Light gun shooter
Encyclopedia
Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game
genre in which the primary design element is aiming and shooting with a gun-shaped controller
. Light gun shooters revolve around the protagonist
shooting targets, either antagonist
s or inanimate objects. Light gun shooters generally feature action or horror
themes and some may employ a humorous, parodic
treatment of these conventions. These games typically feature "on-rails" movement, which gives the player control only over aiming; the protagonist's other movements are determined by the game. Games featuring this device are sometimes termed "rail shooters", though this term is also applied to games of other genres in which "on-rails" movement is a feature. Some, particularly later, games give the player greater control over movement and in still others the protagonist does not move at all.
Light gun shooters employ "light gun
" controllers, so named because they function through the use of light sensors
. Mechanical
games using light guns had existed since the 1930s, though they operated differently to those used in video games. Throughout the 1970s mechanical games were replaced by electronic
video games and in the 1980s popular light gun shooters such as Duck Hunt
emerged. The genre was most popular in the 1990s, subsequent to the release of Virtua Cop
, the formula of which was later improved upon by Time Crisis
. The genre is less popular in the new millennium, as well as being hampered by compatibility issues, but retains a niche appeal for fans of "old school" gameplay
.
, they are distinct from first person shooters, which utilise more conventional input devices. Light gun games which feature "on-rails" movement are sometimes termed "rail shooters", though this term is also applied to other types of shooters featuring similar movement. The light gun itself is so termed because it functions through the use of a light sensor: pulling the trigger allows it to detect light from the on-screen targets.
Targets in light gun shooters may be threatening antagonists such as criminals, terrorists or zombie
s, or they may be innanimate objects such as apples or bottles. Although these games may be played without a light gun, the use of more conventional input methods has been deemed inferior. Light gun shooters typically feature generic action or horror
themes, though some later games employ more humorous, self-referential styles.
Light gun shooters primarily revolve around shooting large numbers of enemies attacking in waves. The protagonist may be required to defend himself by taking cover, or by shooting incoming thrown weapons, such as axes or grenade
s. The player may also compete against the clock, however, with some games also featuring boss
battles. Games may also reward the player for accurate shooting, with extra points
, power-up
s or secrets. Games which do not pit the player against antagonists instead feature elaborate challenges constructed mainly from inanimate objects, testing the player's speed and accuracy. More conventional games may feature these types of challenges as minigame
s.
Light gun shooters typically feature "on-rails" movement, which gives the player no control over the direction the protagonist moves in; the player only has control over aiming and shooting. Some games however, may allow the protagonist to take cover at the push of a button. Other games may eschew on-rails movement altogether and allow the player to move the protagonist freely around the game's environment; still others may feature a static environment. Light gun shooters utilise a first person perspective
for aiming, though some games may allow the player to switch to a third person perspective in order to maneuver the protagonist.
Not all gun games use light guns for input. Many arcade
gun games also use positional guns, mounted to the cabinet
on a swivel that allows the player to aim the gun. These work quite differently to optical light guns, which are tethered and stored in a mounted holster. A positional gun is essentially an analog
joystick
that records the position of the gun to determine where the player is aiming on the screen. Arcade gun games that use positional guns include Silent Scope
, Space Gun
, and Revolution X
.
Mechanical gun games existed before the emergence of electronic video games, as far back as the 1920s. The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite
. Games using this toy rifle were mechanical, in which the rifle fired beams of light at targets wired with sensors. These games evolved throughout subsequent decades, culminating in games such as Sega
's Periscope (the company's first successful game, released in 1966), which required the player to target cardboard ships. Periscope was an early electro-mechanical game, and the first arcade game
to cost a quarter
per play. Sega later produced gun games which resemble first-person light gun shooter video games, but were in fact electro-mechanical games that used rear
image projection
in a manner similar to the ancient zoetrope
to produce moving animated
targets on a screen
that the light gun shoots at. The first of these games was Duck Hunt, which Sega released in 1969; it featured animated moving targets on a screen, printed out the player's score
on a ticket, and had sound effects that were volume controllable. That same year, they released Missile, which featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to display targets on screen, with a gun that was controlled using a joystick
. Sega's final electro-mechanical game (before moving onto video games) was the 1972 release Killer Shark, a light gun game that was known for its appearance in the 1975 film Jaws
. Throughout the 1970s, mechanical arcade games were gradually replaced by electronic video games, following the release of Pong
in 1972, with 1978's Space Invaders
dealing a yet more powerful blow to the popularity of mechanical games.
