best accuracy and consistency, and some of the requirements with having to get certain games or emulators display a border just adds layers of complexity to already somewhat complicated setups. That said, I will say the community for the Sinden Lightgun are absolutely amazing, they've done so much work to take a lot of the sting out of setting up these games in the first place, and they're just very helpful and passionate in general, they should be proud of the community theyve built If you have a chance to review a Gun4IR system (whether it's one you've made or a prebuilt one), I'd heavily recommend it, it's unbeliveably close to using a regular light gun on a CRT. It's just more accurate, has significantly better recoil, is much less prone to outside interference, is a much simpler setup and also doesn't requre things like the borders to work. It's also able to use serial send commands to do things like sync up the recoil outputs on certain games, so it wont recoil if you run out of ammo (where as on the Sinden the recoil will pull every time you pull the trigger regardless of what's happening on screen)

[@Xenotester]

Thank you for the tip

[@sketchybmxer6958]

The only other issue I found is the recoil solonoid can run out of steam if you are playing a game like point blank that requires sustained rapid fire,i think the usb is underpowered to cope. It is a great gun though! 👍

[@JohnnyOrgan]

This is on my to-buy list. A great, honest review about set up. I think I can handle the RetroArch/Launchbox set up personally. The only thing that was holding me back was that the older version used to require being plugged into the wall for the recoil version. Thanks mate.

[@CrazyCouchSurfer]

I ordered mine did you get yours.

[@DocHollidayGames]

Upgraded from my Sinden to a Gun4IR a couple years back, massive improvement in both responsiveness and compatibility plus no more awful border around the screen. Gave my Sindens away and haven't looked back. Edit: So one thing I actually miss about the Sinden is being able to take it with me places and not have to set up leds around every display I use, so I ended up picking up another Sinden for when I travel or want to use a different display.

[@Phantom.Gaming64]

Appreciate the honest opinion about the Sinden. I can't wait to get my hands on this piece of hardware. 😎

[@steamdeckguy]

Tried it with batocera on the steam deck and was disappointed. Reminds me of the psvr where unless you have perfect room conditions the tracking is hit and miss

[@herrmayhem1915]

I've had Batocera running on a Raspberry Pi 400 and a Beelink SER 6 Pro with no problems so far 🤞. There is an option in Batocera to increase the thickness of the white border around the screen which might make it easier for the Sinden to see it.

[@PaulXMann]

Sinden was genius... not having corded sensors all over the damn place is *exactly* what we need. Well, that and broader, easier integration with games!

[@peter0071000]

Yeh but the gun is corded...265aud is ridiculously overpriced too. Disappointing. Wiimotes i will try instead

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@peter0071000 The two main issues are the price and it could be a pain to get set up.

[@rafaeldurban2034]

The border doesn't need to be so thick, even with that lighting, also too much crop. But good review, I liked it, I've been using a borrowed one and works great, I'm buying one.

[@STR82DVD]

There's quite a few show stoppers here lads. The price is horrendous here in Canada St $239. Great product but priced way, way too high. Thanks for the content.

[@PixelShade]

I love what the sinden brings to the table. For me however, it's hard to justify, I have a VR headset, so I have been thinking about using emuVR for my lightgun needs. :) feels a bit silly to stand in a virtual room with a virtual CRT, but still! :) One less thing to own!

[@nihiltube]

the latency of VR tracking vs a lightgun is unfortunately still incomparable, at least on the Quest 2. Wonder what it would be on Quest 3 or Quest PRO.

[@Bierzgal]

I imagine the biggest advantage of owning a Sinden is playing locally with someone using two pistols on a big TV. I love my VR headset but that's definitely a solo experience.

[@kalofkrypton]

To throw this out there, Aimtrak guns work out of the box for PlayStation 2. They're not perfect, but feel pretty decent and since the best version of the best lightgun game - Time Crisis 2 - is on PS2, that's all I really need. Love what Sinden has done, but were money no object, I'd get Gun4IR.

[@Kidblurr02]

Emulator my guy

[@jondo22]

Excellent video! thank you so much. I don't post often but your content was really good from start to the end!

[@gianlucapx]

I see that you installed its control software to configure it. This means that the thing works only with a computer, not directly with consoles. So if I have only an Xbox One with emulators installed, the gun won't be recognized throught the USB port. This is good only for an emulator machine based on Window or Linux.

[@CDubya.82]

Having just completed checkout on one.... this video was good to know i have not made a mistake

[@shaunmatthewcpoetry]

I have one of these and love it, was a pain to set up for me but brilliant. You have to download a patch for the House Of The Dead Remake yeah and I agree it should be as standard.

