Infrared and Motion — GunCon 3, Wii Zapper, Top Shot Elite and the Move Sharp Shooter

The guns that work on a flat panel: Namco's camera gun and its two marker units, Nintendo's plastic shell and the confusion over its model number, Activision's hunting rifles, and Sony's shell for the Move controller

6.1 After the CRT

Every gun in this volume works on a flat panel, and every one does it by giving up on reading the picture. The GunCon 3 and the Wii Zapper carry (or hold) a camera that looks for infrared light sources placed at the screen; the Sharp Shooter is tracked by a camera on the television looking back at the controller. The theory of camera-and-marker aiming is the subject of IR Point Tracking; this is the same principle that the DIY guns in the sibling build dives use, and these consoles’ guns are its first mass-market examples.

They also change what “complete” means. A CRT gun needed only itself and a console. These guns need their marker units, their sensor bar, their dongle or their host controller, and those are what go missing.

6.2 Namco Bandai GunCon 3

Figure 1 — The GunCon 3, held in the hand, showing the left-hand sub-grip under the barrel with its analog stick, and the second analog stick and buttons at the rear of the slide. The marker units it needs ar… — Figure 1 — The GunCon 3, held in the hand, showing the left-hand sub-grip under the barrel with its analog stick, and the second analog stick and buttons at the rear of the slide. The marker units it needs are not in the picture. Photo: Chinpokomon5, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Table 1 — Namco Bandai GunCon 3


Maker	Namco Bandai Games
First release	2007, Japan, with Time Crisis 4 (secondary sources give 20 December 2007); North America and Europe with the same game
System	PlayStation 3
Model number	Given as NC-109 in published references; not confirmed from a label
Names	GunCon 3 (Japan, North America); G-Con 3 (Europe)
Connector	USB
Sensing	An image sensor in the gun sees two infrared marker units placed at the screen. The game’s director: the design “uses two sensors and allows users to play on any type of television”, with chips that detect their position “within 1/60th of a second”¹
Controls	Trigger; an analog stick and buttons on the rear of the slide; a left-hand sub-grip under the barrel with a second analog stick and buttons. The director’s blog describes repeated prototypes to get the left stick’s position and angle right, tested with left-handed players¹
Power	From USB
Recoil	No
Works today	A PlayStation 3, the two marker units, and a GunCon 3 game; any television
Price	PriceCharting, 19 Oct 2026: US GunCon 3 loose $45.53, complete $54.64, sales to September 2026; Japanese Time Crisis 4 GunCon 3 bundle complete $131.33

The marker units are the gun. Without its two marker units a GunCon 3 cannot aim, and they are small, separate and often missing from loose lots. A “complete” GunCon 3 has the gun, both marker units and their cabling.

A claim from the launch blog to treat with care. The director’s post says the gun’s chips “also contain the functionality to detect movement and tilt, just like a standard” SIXAXIS controller.¹ Whether any game used that, and whether it means an inertial sensor in the gun or something computed from the camera, was not established for this dive.

Compatibility. The GunCon 3 is a different device from the GunCon 2 in every respect: USB-only, no video lead, a camera rather than a photodiode. It is not documented by Namco as playing GunCon 2 games, and the GunCon 2 does not play GunCon 3 games.

6.3 Nintendo Wii Zapper

Figure 2 — The Wii Zapper with a Wii Remote fitted in the front and a Nunchuk in the rear grip. The Zapper is a plastic shell with no electronics: the Wii Remote's camera does the aiming, and the trigger pres… — Figure 2 — The Wii Zapper with a Wii Remote fitted in the front and a Nunchuk in the rear grip. The Zapper is a plastic shell with no electronics: the Wii Remote's camera does the aiming, and the trigger presses the remote's B button. Photo: Michael Greiner, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Table 2 — Nintendo Wii Zapper


Maker	Nintendo
First release	25 October 2007, Japan, ¥1,500 (collector catalogue);² 19 November 2007, North America, $19.99, packed with Link’s Crossbow Training; 7 December 2007, Europe (contemporary press reports)³
System	Wii
Model numbers	RVL-023 (Japanese collector catalogue).² Nintendo’s US manual is printed with the code C/RVL-A-ZA-USZ.⁴ RVL-018, often quoted for the Zapper, is listed by the same catalogue as the Wii Remote wrist strap
Connector	None. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk clip in; the remote talks to the Wii by Bluetooth
Sensing	The Wii Remote’s own infrared camera sees the LEDs in the Wii’s sensor bar
Controls	The Zapper’s trigger works the Wii Remote’s B button; the remaining controls are the remote’s and Nunchuk’s own
Power	None; the Wii Remote’s batteries
Recoil	No
Configurations	Nunchuk attached in the rear grip, or Wii Remote in the Zapper with the Nunchuk held in the other hand (Nintendo’s manual)⁴
Works today	A Wii, a Wii Remote, the sensor bar, and a Zapper-compatible game; any television
Price	PriceCharting, 19 Oct 2026: Wii Zapper loose $14.77, complete $27.70, sales to September 2026