Light guns used in electronic video games work in the opposite manner to their mechanical counterparts: the sensor is in the gun and pulling the trigger allows it to receive light from the on-screen targets. Computer light pen
s had been used for practical purposes at MIT in the early 1960s. Nintendo
released an early solar-powered light gun, the Nintendo Beam Gun, in 1971. The following year, the first commercially available video game console
, the Magnavox Odyssey
, had a light gun accessory. Nintendo released the Laser Clay Shooting System
, which used solar-powered light guns, in 1973, followed in 1974 by the arcade game Wild Gunman
, which used optical light guns and full-motion video projection from 16 mm film
to display live-action gunslinger opponents on screen. In 1975, Sega released the early co-operative arcade shooter video games Balloon Gun and Bullet Mark, where the players use Tommy
-inspired light guns to hit a variety of moving targets displayed on the monitor, with lower points given for slower targets such as balloons and tanks, and higher points for faster targets such as pirates and jets, while points are deducted for misses, which also varies depending on which targets are missed.
The first gun games controlled using positional guns, as opposed to light guns, also began appearing at around the same time in the 1970s. An early example was Sega's 1972 arcade game Sea Devil, an electro-mechanical game similar to Killer Shark but featuring a mounted positional gun, which shot at moving targets whose motions and reactions are displayed using back image projection onto a screen. Positional guns were later used in shooter video games, with an early example being Taito
's co-operative shooter Attack in 1976, followed in 1977 by Taito's Cross Fire and Nintendo's Battle Shark.
Light guns first became popularly used for video games in the mid-1980s, with Nintendo's Duck Hunt
being a much-loved example. It was followed by variations such as lightgun scrolling shooters, like Taito's Cycle Shooting (1986) and Operation Wolf
(1987), and forward-scrolling rail shooter gun games, like Sega's Gangster Town (1987), a Light Phaser game for the Master System
that featured forward-scrolling car chase sequences, and Namco
's StarBlade (1991), a space shooter that used a positional gun and introduced 3D polygonal graphics
to the genre. Taito's Gun Buster (1992) was a unique first-person shooter
gun game, using a joystick
to move and positional gun to take aim
.
Sega's Virtua Cop
, released in arcades in 1994, broke new ground, introduced the use of 3D polygons
to light gun games, and led to a renaissance in the popularity of arcade gun games. The game was inspired by the Clint Eastwood
film Dirty Harry
as well as a coffee advertisement in which a can of coffee grew larger in a gun's sights; in Virtua Cop the player had to shoot approaching targets as fast as possible. The acclaimed Time Crisis
by Namco, released in Japanese arcades in 1995 and Sony's
PlayStation
console in 1997, introduced innovations such as simulated recoil
and a foot pedal which when pressed caused the protagonist to take cover
. The game's light gun controller, the GunCon
, was also acclaimed. Namco also released Point Blank for the PlayStation in 1998 (previously available in Japanese arcades as Gun Bullet since 1994), a 2D sprite-based
game featuring a unique minigame structure and quirky, humorous tone. The game was critically acclaimed and received two sequels, both for the PlayStation console.
Light guns were suppressed for a time in the U.S. after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre
and its attendant controversy over video games and gun crime. Since the late 1980s light gun controllers have been generally manufactured to look like toys by painting them in bright colours. In Japan, which lacks the gun crime found in the U.S. and in which civilians cannot legally own guns, more realistic light guns are widely available.
Light gun shooters are less popular in the new millennium than in the 1990s, with new games in the genre seen as "old school". The Time Crisis
and House of the Dead
franchises
continued to receive acclaimed instalments, with the arcade machine for the latter's
House of the Dead 4 Special (2006) featuring large screens enclosing the player, as well as swivelling, vibrating chairs. Some games attempted to incorporate elements of first person shooter or survival horror games through the use of less restricted character movement and exploration, with varying degrees of success. Examples of this approach include several Resident Evil survival horror light gun games, such as 2000's Resident Evil Survivor which incorporates first-person shooter elements and 2003's Resident Evil: Dead Aim
which incorporates third-person shooter
elements, and 2007's Time Crisis 4
which features a first-person shooter mode played with the GunCon 3 peripheral, which uses two analog sticks for movement and camera control
and the pointer for aiming. Others, however, unashamedly paid homage to 1990s arcade gameplay, even embracing a somewhat parodic style.