[@jesseboy7951]

don't care about light gunz but that t-shirt deserves a like and a half!

[@CDubya.82]

Just got mine today. No recoil version. Very pick up and play pretty much when used with Batocera

[@DanElgaard9]

Still have my Light Gun for my Amiga - still some of the funniest gaemes to play 🙂

[@AndrewAmbrose]

The camera system is pretty genius because it harkens back to the design of Namco's GunCons, which tapped into the console's video input along with the CRT flash for shot detection

[@RetroDodo]

Well remembered!

[@yuprulesing]

The only issue I have with them is they cost WAY too much, remember Time Crisis for Playstation? They even included the light gun, light sensors to attach to your TV AND the game for like $80.

[@MadsterV]

these are way more complicated than those.... they're also less reliable for the same reason, sadly.

[@The5hark]

For $80, you get to play a total of three games. With Sinden, the sky is the limit.

[@justinlee2331]

@@The5harkrather buy the Retro Shooter guns for PC. Like 3x less.

[@peter0071000]

$265 aud for one with recoil? Holy fkkk! I'm going to try with my existing wii motes, get a mayflash sensor bar for $40 and a few guns to hold the wii motes for like $20 each

[@GabrielHodge-wu7lr]

I got to get this to play cod this is awesome

[@kristaps724]

Can you have two guns on one computer to play with friends?

[@cloud9438]

Does this work on a ps3 or ps5 ?

[@thanevincent7953]

The pump action is awesome, especially for CarnEvil and House of The Dead 3. :)

[@herrmayhem1915]

Two words: Batocera. Works flawlessly, no setup required.

[@greatMomiz]

that’s 6 words 😂

[@_SYDGAMING_]

​@@greatMomiz😂😂

[@dauntae24]

Math is hard

[@Moes_Prep_and_Tech]

2 words Bato............Cera???? lol

[@herrmayhem1915]

@@Moes_Prep_and_Tech That's right! 😅

[@agmills86]

im going to order these soon, probably arpund christmas when i have time to test them properly, no idea what colour to go for, ill be getting the 2 pack and need to look into this Batocera everyone mentions

[@lurkerrekrul]

Not that this bothers me, but I'm really surprised that they don't offer a wireless model. Then I had the idea that maybe someone makes a wireless USB transmitter/receiver pair you could use to make them wireless yourself. Unfortunately, all I found are expensive sets meant for transmitting and receiving large amounts of data.

[@granglerarcade1950]

Waited neary a year to get mine on kickstarter constant lies about being posted thay were prodcing tracking nmbers a month before shiping saying it was posted and when i finally recived it it was defective as i could not get it to work properly thinking it was my TV sold it on ebay and the person who bought it had to return it. Would not trust a company that lies got an aimtract instead great gun never looses calibration cheeper no borders easy to set up could do with a couple more buttons though.

[@youknight12]

Does it plug in and work on ps2?

[@Blehstor]

Shame it doesnt work with PS1 and Saturn consoles.. or even Dreamcast. I want a modern lightgun for those!

[@bearonguitar]

It looks like a great product. Does it work with CRT TVs as well? I'd even just want it because of the top picatinny rail allowing to install a red dot sight. How cool is that?

[@draculaman]

Lots of people have got it working on a CRT - as long as it can see the borders at the side of the screen it should work in theory, although in practice Ive seen some people run into problems.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

If you've got a CRT, why are you needing a special lightgun?

[@bearonguitar]

@@SmallSpoonBrigade I want to mount a red dot sight to it.

[@wes773105333]

It's neat but im not nostalgic enough for lightgun games to spend that kind of money on it. Maybe someday if the price gets more reasonable or a more budget option appears.

[@RetroDodo]

Fair enough, thanks for watching!

[@billy_bandit]

Oh man this isn’t for Switch of PS5 is it?

[@abdullahabdulrahman3856]

Or will it work on PS4 to play house of the Dead remake?

[@SensibleSellOut]

Fix aiming at side of screen in sinden software 16.9 to 4.3 some emus only work with one or the other I keep 2 copys of the software and have rocket launcher load what one works for the game I'm playing.

[@bigmic3785]

Hello I'm looking to purchase this does anybody know if there's an option to turn off the cross hairs While shooting

[@midnightshriek1617]

Is it possible to hook it up to my pc then to a projector screen?

[@rudijohnson529]

ITS SO DIFFICULT TO GET A GUN WORKING YET, 30 YEARS AGO I WAS PLAYING WITH A CHEAP 1 DOLLAR PLASTIC CHINESE GUN ON MY OLD NINTENDO AND IT WORKED PERFECT?????? DUCK HUNT?? YES ITS AN OLD SIMPLE GAME BUT THE DYNAMICS OF POINTING A GUN AND SHOOTING WAS THERE.

