light guns have been around for longer
than television sets with one of the
first known games dating as far back as
1936 with a Seberg rail light though one
could argue that it's a breakout success
in households wasn't until the NES
zapper in the mid 80s but as the gaming
industry evolved like guns struggled to
evolve with it and there's only so much
you can do with a gun controller welcome
to watchmojo.com controllers that tried
way too hard to reinvent the wheel as
well as key examples of light guns that
contributed to an oversaturation of the
market but the real news is what it
represents for gameplay sure there were
a relevant examples such as the atari
xg1
but arguably the first sign that light
guns were on their way out the door was
in the mid 90s with the super scope
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now you can play the games of the super
nes super scope it served as the
successor to the NES zapper only they
took the cute design of the zapper and
in keeping with a nineties theory of
overkill amplified it tenfold to create
an enormous bazooka which did nothing
but eat up living room space it was also
Wireless which meant that it required
six double-a batteries to run batteries
it would eat up in a matter of hours its
size also intimidated younger players
who found it difficult to use and there
were few exclusive games released for
the super scope making this massive
Beast nothing but a battery hungry space
wasting heavy piece of plastic super
scope 6 only for Super Nintendo system
and scope sold separately
now you're playing with power and super
power however taming during the 90s was
also in the midst of a major console war
between Nintendo and Sega so guess what
Sega created as a competitor to Nintendo
superscope the Menace er was released in
1992 for both the Sega Genesis and the
Sega CD console but it was such a
massive commercial and critical flop
that no one seems to remember its
existence to begin with the minister is
a bit of an eyesore it looks like it was
cobbled together from different
accessories and protrudes in numerous
directions altogether making it look
like the Frankenstein's monster of light
guns it also had little support in the
software department and it was expensive
while the constant and lengthy
recalibrations graded on your patience
the Sega Minister with six different
games in four ways to play Genesis
system sold seperately batteries not
included so with both major console
makers releasing flops of light guns the
genre largely remained within arcades
but that didn't stop many companies from
trying Konami's justifier guns designed
for both snez and Genesis had some minor
success but homelite guns ultimately had
its resurgence with the first
PlayStation where it was Namco
successful range of gun controllers
designed to be played with titles like
Time Crisis and point-blank
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but of course with any success comes a
wave of imitators that flooded the
market notable examples at this time
were the super jolt gun from joy Tech
which suffered from a poor build quality
and inaccurate sensor the same problems
were also noticeable with newbies the
heater you also had the eraser mp5 which
was based off the real world gun of the
same model number aside from its look
there wasn't anything spectacular about
it yo just sign that cuz y'all hit 12 by
the time the sixth console generation
came around video games were becoming
more complex and first-person shooters
were starting to leave rail shooter
games in the past there were some
companies that tried to reinvent like
gun games though with one notable
example being interacts star fire light
blaster for the Sega Dreamcast can you
take a guess as to why this eyesore
failed she must be dead by now what
ultimately killed home light guns
however it was advancements in
television technology light guns were
heavily reliant on the cathode ray tube
in classic TVs in order to work and the
technology could not be replicated to
work with plasma and LCD TVs bundle that
with a low demand for rail shooter games
and not many people invested in new
technology to make such games workable
unless of course you were Nintendo on
one hand it's a new housing for both the
Wii Remote and the nunchuck with the
release of the wheat and it's focused on
using IR motion sensors in their remotes
rail shooters suddenly had found a third
wind even if the technology wasn't
technically light guns anymore we ended
up getting what was arguably its
successor the Wii zapper
sure it was nothing but a gun-shaped
shell in which you placed the Wiimote
and the nunchuck but we can't say it
wasn't functional because it did exactly
what it advertised held your remotes and
gave you the feeling of brandishing a
weapon that said it was a bit of a mess
in terms of function and appearance it
looks goofy and childish and the trigger
placement was rather awkward the trigger
was also unreliable and it was hard to
access the wiimotes buttons making some
games difficult to play it's nothing but
a piece of obtrusive plastic thus making
the shell redundant since you were
better off simply playing games with the
Barrow mote and nunchuck what's even
more fun than whack-a-mole
well tries a Poisson big one of
Nintendo's biggest rivals couldn't help
but try to mimic their success thus we
got the PlayStation Move sharpshooter
this was an add-on for the PlayStation
Move which was designed to replicate
Nintendo's Wii Remote the sharpshooter
certainly had its upsides and it's
arguably one of the most well made
accessories among the ones we've already
spoken about unfortunately it was
nonetheless little more than an
expensive plastic shell the button
layout was awkward and aiming was very
touchy the Sharpshooter was fun for the
hour too that you played with it after
which it became just another overpriced
gun accessory that you regretted buying
couple all this with the failure of the
PlayStation Move itself and the sharp
shooter was a failure fun games party
games you know family games and now in
2011 hardcore games so something for
everyone and so with the failure of both
the Wii zapper and the PlayStation Move
the rail shooter genre is pretty much
dead they still exist in arcades
but even there it's starting to die out
it's kind of heartbreaking especially
for those who are fond of gaming history
but it's an undeniable fact of reality
that we have to face games have become
more complex and the rise in
first-person shooters has made the rail
shooter obsolete in comparison
before we continue be sure to subscribe
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notifications still we're not going to
end this video on a downer so let's take
a moment to laugh at the most absurd
lightgun product to ever exist the
Konami laser scope the laser scope put
it on through the crosshairs at the
picture and give it a voice command
we hope that whoever thought up with the
Konami laser scope is no longer working
in the video game business because this
thing is one of the worst video game
accessories of all time it was a head
mounted voice-activated gun meaning you
had to scream fire at the television to
get it to fire now that's a great way to
annoy both yourself and anyone in your
immediate vicinity to make matters worse
the microphone wasn't picky you could
scream anything to activate the laser
scope and the microphone was known for
being so sensitive that it could pick up
all manner of random background
household noise plus you looked
absolutely ridiculous wearing it just
detach the scope module yeah Wow in the
mood for more awesome gaming content be
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