Light guns are not compatible with modern high-definition television
s, leading developers to experiment with hybrid controllers, particularly with the Wii Remote
for the Nintendo Wii
, as well as the PlayStation 3
's GunCon 3 peripheral used with Time Crisis 4. Recent Light Gun games such as Time Crisis: Razing Storm, The Shoot and the upcoming House of the Dead Overkill are beginning to utilise the PlayStation Move motion control system.
Shooter game
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
genre in which the primary design element is aiming and shooting with a gun-shaped controller
Light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
. Light gun shooters revolve around the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
shooting targets, either antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
s or inanimate objects. Light gun shooters generally feature action or horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
themes and some may employ a humorous, parodic
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
treatment of these conventions. These games typically feature "on-rails" movement, which gives the player control only over aiming; the protagonist's other movements are determined by the game. Games featuring this device are sometimes termed "rail shooters", though this term is also applied to games of other genres in which "on-rails" movement is a feature. Some, particularly later, games give the player greater control over movement and in still others the protagonist does not move at all.
Light gun shooters employ "light gun
Light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
" controllers, so named because they function through the use of light sensors
Photodetector
Photosensors or photodetectors are sensors of light or other electromagnetic energy. There are several varieties:*Active pixel sensors are image sensors consisting of an integrated circuit that contains an array of pixel sensors, each pixel containing a both a light sensor and an active amplifier...
. Mechanical
Machine
A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...
games using light guns had existed since the 1930s, though they operated differently to those used in video games. Throughout the 1970s mechanical games were replaced by electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
video games and in the 1980s popular light gun shooters such as Duck Hunt
Duck Hunt
is a video game for the Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System game console system in which players use the NES Zapper to shoot ducks on screen for points. The game was developed and published by Nintendo, and was released in 1984 in Japan...
emerged. The genre was most popular in the 1990s, subsequent to the release of Virtua Cop
Virtua Cop
Virtua Cop is a lightgun shooter arcade game created by Sega-AM2, and headed by Yu Suzuki. Its original incarnation was an arcade game in 1994 and it was later ported to the Sega Saturn in 1995, and Microsoft Windows in 1997...
, the formula of which was later improved upon by Time Crisis
Time Crisis (series)
Time Crisis is a first-person light gun shooter series of arcade video games by Namco. The first installment of the series was released in the arcades in 1995 and later ported to the PlayStation consoles.-Overview:...
. The genre is less popular in the new millennium, as well as being hampered by compatibility issues, but retains a niche appeal for fans of "old school" gameplay
Gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
.
Definition
"Light gun shooters", "light gun games" or "gun games" are games in which the protagonist shoots at targets, whether antagonists or objects, and which utilise a gun-shaped controller (termed a "light gun") with which the player aims. While light gun games may feature a first-person perspectiveFirst person (video games)
In video games, first person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character. In many cases, this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle. Many different genres have made use of first-person perspectives, ranging from adventure games to flight...
, they are distinct from first person shooters, which utilise more conventional input devices. Light gun games which feature "on-rails" movement are sometimes termed "rail shooters", though this term is also applied to other types of shooters featuring similar movement. The light gun itself is so termed because it functions through the use of a light sensor: pulling the trigger allows it to detect light from the on-screen targets.
Design
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
s, or they may be innanimate objects such as apples or bottles. Although these games may be played without a light gun, the use of more conventional input methods has been deemed inferior. Light gun shooters typically feature generic action or horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
themes, though some later games employ more humorous, self-referential styles.
Light gun shooters primarily revolve around shooting large numbers of enemies attacking in waves. The protagonist may be required to defend himself by taking cover, or by shooting incoming thrown weapons, such as axes or grenade
Grenade
A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...
s. The player may also compete against the clock, however, with some games also featuring boss
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
battles. Games may also reward the player for accurate shooting, with extra points
Score (gaming)
In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties...
, power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
s or secrets. Games which do not pit the player against antagonists instead feature elaborate challenges constructed mainly from inanimate objects, testing the player's speed and accuracy. More conventional games may feature these types of challenges as minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
s.
