r/BeAmazed • u/RedaNassef • 1d ago
Technology Pure nostalgia: playing Duck Hunt on the original NES with the classic CRT light gun
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u/Gh0stIcon 1d ago
Like it has been explained how the light gun works, but I still don't understand how the light gun works
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u/ArnoldBlackenharrowr 1d ago
You can see one frame briefly after pulling the trigger. It shows a black screen with only a white hitbox on the location of the ducks. The gun is more or less just a light sensor, that checks if you point to a white or a black area. If white: hit, if black: miss. It should theoretically work on every white screen to cheat your way through the game.
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u/SilasAI6609 1d ago
This was back when Nintendo was not afraid of making niche and crazy things. The concept is simple but that is why it is so genious.
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u/Shantotto11 20h ago
“Back when”? Are the Labo and Ring Fit Adventure just jokes to you?
(Don’t look up when they came out! That’s not relevant! 🫵🏾)
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u/aaplh 23h ago
They still arguably make a lot of niche and crazy things, they just play it a lot safer now
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u/thestareater 21h ago
can you give any examples? I own a switch from 2020 and used to own an original Gameboy, SNES, a Nintendo DS and Gameboy Color, so I'm definitely not anti Nintendo, I just haven't really seen anything crazy from them in decades.
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u/Hot_Television_7087 19h ago
The wii using point to aim for entire games, and the wii fit board you could stand on for different games was pretty niche and crazy
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u/aaplh 21h ago
Tbh the switch itself was pretty mind blowing to me when it dropped in 2017(?) The idea of a portable and dockable console was wild
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u/thestareater 20h ago
I will definitely say that the Switch was very cool when it first came out, but I barely touch it ever since I got my steam deck, the joy cons leave a lot to be desired in regards to usability though, but besides that I feel like nothing really leveraged the multiplayer portability fully, which let it become a gimmick, and it's been 9 years.
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u/LinkToThe_Past 19h ago
Labo, Mario kart live, mouse controls in the joycon, use a real ocarina to play OOT music in game, bringing back the Virtual boy, a talking Desk flower, the entire tears of the Kingdom mechanics.
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u/Wonderful_Exit6568 4h ago
I know this list should impress me. I think Nintendo hasn’t topped stereoscopic 3d. I play my 3ds on occasions and it’s more than my switch.
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u/Gh0stIcon 12h ago
Didn’t they have that rpg for game boy that would play differently depending upon whether it was detecting daytime vs night time?
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u/SilasAI6609 11h ago
Omg, Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand. Yes, Hideo Kojima project that is arguably the most Hideo Kojima concept ever. Slap a light sensor onto a cartridge so people have to be in direct sunlight to charge up their weapons. Perfect example of a great idea that should never have been put past the idea stage.
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u/Gold-Rule-5114 1d ago
How does it know which target you’re aiming at?
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u/hamfist_ofthenorth 18h ago
You never actually hit a duck while two were on the screen at the same time. You only think you did.
No I'm just kidding, this is a great question and I have no idea.
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u/ColddFire 1d ago
Oh snap. Great question! It's a sequence of frames of white squares. I've never tested it, but whichever one it 'checks' first when you pull the trigger would be the one that dies. So only one square appears on screen at a time, at each Ducks position. It just checks each duck one at time compared to your light sensor.
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u/Time-Translator6634 1d ago
Why didn't I know this as a kid?
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u/SYNTHLORD 5h ago
Imagining me as a kid, and my Dad, a programmer who started in the Air Force and ended up working for a large finance company saying “well, let’s check the manual” and opening up a Nintendo manual and immediately giving up
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u/watermouse 1d ago
I was starting to type out the same thign(asking how the gun works), WOW this is awesome. Had no idea and thanks for the education today!
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u/Aggressive-Sound-641 4h ago
I remember being able to adjust my tv just the right color and you could never miss
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u/ChVckT 1d ago
You point it at a light bulb and pull the trigger to shoot. Perfect score every time.
