[typing]
[music]
Greetings and welcome to LGR Oddware
where we're taking a look at hardware and software that's odd, forgotten, obsolete...
and is the DEMON GUNN!
The Demon Gunn...
with two N's!
Oh, yeah, sorry, the Demon...
Destroyer Gunn-na-na.
"Armament for the 21st Century."
Bwwww...
Well, this is "gunna" be fun!
First up, I have to thank Dave "Foxhacks" Silva for...
sending this particular piece of Oddware to me.
I actually put out a reach just to see if anybody had heard of this thing on Twitter.
I'm like, man, I wanna cover this but...
the ones I saw on eBay were a bunch of money for some reason...
and it made no sense.
So thank you very much, sir.
That way I don't have to bend to weird, overinflated eBay prices.
But yeah...
This is, of course, the Demon Gunn.
And it's made by a company called TAC Systems, Inc.
Now if that sounds familiar to you then...
I don't even know why because...
sure didn't sound familiar to me.
They were apparently at one point a division...
of @fax, Inc.
They were founded in 1991 in Huntsville, Alabama.
Pretty small operation from what I can tell and...
I, I can't...
find anything really about them,
other than the fact that they started doing other things...
that were more appropriate maybe to other names,
like network-attached storage,
LAN CD-ROM towers,
and some software called FaxFree that let you...
send faxes over the Internet for free.
Oh, man!
Apparently that was their most lucrative thing but...
started out with a Demon Gunn!
The Demon Destroyer Gunn.
Oh, these blurbs on here.
"More instinctive and realistic gameplay."
Really!
"Works with Doom and most 3D action games."
"Free bonus software," blah blah blah...
"Adds a...
Adds an extra dimension to dishing out digital death."
Pretty sure they just chose that quote because of the alliteration.
That's, that's understandable.
This part, though:
Includes a free CD of Doom...
"Decent..."
and Heretic. Yes...
[laughs] Not "Descent,"
You mighta heard of that one. But "Decent?"
Mmm. I heard it's pretty okay.
Around the back here, I don't even know what's on the back.
It's really just a really boring box,
other than the colors. I kinda like the colors but...
"Your prayers have been answered?"
These quote are all– I can't...
find any of these. [laughs] I've looked...
and I'm like, man, I found like ONE review of this thing...
in Computer Gaming World.
And they trashed it!
They called it "ludicrous" and "overpriced"
and basically just overall awful!
And yet this makes it look like the best thing ever, but of course it does, right?
"Ergonomic grip."
I love this particular quote.
You'll see why in a moment.
But let's go ahead and open the box up and see what you get inside.
Oh, yeah.
That's good.
So we got a bunch of cardboard...
Okay, so here is the gun itself.
Still in the plastic. Yes, when I got thing it was brand new.
[laughs]
And... here we go.
So we got a typical game port adapter here on the end,
so it'll plug into, you know, your sound card or whatever you have.
And actually, I've been...
playing with...
one of these things recently. This is a Rockfire USB...
game port to USB adapter,
so I'm actually gonna try this with a modern game or two as well.
And, uh... wow.
This thing is the cheapest-feeling...
accessory that I have felt in a long time.
Super shiny...
but it's in that kind of weird shiny that you...
you can tell it's like made with...
acid oils or some crap like that because it's got like a...
a very oily look to it. There's sort of a rainbow effect going on.
And fingerprints have already started setting in place...
that I can't remove. [laughs]
Like, uh...
Like I feel like my fingerprints are melting themselves into the plastic. That's not a good sign.
It's got a trigger right here.
A little thumb button right here and a thumb stick.
Which, I swear, that is a keyboard key...
with some other kind of...
icon on top as an overlay.
Yeah, but basically, this is your... your stick.
Your directional... controls and whatnot.
And a nice little orange...
thingie on the end there to make sure that you know
this is not a real gun!
This is not a real gun guys! [gunfire] Man!
A couple of other things here. An installation guide,
which is literally as simple as plugging it in and calibrating it,
and the rest of it...
is, um... [laughs]
it's all cheat codes for the games it comes with.
