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[VGEsoterica]

There are two camps of people; those who consider the Point Blank franchise to be the peak of the light gun arcade genre and the best lightgun series on the original PS1 (and by extension PS2) and those who just have never played the games. But for the people who know Point Blank its one of those enduring franchises that consistently remains 10/10 fun decades after its release and is still an expensive game to pick up / expensive arcade board to purchase.

A few years back Namco released a remake of Point Blank called Point Blank X, which was a greatest hits HD remaster lightgun arcade cabinet that oddly ALSO was a ticket dispenser...so an arcade light gun game with some prizes involved depending on how well you played...and fans of the OG Point Blank waited for that home port announcement...which never came

Years went past and it was just not a game that was possible to experience unless you found an arcade cabinet and those were NOT common in the US at all and have become less common as years have gone on. Until now...because Point Blank X was preserved for all and a patch was made to be able to control the game with a mouse (and by extension any lightgun that works as a mouse pointer including Wiimote and GUN4IR) for free...just so fans can get one more Point Blank experience.

So if you are into Point Blank...Dr. Dan and Dr. Don are calling your name once more. And if you aren't a fan...now's a change to change that

 

[Killer8]

The lightgun / rail shooter genre desperately needs to make a comeback in VR.

 

[VGEsoterica]

The lightgun / rail shooter genre desperately needs to make a comeback in VR.

Seriously. My favorite genre of all time and VR has helped but it’s still lagging

 

[YCoCg]

I didn't even know this version existed, I played these games on the PS1 along with Time Crisis and Die Hard Trilogy.

 

[Alexios]

The original chunky pixel graphics are more charming (even though the series never was about excelling visually), this looks like a mobile game. It's also just pointless to play at home without an 1:1 accuracy properly calibrated lightgun like Sinden & Gun4IR (or VR) so lol @ suggesting a Wii remote.

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The local arcade had an excellent set up for this back in the day with a huge screen distanced from the player by a good 1.5m rather than some tiny cab folks would literally point blank to cheat. I can't find pics, it was similar to the Time Crisis 3 Deluxe cab, less decorated with 1 screen for 2 players.

 

[squidilix]

loving playing these demo on PS1

 

[VGEsoterica]

The original chunky pixel graphics are more charming (even though the series never was about excelling visually), this looks like a mobile game. It's also just pointless to play at home without an 1:1 accuracy properly calibrated lightgun like Sinden & Gun4IR (or VR) so lol @ suggesting a Wiimote.

​

The local arcade had an excellent set up for this back in the day with a huge screen distanced from the player by a good 1.5m rather than some tiny angled cabinet folks would literally point blank the game on. I can't find pics, it was similar to the Time Crisis 3 Deluxe cab but less decorated & stuff.

Well plenty of people have the right lightguns for this

 

[IAmRei]

This game is hillarious back at the day

 

[consoul]

Easily the best Bert and Ernie active shooter game.

The loss of lightgun games as a genre on modern consoles is a crying shame.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I miss Time Crisis

 

[bumpkin]

The lightgun / rail shooter genre desperately needs to make a comeback in VR.

I’d buy a Time Crisis VR in a heartbeat.

 

[ArtHands]

This comes at a good time. because I just acquired a pair of retroshooter light guns. It is cheaper than Sinden but requires sticking sensors to your TV. I played Point Blank 2 and Lethal Enforcer on it via the pandora box yesterday

You can pay extra for an extension hub to connect to a proper PC

 

[VGEsoterica]

This comes at a good time. because I just acquired a pair of retroshooter light guns. It is cheaper than Sinden but requires sticking sensors to your TV. I played Point Blank 2 and Lethal Enforcer on it via the pandora box yesterday

You can pay extra for an extension hub to connect to a proper PC

good timing!

 

[Alexios]

This comes at a good time. because I just acquired a pair of retroshooter light guns. It is cheaper than Sinden but requires sticking sensors to your TV. I played Point Blank 2 and Lethal Enforcer on it via the pandora box yesterday

You can pay extra for an extension hub to connect to a proper PC

Where is it cheaper, for me it's more expensive than a Sinden to get the cheapest option of gun/pedal/extension (with a supposed discount). I got excited when I first heard about it thinking Pandora will offer a cheap option PC users will hack to hell and back to make it awesome, then saw the price.

Granted you get more in the box, Sinden pedals are high end and expensive af, but I just want a gun and for that Sinden is 90-130 eur depending on no/recoil and the cheapest retroshooter bundle seems $185 on their site ($233 with shipping)? The two Sinden pack with recoil is similarly priced to the retroshooter 2 pack. Neither is cheaper enough to not go for a sweet guncon gun4ir conversion for like $250 + shipping or whatever, especially with the way it relies on a specific company for support unlike gun4ir community efforts to keep improving use and compatibility with all kinds of sw.

