[Feature Request] Mouse and controller mappings for lightgun type game controllers for light gun shooter games?

[Hedda]

Could the Controller Topology Project please also map mouse (X pointer) control + buttons from some of the now commonly available modern lightgun game controllers mapped to buttons on classic "light gun" game controllers for retro game emulation?

For reference, check out "Kodi Game" related community forum discussion -> https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=369577

Specifically would love it if you would consider adding peripheral add-ons and default controller profiles (mappings) to the Kodi Game platform for both modern and classic lightguns from the arcades and home video game consoles as well as a few of the newer and today commonly available light guns made-for-PC that use more modern technology which is compatible with LCD/OLED televisions and displays out-of-the-box.

With newer light guns available I am especially referring to the "Nintendo Wiimote" (Wii Remote with Wii Sensor Bar combination), as well as the new "Ultimarc Aimtrak Light Gun" and "Sinden Lightgun" that are both made-for-PC (or DIY arcades).

Some very nostalgic retro light gun accessories that are missing game controller addons with layout mappings are otherwise these; Wii Zapper for Nintendo Wii, NES Zapper, Super Scope (also known as the Nintendo Scope), Sega Light Phaser for Master System, Menacer for Sega Genesis / Sega Mega Drive, Dreamcast Gun for Sega Dreamcast, GunCon (a.k.a. G-Con) series of lightguns by Namco for the PlayStation 1/2/3, Sony PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter, Peacekeeper Revolver for Philips CD-i, Gamegun for 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, and the Atari XG-1, Trojan Light Phazer and Loriciel Phaser (West Phaser) light guns for the Atari ST, Actionware Phazerm and Golem light guns for the Commodore Amiga, as well as Magnum Light Phaser for Amstrad CPC which also had versions for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Commodore 128.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_gun

With lightguns, it would be possible to play some or all classic Lightgun Shooter games from both game consoles and the arcade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_gun_shooter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gun_games

Lightgun video games have existed since the early 1980s, and today there are many lightgun-compatible games available to us.

Here is a short list of some of the most famous/popular "retro" Lightgun Shooter game classics titles that trigger a lot of nostalgia:

• Duck Hunt
• Wild Gunman
• Hogan's Alley
• Battle Clash
• Super Scope 6
• Yoshi's Safari
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles / The Umbrella Chronicles / Dead Aim / Survivor 2 – Code: Veronica
• Time Crisis 1/2/3
• House Of The Dead 1/2/3/4/Overkill
• Virtua Cop 1/2/3
• Die Hard 2: Die Harder
• Point Blank 1/2/3 (also known as "Gun Bullet" or "Gunvari", made by Namco)
• Terminator 2 Arcade
• Star Wars Trilogy
• Jurassic Park: Lost World
• Silent Scope / II / EX
• Area 51 / Site 4 / Maximum Force Duo
• The Maze Of The Kings (by Sega)
• Operation Wolf
• Lethal Enforcers / II: Gunfighters / 3
• Big Buck Hunter / II Sportsman's Paradise / Pro / Pro Open Season / Shooter's Challenge
• Mad Dog McCree / II: The Lost Gold
• Ranger Mission (Atomisave)
• Operation Thunderbolt (by Taito)

• And many many more lightgun games from the arcades.

As you probably know, the Nintendo Wiimote + Wii Sensor Bar combination is a relatively popular hardware choice to achieve an inexpensive wireless lightgun for emulators on PC computers, as a bonus there are loads of different Zapper Gun holder accessories for the Nintendo Wiimote, though it should be noted that Wiimote is not as fast/good as a modern light gun when only combined with a standard Wii Sensor Bar.

https://www.instructables.com/Accurate-Wiimote-Light-Gun-on-Raspberry-PI/

Today there are also multiple other light guns options that were made for, and unlike classic lightguns which only works on CRT monitors these newer lightguns work with modern LCD/OLED displays by using some different technologies:

Check out for example; "Ultimarc Aimtrak Light Gun", "Sinden Lightgun", and "PDP Mars Lightgun" ("PDPMars) lightguns:

• https://www.ultimarc.com/aimtrak.html

  • Ultimarc Aimtrak Light Gun independent fan review and collected information + video demos -> https://lightgungamer.com/aimtrak-light-gun/

• https://sindenlightgun.com

  • Sinden Lightgun official wiki -> https://www.sindenwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
  • Sinden Lightgun independent fan review and collected information + video demos -> https://lightgungamer.com/sinden-lightgun/
  • Primarily meant for a premium arcade experience and has loads of accessories -> https://www.sindenshop.com

• https://mars.pdp.com

  • PDP Mars Lightgun ("PDPMars) independent fan review and collected information + video demos -> https://lightgungamer.com/pdp-mars-lightgun/
  • This can today be bought bundled with Xbox One or PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5 Games = https://www.amazon.com/s?k=PDP+MARS&ref=nb_sb_noss

[Hedda]

Going DIY extreme; the "GUN4IR" by JB / JB Lab (Jean-Baptiste Bongrand (a.k.a. JayBee-git on GitHub) sounds based on many reviews like it is currently the most customizable and high-performance lightgun system for arcade experience at home with a concept based around the idea of retrofitting old lightguns with new electronics and software in the form of a DIY hardware or kit(s) with upgraded hardware and (closed source) software/firmware.

https://www.gun4ir.com

https://discord.gg/HJyfYja

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,161189.0.html

https://www.facebook.com/groups/903631730390946/

For the DIY kit version it looks like he basically sells a DIY hardware kit and include build instructions and the firmware + software?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPmmFR3bBMw&ab_channel=RetroRalph

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXq_GDR5yP0&t=1s&ab_channel=RetroRalph

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXjWhmYP2TI&ab_channel=ArcadePirate

It looks like GUN4IR is currently primarily a DIY-project where you should make a donation of at least $20(US) to JB to get the software/firmware then you need to buy + assemble all the parts yourself, however, it is also being sold preassembled by JB at gun4ir.com as well as sold by third parties in various ”premium variants” (including existing lightguns modded with the GUN4IR solution) + semi-assembled DIY-kits for Gun4IR can also be bought from JB's inofficial partners, like for example [Raymond Dai (a.k.a. Ray) from RPEG Electronics:

https://rpegelectronics.com/collections/arcade-stuff

https://rpegelectronics.com/products/gun4ir-diy-mod-kit

Reviews:

https://main.retro-handhelds.com/blog/a-brief-look-at-the-gun4ir-light-gun/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m9a4nj1MYw&ab_channel=WickedGamer%26Collector

GUN4IR hardware is closed source but sofytware is open, though availability for buying the DIY kit version seems scarce since only manufactured in samller batches

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,161189.0.html

https://discord.gg/HJyfYja

He also partners with some othes to sell pre-modded GUN4IR lightguns, like example

https://rpegelectronics.com/products/gun4ir-light-gun-ready-to-play-namco-gcon45-black?variant=40080266461373

https://rpegelectronics.com/products/gun4ir-light-gun-ready-to-play-namco-gcon-2-black

PS: GUN4IR is made by Jean-Baptiste Bongrand (a.k.a. JayBee) who also makes some other open-source stuff so maybe that will change in the future(?)

https://github.com/JayBee-git

[garbear]

I love supporting independent projects like GUN4IR! X-Arcade sent me a Tankstick for free and I feel bad it took 2 years to finish the driver. GUN4IR is something I would looooove to buy and get working in Kodi, but I just don't have time these days. Life changes though, and someday I may be able to support projects like this.

[Hedda]

I love supporting independent projects like GUN4IR!

@JayBee-git maybe you would consider looking into coding a GUN4IR compatible implementation for Kodi’s native game framework support yourself?

I noticed that you submitted C++ code for adding native Gun4IR lightgun input support for MiSTer so you clearly have the needed coding skills -> MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer#633

For reference if you have not heard about Kodi (formely XBMC) and its native game support with ”RetroPlayer” (using Libreteo), read:

https://kodi.wiki/view/Game_development

https://kodi.wiki/view/Game_controllers

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=292270

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=195552

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=257764

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=230276

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=252465

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=164725

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=340684

[garbear]

And @JayBee-git if you're interested in writing a Kodi driver you have my full support and code review!

