Reborn NES & a Light Gun question

[NoahsMyBro]

Recently I contacted fellow Roundtable participant dsullo about a new 72-pin connector for my NES. He was a great guy to deal with, very flexible and accomodating, and I purchased from him both the connector and a bit to open NES cartridges.

Well, I've just finished installing the new connector, and using the bit. It was hard to resist popping a game in the slot as soon as I got the NES back together in order to see the results, but he strongly recommends only inserting cleaned cartridges in the system so I restrained myself and decided I'd clean a cart first.

I couldn't find the recommended white eraser, so I used a red eraser on the end of a pencil. As I hadn't ever opened an NES cart before, nor had I ever used the specialized bit before, I chose Mario Bros./Duck Hunt as my guinea pig, as it were. It's a little unfortunate, because I never really cared for that cart and it's not the most exciting game to pop in. But for testing purposes it'll do.

OK, so everything is cleaned, reassembled, etc... I hook up the NES, plug the cartridge in, and power up....
..

.

.


. Ohmygoditworks! Yes, for the first time in my life I have seen an NES power up, loading the game perfectly, ON THE VERY FIRST TRY! There was no wiggling, reinserting, or blowing on the contacts! It just worked. It was amazing.

SO, I decided I'd try out Duck Hunt, as I'd never played it and it always looked a little bit fun. Also, whenever I watched it people would cheat by either holding the gun right up against the screen or just aiming at a lamp or something. I wanted to really try and aim and play 'right'.

So I'm sitting and trying, and missing consistently. Then I repositioned myself so I was sitting in front of the TV instead of off to the side, and all of a sudden I was scoring hits.

Does the Light Gun (or all light guns) only work properly when you are pretty much directly in front of the TV, as opposed to sitting at a 20 degree or so angle?

Once again, I have to vouch for dsullo and his NES replacement parts. If you're looking for that sort of stuff, check him out!

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dsullo/nes.htm

[NESCollector75]

I can hit the ducks from the full extension of the cord, just takes practice. I suggest using the aimer, many people don't even relize that it is there!

[GENESISNES]

i use the aimer. it works a helluva lot better than nothing.

[NoahsMyBro]

When I wrote 'sitting directly in front of the TV', I was referring to the viewing angle, not the distance. In both cases I was about 4 feet from the screen. In the first case, I was at about a 15-20 degree angle from the screen (almost at the side of the TV), and in the next cae I was directly opposite the screen.

A) 
   Me
   .
    . 
     .
     TV

B) Me...........TV

I tried to use the sight in both cases. So was it just me?

[Happy_Dude]

When I wrote 'sitting directly in front of the TV', I was referring to the viewing angle, not the distance. In both cases I was about 4 feet from the screen. In the first case, I was at about a 15-20 degree angle from the screen (almost at the side of the TV), and in the next cae I was directly opposite the screen.

A) 
   Me
   .
    . 
     .
     TV

B) Me...........TV

I tried to use the sight in both cases. So was it just me?

you either got it or you ain't :P

I never found any difference in the angle but I suppose if
you aim right at the duck the angle of deflection at 20 degrees
might put you off.

[dsullo]

glad to hear it all worked out for you!

Dustin