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u/EishLekker 1d ago
I think it needs to match the black/white time wise. It would go black-white-black. If the gun detects all white then it is not pointed at the target.
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u/ChVckT 1d ago
You can try it. It works.
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u/EishLekker 1d ago
Really? How odd. I was sure that the logic was more complex than that. And that’s how I would have done it.
I can’t test it out myself because I don’t have this game.
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u/here-for-the-_____ 1d ago
Here, i was able to freeze the frame when he shoots. The square is what the gun is looking for, which makes it easier to shoot further away. Duckhunt freeze frame
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u/WhatTheFlox 1d ago
I think it was detecting the flash of the screen whether or not it hit the specific target or not, same how if you point at a lightbulb you cant miss?
Looks like a white square with a black background during the flash, but still it figuring out between which duck you hit I'm unsure
Not sure how it detects exactly which target youre hitting though, I could be completely wrong
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u/Sitruc9861 1d ago
There are 3 frames when you press the trigger: 1. Screen turns black. 2. 1st duck turns white while screen stays black 3. Second duck turns white while screen stays black.
It know which duck was hit based on the timing of the white flash that is detected.
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u/GonzoKata 23h ago
The light gun itself isn't a light gun, its actually a telescope looking at a very small part of the screen.
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u/finleyw8888 1d ago
thats such a cool tv omg
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u/Worldly_Mess_9507 1d ago
What a cool TV. The dog that laughs at you when you miss.
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u/finleyw8888 12h ago
?
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u/SirChickenbutt 10h ago
Pretty sure that's a bot
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u/finleyw8888 10h ago
oh ok, i thought so since these are the 2 main comments
"cool tv"
and mentions of like cool things about duck hunt liuke how the dog laughs or how p2 conotroller controls the duck etc.
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u/Sufficient-Sir5366 1d ago
That light gun idea was pure genius, it's so simple and yet was so new and never thought of before.
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u/SpaceForceAwakens 15h ago
Pretty sure the concept was invented in like 1933 or so.
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u/Sufficient-Sir5366 12h ago
Light guns existed back in 1933? That's awesome!
I guess they didn't really have the concept of videogames or how big they would be at that time, so they didn't use it, huh?
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u/Ranier_Wolfnight 1d ago
I remember my older cousins being so damn good at this game whenever they came over the house. Then they wanted to raise the stakes and went and grabbed a hand mirror from my Mom’s cabinet and were shooting the ducks facing backwards, while aiming at the mirror.
They’ll never have any clue how fucking cool they were in my eyes.
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u/DuchessOfOddments47 1d ago
Nothing humbled me as a kid like that stupid dog laughing at me every time I missed.
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u/Mediocre-Victory-565 1d ago
Literally the only thing in my entire life that made me want to shoot a dog 😆
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u/Shantotto11 20h ago
What about that time those meddling kids busted your ass for money laundering? /s
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u/Sceadu_Fiend 1d ago
I remember about 10 years back I found the game in a retro store. Game and fun together for $10
Didn’t know until after I purchased you can’t use it with a flat screen tv
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u/hemorrhoidhematoma 1d ago
I remember always having to emphasize the H when i talked about how much i loved this game
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u/beardymo 1d ago
I spent so long in this as a kid. I feel like it was light years ahead of its time.
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u/Entry_Murky 1d ago
I always wanted to play this game as a kid but I was forbidden to do it by my parents. They thought that the gun shot some kind of laser which harms TVs. I did try it a couple of times when my mom was in a different room, but I was still scare that I would break the TV.
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u/Thisshitaintfree 1d ago
I remember taking the gun barrel apart and just firing the light sensor at the the tv, beat it in no time.
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u/KaiserSoze-is-KPax 23h ago
The gun does not work with modern tv’s. For those that think their controller is broken, not true, you need a projection tv.
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u/batmanhill6157 15h ago
I remember when I found out that if you plug in a second controller that controls the duck
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u/diverareyouokay 4h ago
Now all you need is the mat you can run on and you’re all set for the classic NES experience.
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