Light gun shooters typically feature "on-rails" movement, which gives the player no control over the direction the protagonist moves in; the player only has control over aiming and shooting. Some games however, may allow the protagonist to take cover at the push of a button. Other games may eschew on-rails movement altogether and allow the player to move the protagonist freely around the game's environment; still others may feature a static environment. Light gun shooters utilise a first person perspective
First person (video games)
In video games, first person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character. In many cases, this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle. Many different genres have made use of first-person perspectives, ranging from adventure games to flight...
for aiming, though some games may allow the player to switch to a third person perspective in order to maneuver the protagonist.
Not all gun games use light guns for input. Many arcade
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
gun games also use positional guns, mounted to the cabinet
Arcade cabinet
A video game arcade cabinet, also known as a video arcade machine or video coin-op, is the housing within which a video arcade game's hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the JAMMA wiring standard...
on a swivel that allows the player to aim the gun. These work quite differently to optical light guns, which are tethered and stored in a mounted holster. A positional gun is essentially an analog
Analog stick
An analog stick, sometimes called a control stick or thumbstick, is an input device for a controller that is used for two-dimensional input. An analog stick is a variation of a joystick, consisting of a protrusion from the controller; input is based on the position of this protrusion in relation...
joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
that records the position of the gun to determine where the player is aiming on the screen. Arcade gun games that use positional guns include Silent Scope
Silent Scope
Silent Scope is an arcade game that puts the player in the shoes of a sniper during a series of terrorist incidents. Unlike most first person shooters, the gun for this game is mounted to the machine, requiring players to physically alter their position to shoot...
, Space Gun
Space Gun (video game)
is a first-person, shoot 'em up arcade game released by Taito in 1990. It was later distributed for various home games consoles in 1992, and in 2005, it was included as part of the compilation Taito Legends on the PlayStation 2, PC and Xbox...
, and Revolution X
Revolution X
Revolution X is a arcade rail shooter game developed and published by Midway, featuring the rock band Aerosmith. The game features gameplay similar to Midway's earlier Terminator 2: Judgment Day...
.
History
Seeburg Ray-O-Lite
The Seeburg Ray-O-Lite was the first light gun game. It was made in January 1936 by Seeburg. Gameplay involved shooting a flying duck which would then drop when hit.-External links:*...
. Games using this toy rifle were mechanical, in which the rifle fired beams of light at targets wired with sensors. These games evolved throughout subsequent decades, culminating in games such as Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's Periscope (the company's first successful game, released in 1966), which required the player to target cardboard ships. Periscope was an early electro-mechanical game, and the first arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
to cost a quarter
Quarter (United States coin)
A quarter dollar, commonly shortened to quarter, is a coin worth ¼ of a United States dollar, or 25 cents. The quarter has been produced since 1796. The choice of 25¢ as a denomination, as opposed to 20¢ which is more common in other parts of the world, originated with the practice of dividing...
per play. Sega later produced gun games which resemble first-person light gun shooter video games, but were in fact electro-mechanical games that used rear
Rear projection effect
Rear projection is part of many in-camera effects cinematic techniquesin film production for combining foreground performances with pre-filmed backgrounds. It was widely used for many years in driving scenes, or to show other forms of "distant" background motion...
image projection
Image projector
An image projector is an optical device that projects an image onto a surface, commonly a projection screen.Most projectors creates an image by shining a light through a small transparent image, but some newer types of projectors can project the image directly, by using lasers...
in a manner similar to the ancient zoetrope
Zoetrope
A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words "ζωή – zoe", "life" and τρόπος – tropos, "turn". It may be taken to mean "wheel of life"....
to produce moving animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
targets on a screen
Projection screen
A projection screen is an installation consisting of a surface and a support structure used for displaying a projected image for the view of an audience. Projection screens may be permanently installed, as in a movie theater; painted on the wall; or semi-permanent or mobile, as in a conference room...
that the light gun shoots at. The first of these games was Duck Hunt, which Sega released in 1969; it featured animated moving targets on a screen, printed out the player's score
Score (game)
In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties...
on a ticket, and had sound effects that were volume controllable. That same year, they released Missile, which featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to display targets on screen, with a gun that was controlled using a joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
. Sega's final electro-mechanical game (before moving onto video games) was the 1972 release Killer Shark, a light gun game that was known for its appearance in the 1975 film Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
. Throughout the 1970s, mechanical arcade games were gradually replaced by electronic video games, following the release of Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
in 1972, with 1978's Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
dealing a yet more powerful blow to the popularity of mechanical games.
