Classic Guns on Flat Panels — What Works, What Does Not, and the Claims Weighed Against the Evidence

5.1 The short answer

No modification makes a CRT light gun read a flat panel the way it read a CRT. The reason is told once, in History of Light Guns, Volume 6: the gun measured when a scanning beam lit the patch it was aimed at, and a flat panel has no scanning beam, holds its image for a whole frame, and shows it a frame or more late on its own clock. Nothing inside the gun can recover a quantity the screen no longer produces.

What can be done depends on what the console expects from the gun, and there are three different answers. Two of them have working products; the third does not. Everything sold as a “light gun fix for modern TVs” belongs to one of the three, and most of the confusion comes from treating them as one.

5.2 Three expectations, three routes

The three kinds are those of Volume 1, §1.2. The camera guns, the fourth kind, already work on any display.

5.3 Yes-or-no guns: fix the sensor and the game

The Zapper fails on a flat panel for two separate reasons, and a fix has to address both (Console Light Guns, Volume 2):

1. The sensor. Its filter passes light flickering near the CRT’s line rate; Nick Bild measured the response between about 13.5 and 20 kHz.¹ A held LCD image does not flicker at that rate, so the sensor never asserts.
2. The lag. The game looks for the white box in a particular frame; a flat panel shows it later.

NESdev records that a combination of clone hardware with a weaker filter (it names the Tomee Zapp Gun and the Simba’s Jr) and a software patch to compensate for display lag “can make some games work”.² Two products set out to do it properly.

Modern Mallard (2018). Jeff Keacher’s kit, crowdfunded under Metsasta LLC, had two boards.^{3 4} His own technical description is the best published design for this route:

• In the Zapper, a replacement board with a photodiode, a transimpedance amplifier and a gain stage with servo control, sampled by a PIC16F18313 microcontroller that filters the signal, sets a slicer level and drives the NES’s light line. It is “responsive to light all the way down to a DC (i.e., no) modulation frequency”, with “logic to filter out the effects of room lighting, even fluorescent and LED room lights”, and needs about 64 ms looking at the screen before a shot to set its threshold.
• On the cartridge, a pass-through board with a fast NXP Cortex-M4 that watches the NES address bus and substitutes patched code that, in his words, effectively rewrites “the entire shot-handling and hit-detection modules of the game”, with auto-calibration: the player shoots the menu screen once so the game can measure the television’s delay. Keacher gave “between 16 and 100 ms” as the typical lag of LCD televisions; that is his figure, not a measurement published with it.

It supported Duck Hunt only, was priced from $129, and the campaign failed: $6,260 raised of a $125,000 goal from 59 backers, per Kicktraq.⁵ Its design remains the clearest statement of what this route requires.

Hyperkin Hyper Blaster HD (2019). Hyperkin showed a replica Zapper with an “HD adapter to sync its sensor with the television” at CES in January 2019; Kotaku reported it would need an original NES and Duck Hunt cartridge, with no price yet.⁶ A later video review reported a $24.99 price and sensitivity and delay adjustments; that is a secondary report, and Hyperkin’s own product page no longer exists, so what shipped could not be confirmed.

What this route cannot do. Every version is one game at a time (or one patched ROM at a time), and it only works for games that ask the yes-or-no question. It has nothing to offer a console that measures time.

5.4 Gun-side counters: imitate the gun

The GunCon family is the one case where a flat panel is no obstacle at all, provided the original gun is not used. A GunCon reports X and Y to the console as data (Volume 1, §1.4); the console never sees the screen. Anything that answers the console’s polls with the right numbers is, to the game, a GunCon. A modern camera gun already knows where on the LCD it points; it only needs a translator.