Figure 3 — The Wii Zapper empty, showing the cradle at the front for the Wii Remote and the rear grip that holds the Nunchuk. Photo: Gabilolo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

From Nintendo’s manual. The manual says the Zapper “must be used with a Wii Remote or with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk (sold separately)” and with a game disc that supports it. Remove the Wii Remote Jacket before fitting the remote and replace it afterwards; thread the wrist strap through the connector hook; in the separate-Nunchuk configuration, wear the wrist strap and tighten it. A label on the underside of the Zapper repeats the jacket reminder in six languages.⁴

The model-number correction. “RVL-018” appears against the Wii Zapper in many listings. The collector catalogue that lists every RVL number gives RVL-018 to the Wii Remote wrist strap and RVL-023 to the Zapper.² No Nintendo document seen for this dive prints an RVL- number for the Zapper, so RVL-023 is given as the catalogue’s attribution, and the manual code RVL-A-ZA as Nintendo’s own.

Clones and the third-party shells. Dozens of third-party Wii gun shells were sold, from pistol grips to rifles; the Commons photographs of the category alone show several. They are all shells for the same Wii Remote and work with the same games; the difference is the ergonomics and whether the trigger reaches the B button cleanly. A genuine Nintendo Zapper is white, says Nintendo, and has the multilingual jacket label underneath.

6.4 Activision Top Shot, Top Shot Elite and Top Shot Fearmaster

Figure 4 — The Activision Top Shot for the Wii: a white and orange rifle with a red-lens scope, a pump-action fore-end and an adjustable stock, holding a Wii Remote in the side of the receiver. It was designe… — Figure 4 — The Activision Top Shot for the Wii: a white and orange rifle with a red-lens scope, a pump-action fore-end and an adjustable stock, holding a Wii Remote in the side of the receiver. It was designed for Activision by WhiteBoard Product Solutions and is the shell the later Top Shot Elite was developed from. Photo: WhiteBoard Product Solutions, used with credit.

Figure 5 — The Top Shot Elite box for the PlayStation 3: an Official Licensed Product carrying the Activision name, with the red lens scope, adjustable stock and pump-action reload called out and the word WIR… — Figure 5 — The Top Shot Elite box for the PlayStation 3: an Official Licensed Product carrying the Activision name, with the red lens scope, adjustable stock and pump-action reload called out and the word WIRELESS. The panel at bottom left is the standard look-alike-gun warning that the product "may be mistaken for a firearm by law enforcement officers or others". Photo: PriceCharting product image.

Table 3 — Activision Top Shot, Top Shot Elite and Top Shot Fearmaster


Maker	Activision; industrial design and engineering by WhiteBoard Product Solutions⁵
First release	2010, with Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011 (Wii shell; then the Top Shot Elite for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360)⁵ ⁶
System	Wii (Top Shot, a Wii Remote shell); PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (Top Shot Elite, a wireless gun)
Model number	Not confirmed
Connector	Top Shot Elite: wireless, with a USB dongle and a sensor bar placed at the screen (reviews and bundle listings)⁶
Sensing	Wii: the Wii Remote’s camera. Elite: tracks a sensor bar at the screen; the sensing element in the gun was not confirmed from Activision documentation
Controls	Trigger; pump-action fore-end for reloading; console face buttons on the receiver; a red-lens scope used for the game’s “Hunter’s Sense” view⁵
Recoil	No
Successor	Top Shot Fearmaster, with Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013 (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), which adds a heart-rate sensor (reviews)⁶
Works today	The matching console, the dongle, the sensor bar and a supporting Cabela’s game; any television
Price	PriceCharting, 19 Oct 2026: Top Shot Elite (PlayStation 3) loose $12.71, complete $18.74; (Xbox 360) loose $19.04, complete $24.75; (Wii) loose $26.37, complete $39.97

WhiteBoard’s portfolio describes the project as a Wii peripheral that “laid the groundwork” for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 controllers, with pump-action reloading, an adjustable stock and a red-filter scope, prototyped first as a looks-like, works-like unit for gameplay and marketing review.⁵

Buy it boxed, or check the parts. A review of the PlayStation 3 game warns that many second-hand Elites are missing their scopes or dongles.⁶ Without the dongle the gun cannot talk to the console. That is the reason the loose price is so low.