Light guns used in electronic video games work in the opposite manner to their mechanical counterparts: the sensor is in the gun and pulling the trigger allows it to receive light from the on-screen targets. Computer light pen
Light pen
A light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy...
s had been used for practical purposes at MIT in the early 1960s. Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
released an early solar-powered light gun, the Nintendo Beam Gun, in 1971. The following year, the first commercially available video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
, the Magnavox Odyssey
Magnavox Odyssey
The Magnavox Odyssey is the world's first home video game console. It was first demonstrated on May 24, 1972 and released in August of that year, predating the Atari Pong home consoles by three years....
, had a light gun accessory. Nintendo released the Laser Clay Shooting System
Laser Clay Shooting System
The Laser Clay Shooting System was a light gun shooting simulation game created by Nintendo in 1973. The game consisted of an overhead projector which displayed moving targets behind a background; players would fire at the targets with a rifle, in which a mechanism of reflections would determine...
, which used solar-powered light guns, in 1973, followed in 1974 by the arcade game Wild Gunman
Wild Gunman
is a light gun shooter game created by Nintendo.-Early version:The original version of Wild Gunman was one of Nintendo's electro-mechanical arcade games created by Gunpei Yokoi and released in 1974. It consisted of a light gun connected to a 16mm projection screen...
, which used optical light guns and full-motion video projection from 16 mm film
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
to display live-action gunslinger opponents on screen. In 1975, Sega released the early co-operative arcade shooter video games Balloon Gun and Bullet Mark, where the players use Tommy
Thompson submachine gun
The Thompson is an American submachine gun, invented by John T. Thompson in 1919, that became infamous during the Prohibition era. It was a common sight in the media of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals...
-inspired light guns to hit a variety of moving targets displayed on the monitor, with lower points given for slower targets such as balloons and tanks, and higher points for faster targets such as pirates and jets, while points are deducted for misses, which also varies depending on which targets are missed.
The first gun games controlled using positional guns, as opposed to light guns, also began appearing at around the same time in the 1970s. An early example was Sega's 1972 arcade game Sea Devil, an electro-mechanical game similar to Killer Shark but featuring a mounted positional gun, which shot at moving targets whose motions and reactions are displayed using back image projection onto a screen. Positional guns were later used in shooter video games, with an early example being Taito
Taito Corporation
The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....
's co-operative shooter Attack in 1976, followed in 1977 by Taito's Cross Fire and Nintendo's Battle Shark.
Light guns first became popularly used for video games in the mid-1980s, with Nintendo's Duck Hunt
Duck Hunt
is a video game for the Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System game console system in which players use the NES Zapper to shoot ducks on screen for points. The game was developed and published by Nintendo, and was released in 1984 in Japan...
being a much-loved example. It was followed by variations such as lightgun scrolling shooters, like Taito's Cycle Shooting (1986) and Operation Wolf
Operation Wolf
Operation Wolf is a one-player shooter arcade game made by Taito in 1987. It spawned three sequels: Operation Thunderbolt , Operation Wolf 3 and Operation Tiger .-Description:...
(1987), and forward-scrolling rail shooter gun games, like Sega's Gangster Town (1987), a Light Phaser game for the Master System
Sega Master System
The is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
that featured forward-scrolling car chase sequences, and Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
's StarBlade (1991), a space shooter that used a positional gun and introduced 3D polygonal graphics
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
to the genre. Taito's Gun Buster (1992) was a unique first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
gun game, using a joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
to move and positional gun to take aim
Free look
Free look describes the ability to move the mouse to rotate the player character's view in video games. It is almost always used for 3D game engines, and has been included on role-playing games, real-time strategy games, third-person shooters, first-person shooters, racing games, and flight...
.
Sega's Virtua Cop
Virtua Cop
Virtua Cop is a lightgun shooter arcade game created by Sega-AM2, and headed by Yu Suzuki. Its original incarnation was an arcade game in 1994 and it was later ported to the Sega Saturn in 1995, and Microsoft Windows in 1997...