SindenPS is that translator. Revamped in 2026 by community member th3drk0ne and documented on the Sinden wiki, it is a Raspberry Pi that reads a Sinden gun (a border-tracking camera gun) and two kinds of Arduino that face the console: an Arduino Nano Supermini on a small board in a printed dongle that plugs into the PlayStation controller port and emulates the G-Con 45, and an Arduino Pro Micro on a Pi hat that plugs into the PlayStation 2’s USB port and “emulates official G-Con2 USB descriptors”.^{7 8} Its repository describes it as a “custom hardware–software bridge that lets modern Sinden Lightguns behave like authentic PlayStation 1 or 2 lightguns”, lists Time Crisis 1, II and 3, Virtua Cop: Elite Edition, Vampire Night, Crisis Zone and Point Blank among the games, and runs two guns on a Pi 4 or Pi 5.⁸ The wiki adds two practical points: the G-Con 45 side “is easier to emulate” and “tends to be faster and more responsive”, and some PS2 games accept only the G-Con 2, with compatibility varying by region.⁷

Two things about this route are easily missed:

• The scaler’s role is to draw a border, not to fix the gun. A Sinden gun aims by finding a white border round the picture; on a console that does not draw one, something in the video path must. The wiki’s instructions are to turn on the RetroTINK 5X Pro’s “lightgun border” (on firmware that has it; “the feature comes and goes”), to set the RetroTINK 4K’s masking colour to white and show it always, or to enable the PixelFX Retro GEM’s “Lightgun Borders”.⁷ That is the whole of the scalers’ contribution.
• No latency figures are published. The repository says “low-latency” without numbers, and the wiki’s suggestion that a 120 Hz output mode should reduce lag is marked “not confirmed”.^{8 7}

Nothing about the approach is specific to Sinden. An OpenFIRE gun presents itself to a computer as a mouse, keyboard and gamepad (Open-Source Firmware, Volume 6); feeding its position into a G-Con emulator is the same software job. Whether anyone has done it was not found. It belongs to Original Consoles (planned), where running these games on real PlayStations is the subject.

5.5 Latch guns: the timed-edge route

The Light Phaser, Super Scope, Menacer and Justifier, and Konami’s IRQ10 guns on the PlayStation, are different. The console does not ask for numbers; it freezes its own beam counters at the instant the gun’s line changes (Volume 1). PSX-SPX’s description of the Konami guns says the coordinates “must be read from Timer 0 and 1 upon receiving IRQ10”,⁹ and the console’s timers are clocked by its own video.

So an imitation would have to produce an edge at the right time, not a number. That is possible in principle: the console’s video output still carries its own sync whatever display is attached; a modern gun can supply the aim point; and a microcontroller watching the sync could pull the gun line at the line and dot time corresponding to that point, plus whatever fixed delay the game’s calibration expects. Ben Ryves’s Mega Drive adaptor (Volume 2, §2.9) shows how simple the console side is: a Menacer game is satisfied by a latched, RC-delayed edge from a different gun.¹⁰ The timing budget is tight, a microsecond or so of jitter (History, §6.3), which is within an RP2040’s PIO but not trivial.

It has been built, twice, though never sold. Correction, 2026-10-24: this section first said that no product or published project doing this had been found. Charlie Cole’s open-source LightGunVerter (2017 to 2019) separates sync from the console’s composite video, takes the aim from a Wii Remote and pulls the gun line, or flashes an LED into an original gun’s barrel, at the moment the beam would reach the aim point, with cables for the NES, Master System and Saturn; Ben Ryves’s Light Gun Commando (2022 to 2023) does the same with an LM1881 sync separator for the Master System, Mega Drive Justifier, Saturn, the Konami PlayStation guns and the Dreamcast. Both are read in detail in Original Consoles, Volume 3. Neither is for sale: LightGunVerter is licensed non-commercial and its last firmware is from January 2019, and Light Gun Commando’s design was not published.

5.6 What scalers and HDMI mods actually do for a light gun

Three device types turn up whenever this question is asked. None makes a CRT gun work on a flat panel.

