Anyone getting the Sinden light gun?

Chupachups

If it was open source I could easily find the solution to the problems here. Instead I bought the article and as soon as I connected, following the instructions, it didn't work.

It is true that I have been busy with something else so far and have not run any further tests. I reinstalled Retropie and followed the instructions. Now I also have to reconfigure everything on that raspberry.

But I don't know English well, neither linux, nor Discord. So I can't even quite understand what to try to solve.

It could be the reason why many users resold the gun on ebay a few days after receiving it.

Clyde

@chupachups Well, FOSS (free and open source software) isn't some kind of magic that fixes everything – you still need people who have the skills and motivation for it. But at least FOSS makes it a possibility, whereas CSS hinders any collaboration of the community. And I think that especially small businesses with a niche consumer base can profit from such collaboration.

It could be the reason why many users resold the gun on ebay a few days after receiving it.

That, or they want to exploit the current scarcity of the guns to get more than they themselves paid for them.

I don't have time to tinker with mine before the weekend. My next plans are to try the „Bare Bones“ image and a vestal official RetroPie image. If one of those does work, I'll compare their config files to find any clues.

Clyde

Update: After some tedious testing with the Bare Bones image, I found out that the mouse index in RetroArch isn't the same as the system's. As said before, the Sinden gun appears as /dev/input/mouse0 and /dev/input/event2 in the system. But in RetroArch, I have to set the mouse index to 1!

So far, so irritating. 🙄 Now I can move the cursor in both lr-fceumm and lr-pcsx-rearmed, not only in the Bare Bones image, but also in my own RetroPie system.
😀🍻😁

BUT alas, solving one problem led to the next: The gun seems to assume a higher screen resolution than lr-fceumm and lr-pcsx-rearmed provide, i.e. the crosshair is way too fast and will already have reached the screen border when the gun's real aim just moved approx. a third of that distance. Calibrating the gun by holding lefton its D-Pad for three seconds doesn't fix that, as it aligns the aim at one position, but from there the movement is still too fast.

I couldn't find any reports about this phenomenon on the web. My monitor's native resolution is 1600x1200. Changing the aspect ratio in RetroArch doesn't fix the problem.

Any ideas? Otherwise, my next step will be to contact Sinden support and/or asking on https://www.reddit.com/r/SindenLightgun/. But not today, the lengthy troubleshooting was enough for one day. 😛

Chupachups

I can't download the BAREBONES 7.1 image, from HarryDogs site (https://barebones.lightgun.dev/bb7x1.rar), it always stops
:( :( :(

Clyde

@chupachups How do you try to download it?

If everything else fails, boot up your normal RetroPie and use wget. ;)

Download to the current directory:

wget https://barebones.lightgun.dev/bb7x1.rar

Download to the system's root directory that can be read in Windows:

sudo wget -P / https://barebones.lightgun.dev/bb7x1.rar

Chupachups

Thanks for the hint. Today the download from firefox is ok.

EDIT: installed but.. don't work the player1test :( I will try another time tomorrow

Dipkid

Noticed my production / order id was cleared at the factory sometime in the last weeks.
Did you guys get a tracking number pretty quickly, or did the gun just show up in the end?

theissdev

@dipkid Mine just showed up.

Chupachups

@dipkid just showed up

Clyde

@chupachups said in Anyone getting the Sinden light gun?:

@dipkid just showed up

As did another Update:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-sinden-lightgun#/updates/all

Dipkid

@clyde yeah, thats where i saw mine should be on the way. im a #7000 backer

Clyde

Another update, this time with some news about improving the software (mainly for Windows, but Linux was at least mentioned honorably):

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-sinden-lightgun#/updates/all

For the Linux software I have the stability improvements that are overdue for release which I will release this month (hopefully next week) but I will be dedicating some time and effort to the Linux software after the Windows improvements are released. A front end is most definitely required to make things a lot easier to setup and diagnose any issues.

Let's hope that they don't forget (or forgo) the ARM Linux drivers, which I suspect to be second in number of users after Windows, because of the Pi's popularity in the retro gaming community.

AdamBeGood

My gun has arrived!

I have it working on Duck Hunt, then had a quick look at MAME2016 as I want to try Beast Busters but couldn't suss that at all just yet - there doesn't seem to be an option to select a gun as an input device (ie. "Zapper" for NES).

I'll have another look later though, should do some work now...

retropieuser555

@adambegood https://docs.libretro.com/library/mame_2003/ granted this is 2003 so options might be different but apparently light guns can be supported using some of the option functions?

AdamBeGood

@retropieuser555 said in Anyone getting the Sinden light gun?:

@adambegood https://docs.libretro.com/library/mame_2003/ granted this is 2003 so options might be different but apparently light guns can be supported using some of the option functions?

Cheers! I'll have a look at that. I did see lightgun options in the Tab menu on MAME2016 but my gun wasn't responding when I tried to map it.

I've almost got PCSX Rearmed to work. I find on Time Crisis when I press the cover button, the character doesn't stay out of cover so it is impossible to get a shot off. Not sure how to remedy that.

It's fun to be tinkering with the Pi again anyway.

retropieuser555

@adambegood haha do you think anyone sells a USB pedal for time crisis? Maybe one from a racing wheel add on. That would be suitably awesome and unnecessary at the same time ha!

But yeah afraid I don't have a lightgun, been eyeing up a sinden for a long time but I'm not sure how much use I'd get out of it beyond the first few minutes of novelty. Would love to know how you get on with redream btw as that plays Virtua cop I think

AdamBeGood

@retropieuser555 Yeah, that is on my list of to dos. I'm just trying out NES at the mo, I've got it calibrated nicely. All the games are so hard though, apart from Duck Hunt!

Foot pedal would be nice!

Edit: I don't think Redream is a goer, getting the border to work is the first thing I need to do, and without the Retroarch menu it is tricky. I've got Flycast working though - Confidential Mission and House of the Dead!

AdamBeGood

@g30ff Have you got any quick tips for getting the Sinden working in MAME2016? Was it mainly done through the Tab menu?

G30FF

@adambegood lr-mame2016 does not expose any of its controls through Retroarch, they all have to be done through the tab menu. It should work natively, that's how I did it. Configure the light gun X and Y axis through the tab menu. The trigger should work automatically if I recall, though it was a while ago when I set it up.

AdamBeGood

@g30ff Cheers! I'll give it a go.