, released in arcades in 1994, broke new ground, introduced the use of 3D polygons
Polygon (computer graphics)
Polygons are used in computer graphics to compose images that are three-dimensional in appearance. Usually triangular, polygons arise when an object's surface is modeled, vertices are selected, and the object is rendered in a wire frame model. This is quicker to display than a shaded model; thus...
to light gun games, and led to a renaissance in the popularity of arcade gun games. The game was inspired by the Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
film Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
as well as a coffee advertisement in which a can of coffee grew larger in a gun's sights; in Virtua Cop the player had to shoot approaching targets as fast as possible. The acclaimed Time Crisis
Time Crisis
Time Crisis is a light gun shooter arcade game produced by Namco in 1995 and released in early 1996. It was later ported for the PlayStation in 1997, bundled with the G-Con 45 controller.-Gameplay:...
by Namco, released in Japanese arcades in 1995 and Sony's
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
console in 1997, introduced innovations such as simulated recoil
Recoil
Recoil is the backward momentum of a gun when it is discharged. In technical terms, the recoil caused by the gun exactly balances the forward momentum of the projectile and exhaust gasses, according to Newton's third law...
and a foot pedal which when pressed caused the protagonist to take cover
Cover system
A cover system is how a video game lets a virtual avatar avoid dangers usually in a three-dimensional world. This method is a digital adaptation of the real-life military tactic of taking cover to dodge enemy gunfire or explosives. Similar gameplay elements can be traced back to as early as 1986,...
. The game's light gun controller, the GunCon
GunCon
The Guncon , known as the G-Con in Europe, is a family of light gun peripherals designed by Namco for the PlayStation consoles.-Background:...
, was also acclaimed. Namco also released Point Blank for the PlayStation in 1998 (previously available in Japanese arcades as Gun Bullet since 1994), a 2D sprite-based
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
game featuring a unique minigame structure and quirky, humorous tone. The game was critically acclaimed and received two sequels, both for the PlayStation console.
Light guns were suppressed for a time in the U.S. after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
and its attendant controversy over video games and gun crime. Since the late 1980s light gun controllers have been generally manufactured to look like toys by painting them in bright colours. In Japan, which lacks the gun crime found in the U.S. and in which civilians cannot legally own guns, more realistic light guns are widely available.
Light gun shooters are less popular in the new millennium than in the 1990s, with new games in the genre seen as "old school". The Time Crisis
Time Crisis (series)
Time Crisis is a first-person light gun shooter series of arcade video games by Namco. The first installment of the series was released in the arcades in 1995 and later ported to the PlayStation consoles.-Overview:...
and House of the Dead
The House of the Dead (series)
The House of the Dead is a video game franchise published by Sega and created by in-house designer Atsushi Seimiya of AM1....
franchises
Media franchise
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
continued to receive acclaimed instalments, with the arcade machine for the latter's
House of the Dead 4 Special (2006) featuring large screens enclosing the player, as well as swivelling, vibrating chairs. Some games attempted to incorporate elements of first person shooter or survival horror games through the use of less restricted character movement and exploration, with varying degrees of success. Examples of this approach include several Resident Evil survival horror light gun games, such as 2000's Resident Evil Survivor which incorporates first-person shooter elements and 2003's Resident Evil: Dead Aim
Resident Evil: Dead Aim
Resident Evil: Dead Aim, known as in Japan, is the fourth release in a series of light gun shooter video games by Capcom. It is also the first in the franchise to feature first-person shooting alongside the third-person movement seen in its predecessors in the Resident Evil series...
which incorporates third-person shooter
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
elements, and 2007's Time Crisis 4
Time Crisis 4
Time Crisis 4 is the fourth installment in Namco's Time Crisis series. The game introduces new features to the cover-based light gun shooter gameplay engine of its predecessors alongside a new story and roster of characters...
which features a first-person shooter mode played with the GunCon 3 peripheral, which uses two analog sticks for movement and camera control
Free look
Free look describes the ability to move the mouse to rotate the player character's view in video games. It is almost always used for 3D game engines, and has been included on role-playing games, real-time strategy games, third-person shooters, first-person shooters, racing games, and flight...
and the pointer for aiming. Others, however, unashamedly paid homage to 1990s arcade gameplay, even embracing a somewhat parodic style.
Light guns are not compatible with modern high-definition television
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
s, leading developers to experiment with hybrid controllers, particularly with the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
for the Nintendo Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
, as well as the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
's GunCon 3 peripheral used with Time Crisis 4. Recent Light Gun games such as Time Crisis: Razing Storm, The Shoot and the upcoming House of the Dead Overkill are beginning to utilise the PlayStation Move motion control system.