Console Light Guns · Volume 7
Buying One — Genuine or Clone, Testing, Care, and Every Price on One Page
Which television each gun needs, the tells that identify a genuine gun and its market, what to check before paying, what the makers' manuals say about care, and the full dated price table
The previous five volumes identify the guns one at a time. This one gathers what a buyer needs across all of them: the display question that decides everything else, the tells that separate a genuine gun from a clone or from another region’s version, the parts that must come with it, how to test it before money changes hands, and the prices.
7.1 Start From the Television
The single most expensive mistake is buying a CRT-era gun to use on a flat-panel television. It will not work as sold. Namco’s own manual for the PlayStation G-Con 45 lists the displays that defeat it, including every LCD and projector, 100 Hz CRTs and televisions with a frame memory;1 the same physics applies to every gun in Volumes 2 to 5. If the plan is to play on the television already in the house, the only console guns that qualify are the GunCon 3, the Wii Zapper, the Top Shot Elite and the Move Sharp Shooter (Vol 6).
If the plan is to play CRT-era games on a modern display, the answer is not a purchase from this catalogue but a conversion or a modern gun, and the planned Original Consoles, Modding Classic Light Guns and MiSTer FPGA dives are where that is worked out.
7.2 Genuine, Clone or Another Market’s Version
Most “fakes” in this market are not counterfeits but other things sold under a famous name: an unlicensed gun described as a Zapper, a Konami-standard PlayStation gun described as a GunCon, a Japanese Dreamcast Gun offered to a North American buyer. The tells, gathered from the earlier volumes:
Table 1 — Most "fakes" in this market are not counterfeits but other things sold under a famous name: an unlicensed gun described as a Zapper, a Konami-standard PlayStation gun described as a GunCon, a Japanese Dreamcast Gun offered to a North American buyer. The tells, gathered from the earlier volumes
| Gun | Genuine and its market | Not it | Where to look |
|---|---|---|---|
| NES Zapper | Says Nintendo, NES-005; grey with red trigger, or orange with black trigger; NES 7-pin plug | Black pistol-shaped clones with DE-9 or 15-pin plugs for famiclones | Plug, trigger colour, moulding |
| Famicom gun | Black revolver, brown grip; Famicom expansion-port plug | Cap guns; 1970s Nintendo Kōsenjū toys | Plug |
| Light Phaser | All black, slab-sided barrel, Sega and Light Phaser names; US later with orange tip; Brazil blue; carries a serial number | Virgin Mastertronic’s Magnum Light Phaser (home computers) | Plug, serial number |
| Super Scope | Nintendo; scope plus receiver; “Nintendo Scope” in PAL | — | Receiver present |
| Menacer | Pistol, stock, twin sight, receiver | — | Count the parts |
| Justifier (16-bit) | Blue revolver, plug decides console; pink player-2 has a modular plug | — | Cable end |
| Virtua Gun | Black (Japan; yellow trigger and start on HSS-0152), blue (Europe), orange (US Stunner) | Predator-family dual-format guns | Colour, Sega logo |
| Konami PlayStation gun | One cable only; black (Japan), green (US Justifier) | — | PlayStation logo on the boss above the grip |
| GunCon / GunCon 2 | Namco; a video lead (GunCon) or USB plus RCA lead (GunCon 2) | Any PlayStation gun without a video connection | Second cable |
| Dreamcast Gun | Grey-white, orange trigger, Dreamcast swirl, HKT-7801; Japan and PAL only | Mad Catz Dream Blaster (licensed, North America); unbranded guns | Logo, region |
| GunCon 3 | USB; two marker units | — | Marker units present |
| Wii Zapper | White, Nintendo, multilingual jacket label underneath | Third-party Wii shells | Underside |
| Sharp Shooter | Sony label CECHYA-ZRA1E (Europe) inside the shell | Third-party Move shells | Label inside |
A note on model numbers. The catalogue gives every model number with its source, and two common ones are wrong: the Dreamcast Gun is HKT-7801 on Sega’s own page, and RVL-018 is not the Wii Zapper’s number in the catalogue that lists all of them (Vols 5 and 6).
