INteresting question. I love games like Mad Dog, I played through who shot johnny rock last year and I know there are other games similar to it. I wonder if games like Virtual Cop can use a gun.

House of the dead series by Sega

Sega had a light gun for Virtua Cop 1 & 2. Don't know about compatibility...

And for House of the Dead, too. But it's a little tricky : you need a special card (ISA or PCI), a Saturn Light Gun and compatibles games.

I have tried that (in french) : https://www.journaldulapin.com/2022/02/24/sega-virtua-gun/

No, House of the Dead is even worse than you think. There is a VGA pass-through device that mounts in an open slot that is required for the light-gun to work. It adds the flashing to the screen. As far as I can tell, this VGA pass-through was only sold with the House of the Dead/Virtua Gun combo pack sold in Japan. This pack is extremely rare and last time I looked there was only one for sale for multiple thousands of dollars. It seems odd that all of the Sega IF card manuals say you can use this device and then the only documented place to get it was just a multi-pack. It makes me think that the device was available some other way, but I don't think the documentation mentions where to get it.

If anyone has any further info on this part, I'd like to know. I have been unable to find it by itself either.

Seems like the best way to do light gun games these days is not natively, but via the sinden gun and emulators.

I must admit that it does appear very, very tempting

Tripredacus wrote on 2024-05-24, 19:53:

No, House of the Dead is even worse than you think. There is a VGA pass-through device that mounts in an open slot that is required for the light-gun to work. It adds the flashing to the screen. As far as I can tell, this VGA pass-through was only sold with the House of the Dead/Virtua Gun combo pack sold in Japan. This pack is extremely rare and last time I looked there was only one for sale for multiple thousands of dollars. It seems odd that all of the Sega IF card manuals say you can use this device and then the only documented place to get it was just a multi-pack. It makes me think that the device was available some other way, but I don't think the documentation mentions where to get it.

If anyone has any further info on this part, I'd like to know. I have been unable to find it by itself either.

Did you read the article above your post? It explains the options.

Contains the vga adapter:
IF-SEGA2/PCI
IF-SEGA2/ISA

Does not contain the vga adapter:
IF-SEGA2L/PCI
IF-SEGA2L/ISA
IF-SEGA/ISA
IF-SEGA2/98

Vga adapter on it's own:
IF-SEGA2L/EX

Bundle with house of the dead:
IF-SEGA2/HOD

BITD, when 8 bits were still a thing, there were a number of light guns for 8 bit computers that were meant to be used on TVs. CGA displays were not much different from TVs, so I wonder if there were PC versions of that light guns...

EDIT: Yep, the Gunstick had a PC version that connected to parallel port. This page has a list of the (spanish) PC games that were released and could make use of it.

Hanamichi wrote on 2024-05-25, 15:44:

Did you read the article above your post? It explains the options. […]
Show full quote

Did you read the article above your post? It explains the options.

Contains the vga adapter:
IF-SEGA2/PCI
IF-SEGA2/ISA

No but it was in French. :p
I did not know about it being in those two models, I will have to keep an eye out for a cheap one.

That's a nice topic and question 😀
I am actually trying to locate PC lightgun games...

There were four different lightguns for PC games (and some for later Windows games).

1) French gun - called "Phaser", by Loriciel(s) (1989). Connects to a Serial port.
Only two Loriciel(s) games supported it - "West Phaser", the one it was bundled with (the 1989 edition - in the 1992 re-release they added joystick, mouse, and keyboard as well), and "Crazy Shot" (1989 as well, but this game supports mouse and keyboard from the very beginning).
There were also rumors that "Moon Blaster" (by Loriciel) and "Capone" (by Actionware) support "Phaser" as well, but I have not seen those versions yet.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=210322

2) Spanish gun - called "GunStick" (1989). Connects to a Parallel port.
There were at least five games supported exclusively, by Opera and Dinamic, in 1989: "Solo", "Target Plus", "Mike Gunner", "Guillermo Tell" and "Trigger". And two more games, "Cosmic Sheriff" and "El Equipo A", had special versions for GunStick as well.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=210319

3) US gun - called "PC Gamegun" by American Laser Games (1993?). Connects to BOTH parallel and game ports.
All ALG DOS games support it! But not exclusively: "Mad Dog McCree", "Mad Dog II", "Crime Patrol", " Drug Wars", "Space Pirates", "Who shot Johny Rock", "The Last Bounty Hunter".

download/file.php?mode=view&id=210321

4) Taiwanese gun- called "PcGun", by EMAG and A4Tech (1996-1997). Connects to a special ISA interface card.
Only three games support it, all by EMAG: "A.D Cop", "A.D Cop - Overseas Mission" and "BonBon Paradise" / "BonBon Lite".
This one is for both DOS and Windows.

download/file.php?mode=view&id=210320

I have two out of four - "GunStick" and "Pc Gun". And, well, I have very little luck with them 🙁
Only half of the games work with "GunStick" - and I can't get "Pc Gun" work at all yet. The screen just flashes when I press the trigger, no shot are visible or recognized.
So - it is not too surprising none of those guns were a big success, you know.

And as I said, there were also Windows and/or USB light guns, like PC Audo Mag or Act-Labs. But I am not familiar with those.

Uka wrote on 2025-01-19, 18:19:

3) US gun - called "PC Gamegun" by American Laser Games (1993?). Connects to BOTH parallel and game ports.

As it says on the website Mobygames, Wacky Wheels game surprisingly partially support it too (did not checked it yet):

https://www.mobygames.com/game/433/wacky-wheels/specs/

https://csoon.com/issue8/wacky.htm

An important improvement between the PC version and the 3DO/Sega CD is the presence of a rubber protector against cable breakage, which was absent earlier (a known disease, treated by cutting the cable below the bend and re-soldering). The manufacturer, having realized the error, corrected this in the PC version.

Found a way to correctly adjust the accuracy of PC GameGun by manually change numbers in GUN.CFG file, it is clear why most users disliked the quality of aiming of this gun - calibration using the application works differently with different CRT screens. Now it works more accurately with my Dell M991 19" CRT at distance about 2 feet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds9QxS667iI

Congratulations!
I was also able to get "PC Gun" working, finally. The quality of aiming is not exactly high there, but at least in "BonBon Paradise" / "BonBon Lite," the gun is much more appropriate than the mouse.

Lasergames PC Gamegun just showup on sale again if anyone interesting (not mine):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/306176156643

Here ACT Labs GS gun system:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/127008654289

www.act-labs.com/gun1_specs.htm
http://www4.anandtech.com/show/379

https://www.ebay.com/itm/197261599799

PC Auto Mag gun with 2 sega games in the box