The NES Zapper,One of the most popular accessories for the legendary Nintendo Entertainment System,
The NES Zapper,One of the most popular accessories for the legendary Nintendo Entertainment System, the Zapper was a gun type control for various shooting games that would be developed for the NES system. Originally the Zapper was released in February of 1984 for a Nintendo Famicom game called Wild Gunman, a wild west themed fast draw game. The Nintendo Famicom was a system only available in Japan. Once it was proven that the Zapper was functional and popular, it was then released in October of 1985 for the NES. The original Famicom Zapper came in the form of an old west style revolver, matching the them of Wild Gunman. However developers chose a more futuristic looking sci fi type gun for the NES version of the Zapper. The first NES game developed for the Zapper was Duck Hunt, a classic in which the player shoots ducks which fly around the screen, limited to three shots and a time limit. The Zapper was sold in a bundle called the “Nintendo Action Set”, which included an NES console, the Zapper, and game cartridge with Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and a skeet shooting game. Over the following years, 18 other games would be created to use with the Zapper.The Zapper used interesting technology in order to function. Whenever the trigger was pulled the television screen would go almost entirely black with the exception of the target zones, which were represented by white squares of rectangles.This black screen only lasted for two frames, fast enough that it was barely noticeable by the human eye. If the Zapper detected the bright white zones, then it signaled a hit. If it detected nothing but black, then it signaled a miss. One attempt at cheating was to hold the Zapper up to a light bulb. However the Zapper would work only if it detected a brief flash of light. Thus, such nefarious schemes usually didn’t work. The Zapper only works on old style TV’s which use CRT (cathode ray vaccum tube) display screens. CRT TV’s were phased out in the early 2000’s and today are no longer manufactured. The Zapper will not work on modern plasma, high definition, and flat screen TV’s. -- source link
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