7.3 What Has to Come With the Gun
Table 2 — What Has to Come With the Gun
| Gun | Needs, besides the console and the right television | Most often missing |
|---|---|---|
| Odyssey rifle | Game card 10 and the overlays | Overlays |
| Super Scope | Receiver; six AA cells | Receiver |
| Menacer | Receiver; stock and twin sight to be complete; six AAA cells | Receiver, twin sight |
| Justifier pink | A blue Justifier to plug into | — |
| GunCon | Its video lead intact | — |
| GunCon 2 | The External Cable splitter | External Cable |
| GunCon 3 | Two marker units | Marker units |
| Top Shot Elite | USB dongle, sensor bar, scope | Dongle, scope |
| Wii Zapper, Sharp Shooter | A Wii Remote; a Move controller and PlayStation Eye | — |
7.4 Testing a Second-Hand Gun
Use the right port. The Zapper works only in controller socket 2 according to Nintendo’s manual; the Light Phaser goes in Control 1 according to Sega’s; the Super Scope, Menacer and Justifier all use port 2 (Vols 2 and 3).2 3 A good gun in the wrong port looks dead.
Use the game’s calibration screen. Nearly every gun after the Zapper has one: Super Scope 6’s ADJUST AIM target, Lethal Enforcers’ gun adjust, Virtua Cop’s GUN ADJUST, Time Crisis’s G-CON45 calibration. Shoot the centre; if the shots land consistently near it, the sensor and optics are working.
Follow the manual’s own troubleshooting first. Konami’s manual for the SNES Justifier lists the checks to make before deciding a gun is broken: adjust the screen brightness, stand 5 to 7 feet back, move or switch off a fluorescent light near the screen, and re-centre.4 Nintendo’s Zapper manual asks for a bright picture on a dark background.2
Open the battery doors of the Super Scope and Menacer and look for corrosion before anything else.
For infrared guns, check the emitters. The GunCon 3’s marker units and the Wii and Top Shot sensor bars emit infrared that the eye cannot see. Many phone cameras show a working infrared LED as a faint glow, which is a quick check that a marker unit is alive; it is a common technique, not a maker’s procedure.
7.5 Care, From the Makers’ Manuals
The manuals are thin on care, but what they say is specific:
- Lenses. Sega’s Light Phaser instructions: clean the lens at the tip only with a soft cloth, never with benzene, alcohol or thinner; do not expose it to intense light other than the television’s; do not drop or crush the gun.3
- Use only with the television. Namco’s European manual: the G-CON45 is “a highly sensitive light-peripheral for use exclusively with PlayStation”; Namco accepts no liability if it is used with anything other than a television game.1
- Remove what is not in use. Konami: remove the game gun from port 2 when playing a game that does not use it.4 Nintendo, for the Wii Zapper: refit the Wii Remote Jacket when the remote comes out of the Zapper.5
- Batteries. Neither Nintendo’s nor Sega’s manuals for the wireless guns were read in full for this dive, but the corrosion found in stored Super Scopes and Menacers makes removing the cells before storage the obvious rule.
7.6 When It Does Not Work
Nintendo’s and Sega’s manuals offer a 90-day warranty followed by factory repair at the owner’s cost, and Konami’s a 90-day warranty; none of that support survives, and repair is now an owner’s job.2 3 4 The faults to expect follow from the designs rather than from any survey: corroded contacts in the battery-powered guns, cables broken at the strain relief, worn trigger switches, dirty lenses, and missing accessories; the planned Modding Classic Light Guns dive will take each in turn, and where a gun is being converted to modern internals, the sibling Open-Source Firmware and Reference Electronics dives already cover the replacement electronics.
7.7 Every Price on One Page
All figures are from PriceCharting, which computes a running price from completed eBay sales, and were read on 19 October 2026. “Loose” is the item alone; “Complete” is with box and manual. The last column is the date of the most recent sale shown on the page: where it is a year or more old, treat the price as stale.