You got Doom cheat codes,
Heretic cheat codes,
Rise of the Triad cheat codes.
No "Decent" cheat codes.
So, I don't know, I guess they couldn't find them for that.
Why? Why just the cheat codes?
My guess is because that playing the game with this gun is so bad,
that the only way that you can actually play...
and do it with this gun...
is if you're cheating.
But... you know...
Who am I to say?
Let's see, there's a warranty. Wow, that is the...
most basic warranty card...
I have ever seen.
A CD sleeve, which obviously this fell out of here.
This has the FREE 3D shareware.
Mmm, yes.
And then we've got the diagnostic disk
which is just for like testing out, making sure everything works.
Which you can do that in the games, you don't really need that.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention: this thing was made in 1995,
but I can't figure out how much it actually cost to begin with because like I said...
I wasn't able to actually find...
listings for this–
for those reviews and stuff that it has in the back.
I couldn't find them in any archives.
The only thing I could find was that Computer Gaming World...
uh, quip.
And they didn't mention the price there either.
They mentioned it being expensive, so...
I just gonna say that this thing cost $700...
when it was brand new in 1995.
You know, I can see why they would say it's a little expensive.
For something with a keyboard key.
As a thumb stick.
That's a bit much.
Alrighty, well let's go ahead and just plug this thing in
and try some of this shareware out!
Okay, I've got the gun plugged in.
And Doom installed and ready to go.
And of course, this being one of the games that it was touted...
to work best with.
Or at least it came with the shareware version of.
So, yeah, let's go ahead and...
Actually, yeah, we should just be able to select things with this.
We CAN, actually! Let's put it on Nightmare.
Ha ha! Because this thing should be amazing, right?
"This skill level isn't even remotely fair."
*pfft* Fair?! Who needs fair? I've got the Demon Gunn.
[clicking]
Oh... [click]
Alright!
Let's see how we do this!
[laughing]
Oh!
Yeah! It's...
Alright, well...
Obviously, I mean, I knew it wasn't a light gun,
but it's just kind of weird to just–okay, well...
[laughing] It's just kind of weird to be able to shoot anywhere and have it not matter.
Uh...
I mean, seriously.
I have this instinctive thing to be like this, right,
to aim, but obviously it's not the case.
I could just do it like this.
In fact, that's more comfortable. Maybe I will.
Let's try that again but a little bit easier.
[laughs] Okay...
Let me just go over here.
Uh...
Alright.
Okay, so that's how that works. Well, that–
That's not the WORST thing in the world.
This at least is in a good spot to just do things.
I'm having a problem, though, with this.
This joystick...
Not only is it shaped like– I mean, it's a friggin' keyboard key.
I don't know why it's shaped like that.
It's a terrible shape for the thumb. In fact...
my... forearm and, um...
trigger finger and all this is hurting.
Because I'm having to extend ALL the way up...
to get it to do anything.
If I–
Oh, now this is a lot better.
Could play it like an Atari controller.
Oh, yeah!
Aw, I think I figured out how it's meant to be played.
Of course, it completely–whoop!
It completely negates the fact that it is a gun controller at this point.
Do I wanna go in here? I don't really want to, so screw it.
Just get to the end of the level.
Yeah, it's pointless...
to do it like this, but this is a hundred times more comfortable.
[laughs]
Oh! A great gun controller, indeed. You can't aim it...
Uh...
And it makes no sense to hold it like a gun.
Let's, uh, let's just get out of here.
I'm gonna try... let's try another game.
Let's try another one, actually, by id Software.
I've got something else loaded up and ready to go!
Oh, my, this is gonna be fun.
So, yeah, let's play some Commander Keen 4 here with the Gunn controller.
Obviously left and right, up, down...
That– [laughs] The trigger doesn't...
doesn't shoot, it's jump.
And this should, yeah that is the...
Uh huh. Now the thing is...
There's only two buttons here, so I don't actually have a button for firing.
So I have it on two-button firing.
Which kind of makes sense, that's how you did in...
the game normally, if you were playing with a Gravis gamepad or something.