[@Strappingyngbrad]

Will it work on a smart tv? If so, how do I do that? I haven’t been able to find anything for that anywhere

[@ricksanchez-qx5zz]

Please check the play station stuff I really want to get this gun but can’t find anything about setting it up to the play station 2

[@0Akeldama0]

would the edges have more accuracy if you have the white border go around the actual gameplay, not the full screen?

[@crikxouba]

Lost me with the cable. Will wait for a wireless one

[@1RacerXer]

Sinden website seems to be down...🤔

[@isaijuarez211]

You should try out The Retro Shooter Kit. I think this gun must not be the best.

[@RetroDodo]

I actually have checked them out! I even did a full video on them fairly recently too 😀

[@jurgensprenger7203]

As this is not working like a wiimote with an IR Bar but instead with cameras and a white border i guess this should also work fine with a UST Laser Projector. I'll habe to find out, if it manages a 100" ALR Screen :D. If yes i could imagine to buy a set of 2.

[@jayvee5886]

It works with projectors. I have mine working with a 100". However, I know they work with a Lamp and Laser projectors. LED projectors are not supported.

[@DougPlummer]

Anyway it works with the Mister FPGA?

[@Kracov_the_Madman]

Have you fully tested the latency? Because Sinden is a webcam, they are supposedly somewhat unreliable with fast aiming. I also heard that if you are a certain distance from the screen, like standing up, it's less accurate.

[@scow01]

I have them. was a backer and brought 4 of them when building some cabinets. Long story short they are better than no light gun but are not that great. The latency is bad. The software is buggy and a pain to set up for all the different emulators etc. Plus it will randomly crash and not restart unless you unplug the guns or restart the system. You will here commentators/reviewers etc all saying to turn off the crosshairs because they are not right but that is exactly where the software thinks you are aiming. They just want to ignore the issue. Feels like you are dragging the cursor around with it trailing the gun sight by a significant amount (inches off for fast movements on larger displays). A prime example are games like big buck hunter which are almost unplayable with these. Worse is that almost all of the reviewers are reviewing these on small screens so it doesn't show how bad it is. Once you are on a 40+ inch screen it becomes a serious issue for any game that requires fast aiming. I've heard that gun4ir is better but don't have one to verify such a claim. One of the other things no reviewer seems to ever mention is that the contrast setting on your display can also cause serious issues with these guns. Though the white border may be clear as day to you the camera in the gun may not see it well. Had to change a lot of settings on a samsung 43" tv to get the guns to properly track. Note I've also tested these on a toshiba 43" tv and had the same latency issues. Also ambient light sources can create a lot of problems as well. Or worse a white wall behind the monitor or picture frame.

[@Kracov_the_Madman]

@@scow01 A Gun4ir is $275, at least what I could see from the currency converter. Hard to justify that price, especially since I need 2 guns ideally. I also looked up Aimtrak which is unavailable.

[@Crozz42o]

Let me know when I can play it with my xbox

[@retrogametech1626]

I ordered 2 but it is a 3 week wait

[@EL3Y]

Gun4ir is the way to go

[@rcadenow7543]

i have sinden recoil...its ok, but you need a pretty dark room, must have always white border, the recoil sucks but it has great accuracy. gun4ir is the way to go nowdays.

[@SuperKnuckels]

so im confused, even looking at their site its all down or gone. Did this company bust?

[@twonklez]

Wow really neato can’t wait to play duck hunt in 4k

[@codyng7849]

Must it relay on the white border? Does it work if the emulator does not have the white border?

[@RetroDodo]

Yes it needs the white border. If you try and use the gun with no border enabled, it simply won't detect that you're pointing it at a screen. The Sinden software can create a border around the screen though, you aren't reliant on the emulator providing a border. I hope that helps!

[@3483maverick]

I have owned these for 2 years, and they never worked in launchbox. WII in launchbox worked right away with old controllers. I'm tech savvy and could not get these things working. Just ordered guns for an old PS3.

[@jayvee5886]

They work perfectly in Launchbox / bigbox. I have a pair with recoil in a custom cabinet. Zero issues.

[@neilfarquhar716]

Nice video detailing the pros and cons. I think people are on the lookout for these products right about now, and I for one would appreciate a comparison and/or review of the retro shooter lightguns that use sensors on the TV and come with a pandora box, currently doing the rounds. Great content mate, thank you 😃👍🏻

[@RetroDodo]

Thanks for commenting and watching!