6.5 Sony PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter

Figure 6 — The PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter in white, grey and orange, with a Move motion controller fitted in the barrel (its glowing sphere at the muzzle) and a navigation controller in the fore-grip. The… — Figure 6 — The PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter in white, grey and orange, with a Move motion controller fitted in the barrel (its glowing sphere at the muzzle) and a navigation controller in the fore-grip. The shell's own buttons pass through to the Move controller. Photo: Evan-Amos, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Table 4 — Sony PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter


Maker	Sony Computer Entertainment
First release	22 February 2011, North America, $39.99 MSRP, with Killzone 3; announced 9 December 2010⁷
System	PlayStation 3 with PlayStation Move and PlayStation Eye
Model number	CECHYA-ZRA1E on the European label, rated 3.2 V, 5 mA⁸
Connector	The Move controller plugs into the shell through its extension connector, which maps the shell’s controls onto the Move’s; a holder for the navigation controller⁷
Sensing	The PlayStation Eye camera on the television tracks the Move controller’s sphere; the Move’s inertial sensors add orientation
Controls	Digital trigger; reload button; pump-action grip; firing mode selector; navigation controller in the fore-grip⁷
Power	From the Move controller (3.2 V, 5 mA on the label)
Recoil	No
Stock	Adjustable shoulder stock⁷
Works today	A PlayStation 3, a Move controller, a PlayStation Eye and a supporting game; any television
Price	PriceCharting, 19 Oct 2026: US loose $32.49, complete $47.50, sales to September 2026; PAL loose $44.32, complete $53.12

Figure 7 — The Sharp Shooter's label, inside the Move controller's compartment: "PlayStation Move sharp shooter, CECHYA-ZRA1E, 3.2 V, 5 mA", with CE, waste-electrical and Australian compliance marks and Sony … — Figure 7 — The Sharp Shooter's label, inside the Move controller's compartment: "PlayStation Move sharp shooter, CECHYA-ZRA1E, 3.2 V, 5 mA", with CE, waste-electrical and Australian compliance marks and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's name. The current rating shows the shell is not purely mechanical: it takes a little power from the Move controller for its own buttons. Photo: ArlindoPereira, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped).

Sony’s launch post, by SCEA’s associate product marketing manager, names the controls: “the reload button, pump-action grip, and firing mode selector”, a digital trigger that “allows for short pulls”, and an adjustable shoulder stock, at $39.99 from the launch of Killzone 3 on 22 February 2011.⁷ Sony’s December 2010 announcement, as reported in search results (the release itself was not read), also named Time Crisis: Razing Storm, SOCOM 4 and Dead Space Extraction among the supporting games.

Telling it apart. The Sharp Shooter is the only gun in this catalogue with an electrical label inside the shell. Third-party Move gun shells exist; they lack Sony’s label and model number.

6.6 After 2011

Gun-shaped controllers did not stop in 2011, but light guns, in the sense used by this catalogue, did. The PlayStation VR Aim Controller of 2017 is a gun-shaped controller tracked by the PlayStation camera for virtual-reality games, with no relationship to the television picture; it belongs with motion controllers, not here. The Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and later consoles have no first-party light gun. The DIY revival that filled the gap — AimTrak, Sinden, GUN4IR, Samco, OpenFIRE — is history for the History of Light Guns dive and engineering for the build dives.

6.7 Buying an Infrared or Motion Gun

Table 5 — Buying an Infrared or Motion Gun

Gun	Must come with	Commonly missing
GunCon 3	Two marker units and cabling	The marker units
Wii Zapper	Nothing (needs a Wii Remote)	—
Top Shot Elite	USB dongle, sensor bar, scope	Dongle, scope
Sharp Shooter	Nothing (needs a Move controller and PlayStation Eye)	—

These are the cheapest guns in the catalogue and the only ones that work on any television, which makes them the obvious first purchase for anyone who wants to play console light-gun games without a CRT. They are also the guns with the fewest games.

Takashi Satsukawa (director, Time Crisis 4), “Time Crisis 4: Creating the Guncon 3, Part 2”, PlayStation Blog, 12 November 2007. https://blog.playstation.com/?p=278 (read 2026-10-19). Part 1: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/11/05/time-crisis-4-creating-the-guncon-3/ ↩ ↩² ↩³
maru-chang.com, Wii hardware list (English). https://maru-chang.com/hard/rvl/english.htm (read 2026-10-19). A collector catalogue, not Nintendo. ↩ ↩² ↩³
GameSpot (10 September 2007) and Nintendo Life (19 November 2007), as returned by search (2026-10-19). Nintendo’s own press release was not located. ↩
Nintendo of America, Wii Zapper instruction booklet. https://csassets.nintendo.com/noaext/image/private/t_KA_PDF/wiiZapperTri (read 2026-10-19). Also: https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-7002517 ↩ ↩² ↩³
WhiteBoard Product Solutions, “Activision Top Shot Elite” project page. https://www.whiteboardps.com/work/activision-top-shot-elite (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Destructoid preview and Gaming Pastime review of Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011; OSFTW review of Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013; bundle listings (search summaries, 2026-10-19). Secondary. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Richard Ho (SCEA), “In the Trenches with Killzone 3, SOCOM 4 and the PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter”, PlayStation Blog, 10 February 2011. https://blog.playstation.com/2011/02/10/in-the-trenches-with-killzone-3-socom-4-and-the-playstation-move-sharp-shooter/ (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
ArlindoPereira, “PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter - sticker inside”, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlayStation_Move_Sharp_Shooter_-_sticker_inside.jpg (label read 2026-10-19). ↩