NES Zapper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since December 2006.

The original grey NES Zapper.

The NES Zapper (or Famicom Light Gun in Japan) is a pistol-shaped electronic light gun sold as part of the original Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985 and the Nintendo Famicom in 1984. The Japanese iteration was a realistic portrayal of a revolver style hand gun, but when released in North America was made to look like an unrealistic science fiction ray gun that also tied into the design of the NES. The gun has no real grip; the handle is hard plastic. Early Zappers were gray, but later the color was changed to a neon orange due to the fact that federal laws were passed in the US prohibiting toy guns from resembling real guns. It allowed players to aim at the TV. Different games used different targets; for example, the player may shoot ducks, clay pigeons, and many other targets.

The Zapper has a trigger action that takes quite a bit of force to pull back, and frequent trigger-pulling has caused many people to get tired muscles in their hands or forearms. (Modern light guns have much less resistance on their triggers, in comparison.) Also, the trigger makes a loud characteristic 'p-kang' noise when pulled.

1 Technical overview
2 Compatible games
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External link

[edit] Technical overview

The orange NES Zapper.

When the trigger was pulled, the game blanked out the screen with a black background for one frame, then, for one additional frame, drew a solid white rectangle around the sprite the user was supposed to be shooting at. The photodiode at the back of the Zapper would detect these changes in intensity and send a signal to the NES to indicate whether it was over a lit pixel or not. A drop followed by a spike in intensity signaled a hit. Multiple sprites were supported by flashing a solid white rectangle around each potential sprite, one per frame.

It is possible to cheat in games by changing the brightness and contrast of the television, or pointing the gun at a bright light. The gun thinks it is pointing at a solid white target and will report a hit. If there are multiple targets, the "hit" target will be the first to be lit with the white square. This is not as consistent with a fluorescent lamp due to the possible differences in timing of the lamp's flicker verses the timing of the television's refresh rate.

Additionally, by using a magnifying glass on the gun, it fools the receptor into thinking that the rectangle is much larger than it actually is, allowing for a shotgun-like effect that will cover the entire screen.

If one desires an extreme mod to improve nintendo zapper "accuracy", shortening the barrel length is a simple (albeit permanent) way to get higher scores more quickly. The forward refracting lense is removed and allows the zapper to scan more area of the screen. However, this is not a recommended practice, for modifications to the zapper are irreversible.

Due to the Zapper's technological limitations, it is not compatible with HDTVs. The "stretching" of the game's picture can cause a time delay of several frames with the picture output by the console so that even well-aimed shots, which would register as "true" on standard televisions, almost always fail as a result of this time latency.

[edit] Compatible games

Duck Hunt was also included in the compilations Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt and 3-in-1 Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet.

[edit] Trivia

The orange Zapper appears as the weapon used by the title character of Captain N: The Game Master, a cartoon and comic book series.
The orange Zapper also appears as the weapon used by the character Saya of Emergency Exit, an online comic strip.
Recently, G4's Attack of the Show made the Snapper, a Sniper Rifle version of the Zapper designed to be used with Duck Hunt. More information can be found here.
Nintendo seems to have a new zapper in the works which will be functional with the Wii.
In the Wii video game WarioWare: Smooth Moves, a Star Fox micro-game features R.O.B. as a boss holding the orange Zapper as his weapon.