[@megaben99]

If only I could use this on my sega saturn.

[@waterinthedesert81]

I need a pc to set up the Sinden light gun?

[@RetroDodo]

Yeah, you'll need some kind of PC to use the guns. If you're looking for something which is a little bit more plug and play, then we actually just published a video about the Retro Shooter light guns. The Sinden guns are great, but they require a little bit more technical knowledge to get working to their full potential.

[@ThunderMarco911]

This is badass

[@tmole4060]

Come on Sony and Microsoft get namco and sega on board and get these on console now

[@nickyrobinson7381]

He’s a cute lil leprechaun 🍀 he is 🤣🤣🤣

[@parsival761]

Sinden is not working on my pc 😖😮

[@Lyndis_]

Price is too high to justify for me for 2 players, hope eventually these become more affordable again

[@larrytaylor2692]

I wish they would make a deal with sega or Xbox and bring gun games to home console

[@akairibbon4658]

doing ANYTHING with retroarch is horrendous. And I use retroarch every day lol.

[@cannon59]

Wii sensor and controls. You're welcome.

[@animejoe4041]

I just want a great modern day light gun 🔫 to play Big Buck Hunter on my modern day TV. Is that too much to ask for??? 😛

[@karlanitasplaylist]

Is there any way to get rid of the white border 🤔

[@retrolizardscustomarcades]

Gun4IR blows this out of the water.

[@ThePerfectStormGaming]

All day every day. Guncon 2.

[@jayvee5886]

Sorry, I don't think so. I have Gun4ir (with namco slider), Sinden, and Retroshooter. Sinden and Gun4ir have both their pros and cons. Additionally, Gun4ir is not a product but a DIY kit with Rpeg ripping people off with pre-built guns. I actually built my cabinet with the Sindens over the Gun4ir for the simple fact that I did not want to have ir sensors around a clean cabinet. Additionally, I can't use my Gun4ir on my projectors as it would require really long USB extenders for the sensors AND extra sensors plus USB power. On top of the that recoil on a Gun4ir is either on or off, you can't tweak it. I also can't just take my Gun4ir to my friend's house to play as I would also need to disconnect my sensors which are stuck to the side of the TV. I can easily just grab my Sindens and have a blast at their house. Even with all of these cons, I STILL won't say that one is better than the other.

[@intoshadows]

House of the dead remake was never supposed to have lightgun support. It was made as a nintendo switch game. Which is kinda sad really. luckily we have very talented people in the lightgun community that created patches so the game can work properly with a lightgun. because the game devs dont really seem to care.

[@ChristianCastle]

AAA gaming industry doesn't care retro gaming

[@NEOGEO1966]

Tyson Fury of the gaming world

[@BURRITO44]

Awesome

[@johnstevens6063]

its cool, but then i looked at the price.. ouch

[@StreetFitsATX]

GUN4IR is the much better option. Considerably closer to the Arcade gun performance.

[@TheLegendOfLlnk]

JEEZE. $500CAD for me and a friend to play.

[@tenthirtyseven-v1]

For me, it was absolutely not worth the price and for one simple reason. No way to replace the wire without soldering. My wire wore out after a year and while I did buy another sinden, there's essentially no way to guarantee I'll always be able to just "buy another one" every year. For the price, I would expect a removable usb or for it to be wireless.

[@intoshadows]

also, wireless and lightguns do not mix well. wireless adds a large amount of lag which defeats the purpose really.

[@tenthirtyseven-v1]

@@intoshadows "defeats the purpose" The purpose being a controller that works? Because idk about you, but I'd rather take some input delay than just not being able to use it. It's just a suggestion, I would obviously prefer a removable cable but what you gonna do.

[@intoshadows]

@@tenthirtyseven-v1 i have my sinden for 3 years almost now and do not have issues. once its set up correctly in the sinden software and you know your way around setting up emulators the gun works as intended. as for the USB cable. Andy Sinden has a great customer service and warranty for his product. If you contacted customer support they most likely sent you a replacement USB cable which is very simple to plug into the gun. again, no soldering needed. The sinden gun is not plug and play as the gun itself has nothing to do with the emulators and devs of the emulators themselves. if you are looking for a plug and play experience with a lightgun (ANY lightgun on the market) the closest you'll get is with Batocera. or get the OG consoles with their guns and games and a CRT for an actual plug and play experience. this is the reality of lightgun gaming atm.

[@GacMan47]

Very disappointing the House of the Dead remake was made without the Sinden or any Light Gun in mind. The Switch is the closest port with a feel of a light gun, but its still not great.

