What's What! Video Game Facts (54/365)

Although first-person shooters, such as those in the Call of Duty or Battlefield saga, are one of the most popular types of video games today, three decades ago there were some proposals that literally allowed to shoot the screen using a gun, and if at the time you came to have a Nintendo Entertainment System, or just Nintendo for friends, you would surely spend countless hours making virtual ducks fall with the NES Zapper.

The Gun or Beam Gun in Japan, was an electronic light gun accessory for the (NES). It was released in Japan for the Famicom on February 18, 1984 with version resembled a revolver-style handgun and alongside with a kind a futuristic science fiction ray gun funny look, was the launch of the NES in North America in October 1985, the Zapper allows players to aim at the television set display and "shoot" various objects that appear on the screen such as ducks, clay pigeons, targets, cowboys, criminals or other objectives.

From its trigger and its photodiode, a photosensitive device that was in the barrel of the pistol, was given foot to a light gun that recorded levels of light from the old CRT tv's that had cathode ray tubes. let's see it in a more technical way when the trigger on the Zapper is pressed, the game causes the entire screen to become black for one frame, then, on the next frame, all valid targets that are on screen are drawn all white as the rest of the screen remains black. The Zapper detects this change from low light to bright light, and determines if any of the targets are in the zapper's hit zone. If a target is hit, the game determines which one was hit based on the duration of the flash, as each target flashes for a different duration. After all target areas have been illuminated, the game returns to drawing graphics as usual.

Hence, the mechanism of the NES Zapper depended on the specific latency that CRT tv's had to operate and that is why it is not something that can be used with today's high definition tv's. But that's not why we're going to forget his wonderful technology.

Although there were not many games that used this technology, since they were not more than a score, there are some games that we want to remember. Classic games as Duck Hunt, Gotcha! The Sport! and finally my favorite of all time Wild Gunman

This peripheral after 33 years was a sample of how Nintendo has always been one of those companies that is never be like to be typecast and has always tried to innovate, grandfather of the Wii Remote, NES Zapper it will always be an icon of my childhood.

PS: I am very sorry for the lateness of the post, yesterday I didn't feel very well, all the shit that happens sometimes causes not wanting to get out of bed and just told me what is the point.