Table 3 — Every Price on One Page
| Item | Loose | Complete | Most recent sale | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Odyssey Shooting Gallery (rifle set) | $107.07 | $487.67 | 2026-08-16 | pricecharting.com/game/magnavox-odyssey/shooting-gallery |
| NES Zapper (orange) | $14.99 | $93.40 | 2026-10-01 | pricecharting.com/game/nes/zapper-light-gun |
| NES Zapper (grey) | $15.36 | $72.25 | 2026-08-17 | pricecharting.com/game/nes/zapper-light-gun-gray |
| NES Zapper (PAL) | $24.16 | $88.44 | 2026-03-21 | pricecharting.com/game/pal-nes/zapper |
| Famicom Wild Gunman set (gun, holster, cartridge) | — | $275.22 | 2026-01-10 | pricecharting.com/game/famicom/wild-gunman-set |
| Sega Light Phaser (US) | $27.99 | $64.17 | 2026-08-18 | pricecharting.com/game/sega-master-system/light-phaser-gun |
| Sega Light Phaser (PAL) | $17.83 | $18.81 | 2026-07-25 | pricecharting.com/game/pal-sega-master-system/light-phaser-gun |
| Atari XG-1 | $36.15 | $79.53 | 2026-03-19 | pricecharting.com/game/atari-400/atari-xg-1-light-gun |
| Super Scope with Super Scope 6 (US) | $65.00 | $188.50 | 2026-04-21 | pricecharting.com/game/super-nintendo/super-scope-6-gun-bundle |
| Super Scope receiver alone (US) | $15.40 | $44.57 | 2026-05-26 | pricecharting.com/game/super-nintendo/super-scope-sensor |
| Menacer with 6-Game Cartridge (US) | $65.17 | $134.79 | 2025-02-23 | pricecharting.com/game/sega-genesis/menacer-6-game-cartridge-gun-bundle |
| Menacer bundle (PAL) | — | $211.94 | 2023-12-21 | pricecharting.com/game/pal-sega-mega-drive/menacer-gun-bundle |
| Justifier, blue (Genesis) | $41.35 | $82.70 | 2026-09-25 | pricecharting.com/game/sega-genesis/konami-justifier |
| Justifier, pink (player 2) | $144.60 | $289.10 | 2024-02-28 | pricecharting.com/game/sega-genesis/konami-justifier-pink |
| Justifier (Super NES) | $55.71 | $161.56 | 2026-09-27 | pricecharting.com/game/super-nintendo/konami-justifier |
| Justifier (Japanese Mega-CD) | $95.00 | $179.00 | 2025-10-31 | pricecharting.com/game/jp-sega-mega-cd/the-justifier-gun |
| Sega Stunner (US) | $51.94 | $74.50 | 2026-04-26 | pricecharting.com/game/sega-saturn/stunner-lightgun |
| Sega Virtua Gun (Japan) | $44.00 | $62.85 | 2026-08-18 | pricecharting.com/game/jp-sega-saturn/virtua-gun |
| Sega Virtua Gun (PAL) | $46.99 | $174.51 | 2026-01-19 | pricecharting.com/game/pal-sega-saturn/sega-virtua-gun |
| Konami Justifier (PlayStation, US) | $72.49 | $93.78 | 2026-09-14 | pricecharting.com/game/playstation/konami-justifier |
| Konami Hyper Blaster (Japan) | $62.00 | $73.76 | 2026-05-25 | pricecharting.com/game/jp-playstation/konami-hyper-blaster |
| Namco GunCon (US) | $33.96 | $39.48 | 2026-07-27 | pricecharting.com/game/playstation/namco-guncon-light-gun |
| Namco GunCon (Japan) | $34.98 | $50.34 | 2026-08-04 | pricecharting.com/game/jp-playstation/guncon |
| Dreamcast Gun (Japan) | $60.00 | $73.00 | 2026-09-25 | pricecharting.com/game/jp-sega-dreamcast/dreamcast-light-gun |
| House of the Dead 2 with Dreamcast Gun (PAL) | $73.98 | $116.11 | 2026-07-09 | pricecharting.com/game/pal-sega-dreamcast/the-house-of-the-dead-2-gun-bundle |
| Mad Catz Dream Blaster (US) | $69.84 | $98.08 | 2026-09-19 | pricecharting.com/game/sega-dreamcast/dream-blaster-light-gun |
| Namco GunCon 2 (US) | $40.58 | $67.55 | 2026-09-23 | pricecharting.com/game/playstation-2/guncon-2 |
| Namco GunCon 2, black (Japan) | $42.97 | $58.05 | 2023-03-01 | pricecharting.com/game/jp-playstation-2/guncon-2-black |
| GunCon 3 (US) | $45.53 | $54.64 | 2026-09-04 | pricecharting.com/game/playstation-3/guncon-3 |
