Sinden Lightgun a couple of questions before I buy

Retro Arcade Fan · 27 Feb 2023, 13:48

@hopwon Hi. As someone who has spent a lot of time with these guns, I thought I'd chime in here.

To answer some of your questions:

Yes, you absolutely can work with your existing build. They only offer their pre-made image to make it easier on people who want to use it. It's a lot of work, I won't lie. But once you get the hang of it, you can modify each game on your build.
I have the non-recoil. When I was researching these guns, the general consensus was that the recoil was loud in most environments. If it were a loud arcade the recoil would probably be more enjoyable. But in a quiet home, probably not so much.
I have a feeling the reflection might cause a problem because of the camera in the guns. The BEST resource you're going to find for this is the Sinden discord. It's run by an amazing team of contributors who can answer your questions.

Overall, I love these guns and the support I've received in the two years I've been using them.

hopwon · 27 Feb 2023, 16:56

@Retro-Arcade-Fan Thanks for the feedback. In my impatience I went and ordered the recoil version. Bwhahaha. I guess I have options now :)

Regarding the reflection, I have a fairly dark room I keep my arcade in so no bright sunlight reflecting off the screen. Again watch this space due to my being an impatient kid.

Its good to know I can incorporate them into my build, I am fairly good at breaking my build and then fixing it.

Thanks again!

Retro Arcade Fan · 27 Feb 2023, 18:31

@hopwon You and me both. Rule #1 Back up, Back up, Back up!

Again, check out the Sinden discord. It's an awesome resource (much like here!)

hopwon · 28 Feb 2023, 08:48

@Retro-Arcade-Fan said in Sinden Lightgun a couple of questions before I buy:

@hopwon You and me both. Rule #1 Back up, Back up, Back up!

Again, check out the Sinden discord. It's an awesome resource (much like here!)

Totally. Todays job is backing up my SD card. My setup is allllmost perfect now which means something is bound to break :)

fede843 · 19 Mar 2023, 19:11

@hopwon Hi, just curious, how did it go? Got it working? I am thinking on getting one of these too, but for me it involves a bit more of research, since I have to order it overseas, pay customs, etc etc. It gets quite pricey, so I am investigating on real cases.

hopwon · 21 Mar 2023, 12:46

@fede843 Speaking of customs I am still waiting for it to be delivered after going through the process of import and paying duties etc. Delivered 2 x Recoil guns and holsters was €400 so not something to buy on a whim.
I ordered end of Feb and I expect them to arrive this week though I know they have been in Spanish customs for 2 weeks.

Once they arrive I will install and provide some feedback if you like?

hopwon · 22 Mar 2023, 09:00

They literally just arrived. Now to get them working!

ecto · 22 Mar 2023, 10:55

@hopwon Have fun! If you want to extend your build, it's absolutely possible. I did it with one Sinden and it wasn't too bad. It helps a lot if you somewhat understand the workings of Retropie / Retroarch, though.

I have all lightgun games sorted into Lightgunsubfolders. This makes the configuring easier, as you can load per-folder overrides in Retroarch. Also, I edited the runcommand-onstart.shso that the guns are automatically started whenever a game out of such a subfolder is loaded.

It can help, if you take the BareBones image to see what they are doing with the overrides etc..

hopwon · 22 Mar 2023, 17:49

@ecto said in Sinden Lightgun a couple of questions before I buy:

@hopwon Have fun! If you want to extend your build, it's absolutely possible. I did it with one Sinden and it wasn't too bad. It helps a lot if you somewhat understand the workings of Retropie / Retroarch, though.

I have all lightgun games sorted into Lightgunsubfolders. This makes the configuring easier, as you can load per-folder overrides in Retroarch. Also, I edited the runcommand-onstart.shso that the guns are automatically started whenever a game out of such a subfolder is loaded.

It can help, if you take the BareBones image to see what they are doing with the overrides etc..

Awesome idea. I am scratching my head right now trying to incorporate them and I am getting frustrated.
I will download a copy of BareBones as you suggest and reverse engineer it :) Thanks!

Floob · 22 Mar 2023, 18:57

@hopwon
If it helps, I've put examples of the override files here so you can use it with a clean RetroPie install.

hopwon · 23 Mar 2023, 08:53

@Floob Thanks for this. I watched this ages ago before buying my Sindens and then promptly forgot!
I will re-watch and feedback.

Thanks a million!

hopwon · 24 Mar 2023, 10:30

@hopwon said in Sinden Lightgun a couple of questions before I buy:

@Floob Thanks for this. I watched this ages ago before buying my Sindens and then promptly forgot!
I will re-watch and feedback.