[JayBee-git]

Hey, I'd gladly help if I can.
But for the MiSTer it was very easy, as they already had a driver and everything in place to support lightguns. It was only a few lines of code to add.
Lightgun inputs are nothing more than generic mouse, keyboard and joystick inputs, so as long as you have a generic driver that supports any of these, it should be quite easy to add. The only thing special compared to normal inputs is that they are using absolute axis for the mouse input instead of relative.
I'm not sure what was implemented already in Kodi, but I sadly don't have any knowledge on how libretro drivers work and how to code them.
If you need any info on how the lightgun inputs work tho, feel free to ask me.

[garbear]

Oh no! Mouse and keyboard controlling joystick games is a feature we're missing. I implemented this once but had to remove it to simplify the system.

I plan to bring the feature back in a "Player Manager". You can see the saga here: garbear/xbmc#87

Most of the code is in place, we just don't have the final step that converts the input because we don't have a way to map it in the UI.

However, I was able to get the tankstick to work by reading the key presses from Linux and then sending joystick buttons. That work is here: https://github.com/kodi-game/peripheral.xarcade/

You could do the same for keyboard and mouse input, get it directly from Linux in a small peripheral add-on. It would only work on Linux but that covers the whole LibreELEC community which is huge.

[JayBee-git]

The gun also work in a joystick input mode, the one that is used by MiSTer. You can map games lightgun axis to the joystick input axis directly.

[garbear]

Can you hook it up and try mapping it in Kodi?

[JayBee-git]

Sure, which version do you want me to try out?

[garbear]

Version 20.0. I actually merged a little bit of the player manager into v20. Baby steps.

[JayBee-git]

I meant which OS, machine, and where to get it?
I know Kodi but I never used Kodi game 😄

[garbear]

Its built into Kodi so games should work everywhere that has emulators in the addon browser

[Hedda]

@JayBee-git FYI, Kodi RetroPlayer (i.e. Kodi Game,) runs on most operating systems, processor Instruction set architectures and computer platforms available today, however, I believe that for development purposes it is best to use an Intel/AMD x86-64 based computer with either Linux or Windows operating system (depending on your personal OS preference to code on as a developer).

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodi_(software)

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodi_(software)#Games_Manager_and_game_console_emulators

    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodi_(software)#RetroPlayer

Links and information on where to download and how to install Kodi 20.x (codename "Nexus") releases can be found here:

• https://kodi.tv/download/

Alternatively, you could get garbear's very latest custom test releases if just want to test out all the existing features:

• https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=173361

  • https://github.com/garbear/xbmc/releases

Here is a guide on how to get started with Kodi RetroPlayer:

• https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=340684

Libretro emulator cores are available as "game clients" add-ons, and controller-mappings are available as "Controller profiles":

• https://kodi.tv/addons/nexus/

  • https://kodi.tv/addons/nexus/category/game-clients

  • https://kodi.tv/addons/nexus/category/controller-profiles

Also check out the Kodi wiki section on how Games and game development work in Kodi here:

• https://kodi.wiki/view/Games

PS: If you used Kodi from an end-users perspective then you will notice that Kodi's GUI is missing a games-library (and database).

[Hedda]

@JayBee-git Oh, and may I be so bold as to ask if you would consider donating some sample Gun4IR hardware to @garbear?

Thinking that even if he does not have time to implement this himself right now, if he at least has the hardware at home might be the incentive he needs to motivate prioritizing lightgun support (as well as mouse and keyboard) when he does get some time ;)

[JayBee-git]

@Hedda Yes, actually I do have kodi already installed on most of my machines :)
My bad, I was thinking Kodi Game was a fork not an addon.
I will test it out when I have the time, and tell you how it went.

About the donation of a gun, it's important to note that I'm not a company or anything (yet), just working on this diy oriented system on my free time. I only do very occasional pre modded gun productions myself (only did one so far), and all the money I get from the small donations is used in gun4ir related expenses.
So, long story short, I sadly don't have the funds to send a free 200$ gifts to devs.