What/who made these Dreamcast lightguns?

[Kitsune Sniper]

(Originally posted at AtariAge during the DP downtime.)

I recently found a Dreamcast hardware lot at the flea market. I got some wireless controllers, a Mad Catz lightgun, and these...



The upper-right and bottom guns are the same model, but they have no name printed or anything like that. I'm totally stumped at who made them or what the model's name is.

Does anyone know what these are? Or who made them?

[MarioMania]

The upper-left gun looks like it's from Star Trek

[sisko]

I believe the other two are made by Pelican.

[MrRoboto19XX]

Yep, Im almost 100% positive those are pelican as well.

I think pelican had two DC lightgun models, one resembled a white guncon and the other looked like these. Could be wrong though.

[Kitsune Sniper]

The upper-left gun looks like it's from Star Trek

... that's a MadCatz gun. And it's the official DC gun. :P

I haven't tested the other guns yet (figures, eh?) I plan to get around to it sometime tomorrow.

[Pantechnicon]

... that's a MadCatz gun. And it's the official DC gun. :P

I've got that gun myself and was a little confused when I found it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought there was some controversy back in the Dreamcast's day (i.e. - Columbine was still a fresh memory) wherein Sega tried to do some posturing on the moral high ground by declining to release an official light gun to avoid "condoning violent games", etc. Not that they wouldn't allow light gun games to be released, mind you (House of the Dead 2, anybody?), just that Sega itself wasn't going to make a gun with their logo on it.

Then at some later point apparently this thing shows up manufactured by Mad Catz but brandishing a Sega logo (/scratches head). So is there a story to this? Did Sega work out an endorsement deal with Mad Catz once the public sentiment of Columbine lowered to a dull roar or am I just remembering stuff that never actually happened?

Maybe if I could find a picture of this gun in its packaging that would answer some questions.

Gun works great, too, btw.

[CosmicMonkey]

Well, this is the actual official gun, manufactured by Sega:



We got this in the UK (there was a HotD2 & gun boxset too), but we never got the official Sega fishing rod (if we did it was damn limited), we got the Madcatz one.

[Pantechnicon]

@CosmicMonkey: Now I'm even more confused. I've never seen one of those at all. That's got to be UK-only, or at least UK and Japan only.

Damn Sega and their post-Columbine marketing! It gives me a headache!

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

@CosmicMonkey: Now I'm even more confused. I've never seen one of those at all. That's got to be UK-only, or at least UK and Japan only.

Damn Sega and their post-Columbine marketing! It gives me a headache!

Yeah, Sega's own gun was only released in Europe and Japan, not not in North America. What's really crazy, though, is that the U.S. versions of all the lightgun games (except Virtua Cop 2) have code added to specifically detect and not work with the Sega gun. Talk about paranoia.


...word is bondage...

[Emuaust]

We did get the offical fishing rod controller in Pal territories as I have 2 of them!

[OatBob]

I've got that gun myself and was a little confused when I found it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought there was some controversy back in the Dreamcast's day (i.e. - Columbine was still a fresh memory) wherein Sega tried to do some posturing on the moral high ground by declining to release an official light gun to avoid "condoning violent games", etc. Not that they wouldn't allow light gun games to be released, mind you (House of the Dead 2, anybody?), just that Sega itself wasn't going to make a gun with their logo on it.

Then at some later point apparently this thing shows up manufactured by Mad Catz but brandishing a Sega logo (/scratches head). So is there a story to this? Did Sega work out an endorsement deal with Mad Catz once the public sentiment of Columbine lowered to a dull roar or am I just remembering stuff that never actually happened?

Maybe if I could find a picture of this gun in its packaging that would answer some questions.

Gun works great, too, btw.

True, when the gun control controversy spilled over into games, Sega didn't want any part of it. When they still had some light gun games coming out, they licensed it out to MadCatz who made the "Dream Blaster" light gun that looks much like a phaser from Star Trek. Other third parties made a handfull of light guns too, but as a result of licensing, only the MadCatz one has "Sega Dreamcast" and the swirl printed on it. The MadCatz one is the closest thing to being "official" in the US region.

The "Dream Blaster" is one of the cooler models and is built a bit more solid, although its form factor is a bit poor compared to the classic standard of the Zapper. It has a strip of lights that blink in sequence down the gun as you pull the trigger, and the power light on the side projects a small swirl image if you hold your hand an inch away.