   how did Duck Hunt work?
  How did the gun in Duck Hunt for NES work?  I mean, the screen itself wouldn''t have any way to monitor where the gun was pointed when the trigger was pulled, would it?  I guess the same is true for the modern day Area 51 and Virtual Cop-style shooters as well.  The monitor can only display the images, but it can''t gather and process information (such as where a shot was fired), so I''m just curious.It''s amazing the questions that pop into your head when you''re bored. 
  IIRC, it worked by making the screen really bright around valid targets when you pulled the trigger. The gun would just detect how bright things were. This lead to all sorts of abuses like messing with the brightness/contrast to convince little kids that they were the best shots in the world. (So that the gun registered positive even if it was pointed at a non-target area of the screen.) That was an invaluable babysitting tool. ;  I dunno if Duck Hunt worked like this, but I thought all of those sorts of light gun systems got the screen position by finding the time between the start-of-frame (which the system knows because it''s generating the signal) and the electron beam passing the point that the light gun is focused on... or so I read somewhere, anyway. ;  The gun wasn''t very precise, so if you watch carefull, every time you pull the trigger, you will see a block around the duck turn one color, and the rest of the screen another(white on black or vice versa) and it would basically see if its range fell in the proper color, if so, you hav ea hit, which is why you could shoot at bright lights and always register. ;  so why would it not work if you pointed it at a light bulb or something simmler? ;  I don''t see how these methods could possibly work.  There were lots of birds on the screen; the program had to know which one was actually hit, not just that one was hit.If you just aim at light, how would it determine which one got shot?   [Piebert Entertainment]------------------------------------------------------------GDSFUBY GameDev Society For UnBanning YodaTheCodaIf you want to see yoda unbanned then put this in your sig ------------------------------------------------------------DAIAGA  Dave Astle is a God Association.  To join, put this in your sig!Founder and High Priest of DAIAGA[edited by - YodaTheCoda on December 10, 2003 1:57:54 PM];quote:Original post by ktuluorion   I don't see how these methods could possibly work.  There were lots of birds on the screen; the program had to know which one was actually hit, not just that one was hit.If you just aim at light, how would it determine which one got shot?   Good point.  It probably put a different color box around each bird.  One bird would get a green box, one would get a purple box.  That would also explain why shooting a lightbulb (which is neither purple nor green) would not register a hit.I'm the OP, so I'm not claiming this is the answer...just a thought though. [edited by - StonieJ on February 15, 2004 11:27:00 PM];http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question273.htmThere you go, both methods mentioned work. [edit: linkified the link. lazy me first time]   [edited by - fractoid on February 15, 2004 11:29:00 PM];quote:Original post by fractoid  I dunno if Duck Hunt worked like this, but I thought all of those sorts of light gun systems got the screen position by finding the time between the start-of-frame (which the system knows because it''s generating the signal) and the electron beam passing the point that the light gun is focused on... or so I read somewhere, anyway.   How does the light gun for a video game work?;  Incidentally, if you point early light guns at an active light bulb and pull the trigger, they will break.In addition, if you put a magnifying glass in front of the Zapper and pull the trigger it will register multiple hits. Some games were too stupid to figure this out and crashed.  Resist everyoneI am your only friend. Click here for more information. (MOVED)