[@noahkirkpatrick8912]

EmuVR

[@henbok]

sinden light gun is not friendly for dummy, you need a lot of time to make it work with every game

[@michaeladams9807]

👍👍

[@rcadenow7543]

its ok...i have sinden for 2 years. but gun4ir tech is far better nowdays.

[@DocDarkAngelo]

It cost twice as much, I would expect it worked better for the price.

[@JohnB-gx4gl]

The people on here are absolutely thick as a plank. I have 2 recoils hooked up to a 75 inch tv on both a pc and raspberry pi also and works like a dream. People complain about anything and if you cant afford it.....work harder 😉

[@dorion9111]

I was all like COOL then you kept saying it's difficult etc etc etc... and cancelled my order...

[@salvatoregiuffrida8912]

You spelled Retro Shooter wrong. Literally the easiest gun to setup with EVERYTHING and has WAY better recoil than the Sinden. Many light gun groups on FB already deemed the Retro Shooter to be the best bang for your buck. You're late to the game with this review.

[@RetroDodo]

We're actually hoping to be making a video on the Retro Shooter light guns soon! That's a pretty glowing review you gave it so I hope it'll live up to that! - Rob

[@kalofkrypton]

Retro shooter looks good and is a good proof of concept. I'll look forward to a version 2 that comes with a more capable box.

[@jayvee5886]

I guess you don't know what a good recoil is. The retroshooter has an awful and loud recoil and it's not a real recoil.

[@0Akeldama0]

why are game companies obligated to be compatible with sinden?

[@kalofkrypton]

Of course they aren't obliged, but there's a fun and missed niche of gaming that's gone pretty much ignored by big companies since gen 7. It's become almost the exclusive playground for retro collectors with space for old CRTs and home arcade builders. Which is a bit of a shame.

[@PhantomRetrospective]

When your game is centered around being a lightgun game why would it not?

[@genobee9385]

Too bad its so damn pricey

[@nuthinnew]

You know thats a handgun and not a shotgun right?

[@joeg4707]

Maybe it's just me, but the white border is annoying.

[@paulinetinsley68]

I hate the white border. Very distracting

[@RetroDodo]

You might be interested in our next video! We look at a Sinden alternative that doesn't have the white border, but it comes with it's own set of distractions unfortunately!

[@3dhYT]

Too expensive, too complicated.

[@Rougrou1597]

100USD for a fucking light gun i can buy a NES for that

[@weareone4931]

Sinden light guns are crap very hard to set up

[@louismat319]

No recoil, no fun

[@alemdomisterio]

You are wrong 😂

[@ThePerfectStormGaming]

Gun4IR > Sinden. If you don’t believe me get some for yourself you’ll toss the sindens trust me.

[@jayvee5886]

Sorry, I don't think so. I have Gun4ir (with namco slider), Sinden, and Retroshooter. Sinden and Gun4ir have both their pros and cons. Additionally, Gun4ir is not a product but a DIY kit with Rpeg ripping people off with pre-built guns. I actually built my cabinet with the Sindens over the Gun4ir for the simple fact that I did not want to have ir sensors around a clean cabinet. Additionally, I can't use my Gun4ir on my projectors as it would require really long USB extenders for the sensors AND extra sensors plus USB power. On top of the that recoil on a Gun4ir is either on or off, you can't tweak it. I also can't just take my Gun4ir to my friend's house to play as I would also need to disconnect my sensors which are stuck to the side of the TV. I can easily just grab my Sindens and have a blast at their house. Even with all of these cons, I STILL won't say that one is better than the other.

[@ThePerfectStormGaming]

@@jayvee5886 if you’re using them for the purposes that you’re using them for then yes. YOU will find it’s better for you. But the accuracy on gun4ir is far superior to Sinden, not to mention Sinden is light sensitive gun4ir is not. As far as the boarder no one wants to have a 2-3 inch white boarder taking up playfield space at least I don’t. So I humbly disagree with you. I will say they’re are expensive but I’ve learned you get what you pay for when it comes to electronics. So we will agree to disagree. I’m looking forward to seeing what blamco is coming out with have you seen their stuff?? If not check them out. They’re up and coming. They do gun props for hollywood so their replicas are amazing.

[@piplup10203854]

It is nice to see how far things have come but I will be holding out for a different or next version release. I am not a fan of the white border 🫠 and I am definitely not a fan of all the tinkering just to get it to work. I do like light gun games but I wouldn't go this far for them because I am not a massive fan. I do like time crisis and I do remember beating one at the arcades so it's not a bad experience for me but it's not quite plug and play. Almost there.