Pedals are optional, only 1 (ace/dead) series uses them. Sinden has the pump action which retroshooter doesn't offer but like the pedals I won't hold it against it, it's another niche feature you can use with other inputs if you don't have it. Pitting the high end against the cheapest on price isn't valid.

To me it makes no sense some of these things are so costly, you could get a Wii remote for $50 aeons ago with Nintendo's profit margin and a cheap gun shell on top, maybe nowadays they have faster (Idk, Wii's was like 200Hz iirc, pretty impressive) higher resolution cameras or whatever and a gun is a somewhat more complex plastic mold than a remote (without a shell) but that stuff and some extra IR lights (or not for Sinden with its screen border stuff) don't seem like they should be $150+ more 18 years later, with cameras of all specs so abundant thanks to the mobile market to boot.

Obviously a Wii remote out of the box is way inferior for lightgun use as I mentioned before (with a zapper it's alright for frantic games that have always on crosshair like L.A. Machineguns and Alien 3: The Gun but nothing that actually relies on accuracy and proper aiming skill to be fun) but that's more due to the software/not being built for it, not tracking more than 2 IR lights etc., the hardware isn't far beyond that (I believe there is some software to use Wii remotes with 2 usb sensor bars/extra IR lights for better accuracy but I dunno how well made they are/I haven't tried them anyway).

Real lightguns in the 90s weren't nearly as expensive either and those were much more niche purchases than a Wii remote to factor market scale/size economics (but once again you also have to factor in that Nintendo's own profit margin for console accessories of this sort likely countered that).

With VR solutions like I posted I can't bring myself to buy any of these things, they're close enough to a VR kit that is much more versatile/less niche. Maybe Props3D will provide some good Blamcon options but I dunno, they'll probably also start at similar prices for the low end options I imagine.

 

[ArtHands]

Where is it cheaper, for me it's more expensive than a Sinden to get the cheapest option of gun/pedal/extension (with a supposed discount). I got excited when I first heard about it thinking Pandora will offer a cheap option PC users will hack to hell and back to make it awesome, then saw the price.

Granted you get more in the box, Sinden pedals are high end and expensive af, but I just want a gun and for that Sinden is 90-130 eur depending on no/recoil and the cheapest retroshooter bundle seems $185 on their site ($233 with shipping)? The two Sinden pack with recoil is similarly priced to the retroshooter 2 pack. It's not cheap enough to not go for some sweet guncon gun4ir conversion for like $250 + shipping or whatever, especially with the way it relies on a specific company for support unlike gun4ir community efforts to keep improving use and compatibility with all kinds of sw.

To me it makes no sense some of these things are so costly, you could get a Wii remote for $50 aeons ago with Nintendo's profit margin and a cheap gun shell on top, maybe nowadays they have faster (Idk, Wii's was like 200Hz iirc, pretty impressive) higher resolution cameras or whatever and a gun is a somewhat more complex plastic mold than a remote (without a shell) but that stuff and some extra IR lights (or not for Sinden with its screen border stuff) don't seem like they should be $150+ more 18 years later with cameras of all specs so abundant thanks to the mobile market...

Obviously a Wii remote out of the box is way inferior for lightgun use as I mentioned before (with a zapper it's alright for frantic games that have always on crosshair like L.A. Machineguns and Alien 3: The Gun but nothing that actually relies on accuracy and proper aiming skill to be fun) but that's more due to the software/not being built for it, not tracking more than 2 IR lights etc., the hardware isn't far beyond that (I believe there is some software to use Wii remotes with 2 usb sensor bars/extra IR lights for better accuracy but I dunno how well made they are/I haven't tried them anyway).

Real lightguns in the 90s weren't nearly as expensive either and those were much more niche purchases than a Wii remote to factor market scale/size economics (but once again you also have to factor in Nintendo's likely large profit margin for console accessories of the sort).

With VR solutions like I posted I just can't bring myself to buy any of these things, they're close enough to a VR kit that is much more versatile. Maybe Props3D will provide some good Blamcon options but I dunno, they'll probably also start at similar prices for the low end options I'm guessing...

I am indeed talking about the full package. It is about $270 (include $40 shipping) for a pair of retroshooters with recoil and pedals. A pair of Sinden with recoil is $340 without pedals for me. $800+ if I include 2 Sinden pedals (no bundle package offering from where I am). So its a no brainer for me to pay $270 for the full package (recoil & pedals) instead of $800+

Modern light guns are small volume manufacture so the cost is much higher. Light gun is very dead on consoles and mostly surviving only on PC and arcades.