Thanks a million!

@floob Did you create the Sinden Borders for the games yourself? i.e. did you merge the existing, for example, Time Crisis artwork with the Sinden white borders?
Or did you come up with some way of automatically merging them? :)

I have done something wrong here as I cannot get it working. I did have the test screen working but now it freezes and then hangs requiring a reboot.
Think I am going to clean out (there is no uninstall) the Sinden SW (v1.08) and start again with v1.07 as @floob shows it as working.

ecto · 24 Mar 2023, 11:17

@hopwon I had a similar problem at first: Maybe you executed the "Sinden start script" before running the calibration software? This leads to problems, as the guns are started automatically when the calibration software is started.

Also, there are a lot of bezels for lightgun games with the Sinden border integrated. Those are probably integrated in the BB images (or on the Sinden Discord server).

hopwon · 24 Mar 2023, 13:05

@ecto Thanks for the support.
I finally have the first one working on Time Crisis! Hurraaaaa!
Now to fix the missing crosshairs, and the menu options from BB9.1 (thanks to your awesome suggestion) and I am good to go :)

hopwon · 24 Mar 2023, 14:48

Oh I am buzzing! Its all working, jut played Time Crisis with recoil and everything working :)
Just in time for the weekend!

Thanks to @ecto @Floob @fede843 for input and help.

Floob · 24 Mar 2023, 18:13

@hopwon
I've uploaded various bezels and other related files here if you need any help.
https://mega.nz/file/GBIVxQoY#ltcWbfBsnIP4O8l-Zt9qqtI4UsCimTjonlp4kQ42ubc

With a bit of effort you can end up with a nice clean mixed mode image.

Last time I looked at it all (a while ago!) depending on the version of Retroarch in use, for the software to detect the border correctly, it should either be around the playing area or the full screen area.

You can see this in effect here:

hopwon · 24 Mar 2023, 21:49

@Floob said in Sinden Lightgun a couple of questions before I buy:

@hopwon
I've uploaded various bezels and other related files here if you need any help.
https://mega.nz/file/GBIVxQoY#ltcWbfBsnIP4O8l-Zt9qqtI4UsCimTjonlp4kQ42ubc

With a bit of effort you can end up with a nice clean mixed mode image.

Last time I looked at it all (a while ago!) depending on the version of Retroarch in use, for the software to detect the border correctly, it should either be around the playing area or the full screen area.

You can see this in effect here:

Yeah, I have been playing with that. I found on Time Crisis I needed to experiment with the border width and position on my machine to get the most consistent aiming.
So far I just have T.C. working but now to work on the rest :)

Though I might save myself the work and just use yours - thanks very much!

appas · 26 Mar 2023, 03:38

Hey, hope you don't mind me using this thread to ask since my question is about the Sinden Lightguns...
I recently got a pair of them, and have managed to succesfully play Duck Hunt! What I actually want to do, though, is play MAME Point Blank in two player mode. To that end, I've set up the border, but I am having a problem: unlike FCEUMM, MAME's crosshairs are not controlled by the lightgun, but by the D-pad on the gun!
Where do I change this? I've tried looking through all the RetroArch input menus, but just can't seem to find where to set the device that controls the X/Y coordinates.

hopwon · 27 Mar 2023, 20:25

@appas said in Sinden Lightgun a couple of questions before I buy:

Hey, hope you don't mind me using this thread to ask since my question is about the Sinden Lightguns...
I recently got a pair of them, and have managed to succesfully play Duck Hunt! What I actually want to do, though, is play MAME Point Blank in two player mode. To that end, I've set up the border, but I am having a problem: unlike FCEUMM, MAME's crosshairs are not controlled by the lightgun, but by the D-pad on the gun!
Where do I change this? I've tried looking through all the RetroArch input menus, but just can't seem to find where to set the device that controls the X/Y coordinates.

I'm having the same issue. I've seen on some version of RetroArch extended options for such stuff(I think) but not in the current R.A. running in Retropie 4.8.
Also cannot get the sound samples on PointBlank working either but I digress!

Do share if you work it out?

Cesarpuig · 29 Mar 2023, 08:48

@hopwon said in Sinden Lightgun a couple of questions before I buy:

One last Q: I have a acrylic sheet in front of my monitor by way of protection, this has a "bit" of reflection naturally. Would this impact the experience in any way?

Hello, does it work for you or is it inconvenient? in my I have an arcade booth and I have a glass in front of the screen