ACT Labs Performance Pedal Reviews

Ah the good old days. I remember when I used to play Duck Hunt on my Nofriendo back when I was a wee lad. The click-sproing sound of the trigger as I shot duck, after duck, after duck, was enough to annoy any parent. I remember clearly how much I shot at that stupid dog that mocked me when I missed. Stop it! Stop laughing!!! Um………er……I’m ok now, heh.

With the quality of games jumping ahead by leaps and bounds, hardware is also keeping up the pace. No more big, clunky light gun with a stiff trigger to cause your thumb to go numb. Enter the Act-Labs USB PC light gun. How does it compare with the good old NES clunker? We shall see….

First I will spill the goods on what it comes with, and what it has to offer all you trigger-happy gamers.

Athon Thoroughbred 2400+ @ 2.2GHz

ASUS A7N8X w/BIOS 1001e

Samsung SyncMaster 900NF

Act-Labs USB Light Gun Requirements:

The requirements are rather modest for the Act-Labs gun so almost any machine can make use of it.

IBM PC Running Windows 98se/ME/2000/XP

VGA CRT Monitor. The Light Gun is NOT compatible with LCD or Plasma Screen Monitors.

VGA Video Card with DirectX 7 or Higher

Pentium 166 or Higher

I opened the box to be greeted by the light gun, complete with the USB and VGA connection box. Also included was a CD with setup and calibration information, a mini game to test it out, and a link to several games that can make use of the Act-Labs gun.

The gun is easily set up and takes only a few minutes. The USB connection on the box just plugs into a standard USB port as any USB connection does. The VGA adaptor is slightly more complicated yet almost as easy. Firstly, unhook your monitor from the connector on your video card. Then connect the monitor to the patch-through box that is included, and connect the input cable on the box to the output on your video card where you originally unhooked your monitor. When you fire up Windows, the USB Light Gun is automatically installed and requires no third party drivers to install. Plug and Play; you gotta love that.

Configuration: When you fire in the included CD, you are greeted with several options. Firstly, you can be walked through the installation of the Light Gun if need be. Just pick your particular operating system – in my case Windows XP – and then it will give you instructions complete with diagrams. Secondly, you can see a quick list of supported games that are currently available. Games that currently make use of the Act-Labs USB Light Gun are: “The House of the Dead” from Empire Interactive, “Mad Dog MacRee” and “Who Shot Johnny Rock?” from Digital Leisure, “Art is Dead” from Small Rockets, “Area 51” from GT Interactive, and lastly “GT Hunter” from Synthetic Dimensions. The Light Gun is also fully compatible with MAME and if you check the Act-Labs website, you can find updated information on what games make use of it, as well as MAME downloads, the SDK (Software Development Kit) for the Light Gun and other goodies.
If needed, you can also select the “How to Use” option from the main menu on the included CD. It will step through the calibration of the Light Gun using an included video clip. Calibration is not necessary, but recommended for maximum accuracy. To calibrate the light gun just flip the calibration switch located on the right side of the gun and move the gun across the screen in a + pattern, top to bottom, then left to right. When done, just switch off the calibration switch and you are set to go. The calibration can be done in-game as well as in windows. It is recommended to recalibrate the light gun every time you change resolution. They have also thrown in a mini Shoot-the-Aliens game to test out your light gun after setting it up. It’s cute but gets boring fast.

Also included on the CD is a list of free online Flash based games that can be played using the Act-Labs USB Light Gun. The list is rather out-dated though, as I had hard time finding very many game links that were still active.

Now that we have the goodies and specs out of the way, let's take a look at the actual unit next, as well as the fun part....testing.

The first thing I noticed about the USB Light Gun from Act-Labs is the fact that it is small and very light, so light in fact that it almost seems cheap. That is not saying that is in fact cheap, but it just has that feel to it. The Light Gun is ergonomically shaped very well and has rubber grips, and as a result, fits comfortably in the hand. It also has non adjustable sights on it to add to the realism when shooting. There are two buttons as well as a calibration switch located on the gun. The trigger has a smooth micro switch which I rather like compared to the clunky old triggers of old. The trigger has the same function as the left mouse button when gaming.

There is also a button located on the left side of the Light Gun which serves the same function as the right mouse button. One thing to note is that shooting off-screen also emulates hitting the right mouse button. This can be used to reload in games like House of the Dead 2. The calibration switch is mounted on the right side across from the secondary button. The Act-Labs gun is not cordless, but does give you six feet of cord to allow you to shoot from a respectable distance.

Let the shooting begin:

The only game I had available to me at the time of this review is the aging Mad Dog MacRee. I tried to get a hold of House of the Dead 2 because shooting Zombies is a national gaming past time, hehehe. But alas no, a copy could not be found. I fired up Mad Dog and started shooting, and not very well. I personally had a very hard time getting the gun calibrated accurately. I could get it close, but not perfect. I found it was actually MORE accurate if you just eyeballed it rather than try using the gun mounted sights.

As I am a shooter of real firearms, NOT using the sights was hard to get used to. The screen has the unavoidable flashes when the trigger is pulled. Those cannot be helped though as that is how the gun ‘knows’ where you are aiming. I shot corrupt gunslingers for quite a while before I noticed my arms getting tired. That I can assume is due to the lightness of the Light Gun………um yea, did that make sense? I really wish I could have found House of the Dead 2, because that would have been great with this Light Gun. Sigh…no zombie fragging for me.

I guess I am done whining about not being able to shoot zombies now, so head to the next page for the summary of my experiences with the Act-Labs USB Light Gun.

UPDATE: I just finished a House of the Dead 2 marathon. I would like to thank Ken Francisco for emailing me and letting me know that there are indeed copies out there if you look hard enough. I did some searching and was able to come up with a copy, and now I am hooked.

After firing it up, all I can say is wow. The Act-Labs USB Light Gun really shines in this title. If you have ever played House of the Dead 2, it is fast paced and non stop. I think I am going to wear out the trigger switch on this game. I was able to get the accuracy down pretty well in HoTD2 and that's good because you need it.

Anyways, enough talk.................Time to squeeze the trigger a few hundred more times.

Conclusion:
The Act-Labs USB Light Gun is great for satisfying your need to squeeze a trigger and play some PC games at the same time. Those of you who – like me – grew up on Duck Hunt will like this gun. The lack of weight combined with excellent ergonomics makes it easy to play for long periods of time. The 6 feet of provided cable allow you to choose your shooting distance nicely. The plug-it-in-and-use feature is great for those who do not like fumbling around with driver installations and complicated setup. I had a hard time getting the Light Gun accurate, even after several calibrations, but I guess the accuracy would depend on your particular monitor.

I would have liked to see at least ONE full version included considering the hassle I had finding compatible games, and to justify the price. Although I did eventually find House of the Dead 2 which really suited The Act-Labs Light Gun, I wish there were more titles readily available to make use of it. That is not saying that the games are not out there, just FINDING them was a pain. All in all the Act-Labs USB Light Gun exceeds it’s predecessors in the Light Gun market, although it is not perfect.

Nice and Light
Small Size
Easy to Set Up
Comfortable to Hold
No Driver Installation Needed
M.A.M.E Compatible