This is not the most unplayable thing that I've ever accomplished.
"Accomplished..." Experienced.
Especially with Keen. I'm getting through here pretty okay, actually.
That's probably just, though, because I've been practicing with this, actually.
On random occasions because I find this interesting–oh, crap.
Let's do that one more time: I find this interesting.
Augh!
Man, that really...
Augh, that strains everything about everything.
[sighs] Okay, if I take a rest...
and just...
Is there some–
I know you're not gonna be able to see it, but I'm gonna put it between my legs...
[laughs]
And, uh...
Okay, this right here–ooh, crap.
This is easily the most comfortable way to play. I actually have the gun...
right in between my crotch...
up against my junk. And, um...
This makes sense.
Because... this is actually...
making sure that I don't have to hold it,
which doesn't put that weird stress on, like, my forearms and stuff.
And I can actually...
Crap!
I can actually use it how it's meant to be, like in one hand...
a little bit, so it's...
it's still not ideal...
but it is better than holding it up.
Epic Pinball. Let's try this thing out.
So I've got this set to be, like, this is the plunger right here.
Um...
Yeah!
And then we got the... this I think is the left flipper...
I'm not sure... yeah, it is.
And then the other side button is the right flipper.
This is the most counterintuitive way I have ever played pinball.
Oh, my word.
And yet somehow it's still... functional.
Oh, nice!
I actually hit the ball.
In a way that I was intending.
I end up just pressing both keys–or both buttons at the same time, though, because...
obviously, this is not supposed to...
[repeated clicking]
Whatever, man.
You could probably pinball on a toilet...
and you would be just as fine as this.
Okay. I got one more to try here,
just because I wanted to try it with something a little bit newer.
And this is going to be Rise of the Triad, the 2013...
reboot, remake of sorts.
And... yes...
Why not play it with a Duke Nukem 3D level...
custom map, "Hollywood Holocaust?"
Oh, of course...
I can't aim. That's great. Ooh!
Uhh...
Wow. This is...
Don't shoot me! No!
I can't aim! It's really bad!
"Please! Don't shoot!"
I can't shoot you, I can't aim downward!
Maybe if I cheat a little bit and use the keyboard...
Okay, there we go, that's good. Augh!
So, yeah, as for the quality of this thing,
well, it is friggin' terrible, as I was talking about earlier.
Just cheap plastic. This trigger feels like... awfulness and...
Well, this, this...
This joystick in practice, I mean, it is really...
You know, I'm not a fan of the Nintendo 64 joystick,
but I would take that...
any day of the week over this atrocity.
This thing feels... really bad.
On the other hand, it is letting me play games like this... pretty okay.
I mean, relatively speaking, right?
It's functional. [chuckles]
Final thoughts on the Demon Gunn.
Well, it's just as sucky as you imagine from the horrible title.
It's cheaply made, it, um...
doesn't really work well.
And I gotta say, the ergonomics of this thing
is probably one of the very worst that I've come across
in anything on Oddware so far, and that's saying something.
Covered some really weird stuff here that just doesn't feel right.
But this just hurts!
Hurts right here, it hurts right here,
and it hurts up here. Like, that's not...
My hands are not tiny.
I can imagine if my hands were any, ANY bit smaller.
This is just unreasonable.
It seriously needs a thumb, like, stick right about here.
But that doesn't make sense. They'd have to make the whole area thicker.
Basically, this is just a terrible idea.
[laughs]
To anyone that bought this piece of junk back in the day:
my condolences.
It's, uh, it's a piece of junk.
[laughs] But that's Oddware.
And it's interesting to see where we came from.
And what we've left behind. Thankfully.
And if you enjoyed this piece of weirdness that sucks, then...
you might enjoy some of my other videos on things that are like this.
I've done quite a few of them at this point on Oddware...
and otherwise!
More videos arriving every Monday and Friday here on LGR.
And there's also Twitter and Facebook for the social stuff in between that.
There's also Patreon, if you'd like to support the show and see episodes like this early!
And as always, thank you very much for watching!