| Time Crisis 4 with GunCon 3 (Japan) | $107.36 | $131.33 | 2026-07-06 | pricecharting.com/game/jp-playstation-3/time-crisis-4-guncon-3-bundle |
| Wii Zapper | $14.77 | $27.70 | 2026-09-29 | pricecharting.com/game/wii/wii-zapper |
| Top Shot Elite (PlayStation 3) | $12.71 | $18.74 | 2026-06-06 | pricecharting.com/game/playstation-3/top-shot-elite-gun |
| Top Shot Elite (Xbox 360) | $19.04 | $24.75 | 2026-06-30 | pricecharting.com/game/xbox-360/top-shot-elite-gun |
| PS Move Sharp Shooter (US) | $32.49 | $47.50 | 2026-09-28 | pricecharting.com/game/playstation-3/playstation-move-sharp-shooter |
| PS Move Sharp Shooter (PAL) | $44.32 | $53.12 | 2025-11-07 | pricecharting.com/game/pal-playstation-3/playstation-move-sharp-shooter |
What the table says. Three things stand out. The cheapest guns are the commonest: a loose Zapper, Wii Zapper or Top Shot Elite costs under $20. The expensive ones are those made in small numbers or sold by mail order: the pink Justifier at about $145 loose, roughly three times the blue gun, and the Odyssey rifle set. And region swings price as much as rarity does: a complete PAL Virtua Gun fetches more than twice a complete Japanese one for the same mould in a different colour.
Not priced here: the Famicom gun alone (PriceCharting lists only the boxed set), the Menacer receiver alone, the third-party guns of Vols 4 and 5 other than the Dream Blaster, and the pong-era guns, for which no separate pages exist.
7.8 What Is Still Unconfirmed
The catalogue marks these as unconfirmed in the volumes where they appear, and lists them here so that a later pass can close them:
- The Odyssey rifle’s model number, and a photograph of the rifle alone (Vol 2).
- The US SNS- model number of the Super Scope; the SHVC-013 and SHVC-014 numbers come from a collector database (Vol 3).
- The Menacer’s and Justifier’s button names, from Sega’s and Konami’s manuals (Vol 3).
- The GunCon NPC-103, GunCon 2 NPC-106 and GunCon 3 NC-109 numbers from labels (Vols 4 to 6).
- How the dual-format Predator guns meet two consoles and which PlayStation standard each variant follows (Vol 4).
- The American Laser Games GameGun and Peacekeeper Revolver identification tables, from their manuals (Vol 4).
- Sega of America’s stated reason for not selling the Dreamcast Gun, and whether the official gun is refused by North American software or by North American consoles (Vol 5).
- The GunCon 2’s colours by market (Vol 5).
- The Top Shot Elite’s sensing element and model number (Vol 6).
- The Atari XG-1’s games by platform and its pinout, from an Atari document (Vol 2).
Footnotes
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Namco / Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Time Crisis (PlayStation, PAL) instruction manual, G-CON45 sections. Scan: https://archive.org/details/18082024-002 (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩2
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Nintendo of America, Zapper Instruction Manual, ©1988, 1989 (revision 2). Scan: https://archive.org/details/Zapper_1989_Nintendo_US_rev_2 (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Sega of America, The Sega Light Phaser instructions (1986). Scan: https://archive.org/details/Sega_Light_Phaser_Instruction_The_1986_U (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Konami (America), Lethal Enforcers (Super NES, US) instruction manual. Scan: https://archive.org/details/lethal-enforcers-usa (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Nintendo of America, Wii Zapper instruction booklet. https://csassets.nintendo.com/noaext/image/private/t_KA_PDF/wiiZapperTri (read 2026-10-19). ↩
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