Table 1 — 5.6 What scalers and HDMI mods actually do for a light gun

Device	What it does for a light gun	Evidence
Line doublers and scalers (OSSC, RetroTINK, PixelFX)	Draw the white border that a Sinden-type gun needs (§5.4). Their “CRT simulation” modes are visual effects, not a scanning beam. Through a scaler to a flat panel, a CRT gun still fails.	Sinden wiki;7 no maker’s claim of CRT-gun support found
Scaler to a CRT	Can work when the output stays at a rate the gun understands. One owner reports all his consoles’ guns working through a RetroTINK 4K into a VGA CRT monitor.	Forum anecdote, February 2025;11 not tested here
HDMI mods (PS1 Digital, DC Digital, XboxHD+)	Give a digital output. A light gun then works only if that output is converted back to analogue and shown on a CRT at the right rate.	VideoGamePerfection tests, 2022 and 202612 13

The HDMI-mod tests are the most careful published evidence. In 2022, VideoGamePerfection found the Dreamcast’s DC Digital working with House of the Dead 2, Confidential Mission and Death Crimson 2 at 480p through an HD Fury 3 converter to a CRT; the XboxHD+ partly working through a converter to a 31 kHz CRT (House of the Dead 3 well, Silent Scope not at all); and the PS1 Digital failing, with the G-Con 45 registering hits “wildly off target”.¹² By March 2026 a pass-through mode had changed the PS1 result: with the PS1 Digital (RetroGEM) in “DV1-Direct” mode, which the article says “MUST be used with light guns”, and an HD Fury 2 or Nano converter (the HD Fury 3 could not handle the PS1’s jitter), two G-Con 45s worked on a Mitsubishi CRT. Its conclusion is plain: the setup “still requires a classic, 15khz compatible CRT television or monitor”.¹³

5.7 Keeping the CRT and changing the host

The other way round is often what people actually want: keep the classic gun and a CRT, and play on a PC, a Raspberry Pi or a MiSTer.

• GunCon 2 on MiSTer. MiSTer’s official kernel and main program now include CRT light-gun handling and drivers for the GunCon 2 and 3; the GunCon 2’s video lead is fed from composite sync, a component luma signal or sync-on-green, and the project rates it “Good” on NES and SNES cores and “Okay” on the Master System.¹⁴
• GunCon 2 on Linux and Windows. A Linux kernel driver and a Windows tool exist (Volume 2, §2.3).¹⁵
• GunCon 1 to USB. A 2021 forum post announced GUN2CRT, an adapter by the GUN4IR maker for using a GunCon 1 with USB hosts at resolutions from 240p to 960p, still on a CRT;¹⁶ and an Arduino project, GunconDuino, presents a PlayStation GunCon as a mouse.¹⁷

These belong in detail to the MiSTer FPGA and PC dives. Here the point is that the CRT stays: every one of them still needs one.

5.8 Claims and evidence

Table 2 — 5.8 Claims and evidence

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
”A firmware or filter change lets a Zapper work on an LCD”	False for the gun alone; partly true with a DC-responsive sensor and a patched game	NESdev; Modern Mallard design2 3
“LCDs add 16 to 100 ms of lag”	A designer’s figure, unmeasured in the source	Keacher, 20183
”The Hyper Blaster HD makes Duck Hunt work on any TV”	Shown at CES 2019 for original NES and Duck Hunt only; shipped details unconfirmed	Kotaku6
”A RetroTINK makes light guns work on modern TVs”	False. It draws a border for a border-tracking gun; no CRT-gun support is claimed by its maker	Sinden wiki7
”A PS1 HDMI mod keeps the GunCon working”	True only into a CRT, in DV1-Direct mode, through a converter that tolerates the PS1’s jitter	VideoGamePerfection, 202613
”A Sega Menacer works on an LCD” (video, 2019)	Unsupported. Never authenticated; the one owner’s test on a plasma showed a cursor jumping wildly	ArcadeControls forum18
”SindenPS lets PS1 and PS2 GunCon games run on an LCD”	True by design, because the console only reads numbers; latency unpublished	SindenPS, Sinden wiki8 7
“Super Scope or Menacer games can be made to work on an LCD with an adapter”	True for other latch guns, unshown for these two: timing boxes exist for the Master System, Mega Drive Justifier and Saturn; neither names the Super Scope or Menacer (§5.5)	LightGunVerter; Light Gun Commando
”GUN4IR averages 4 ms of latency”	A forum post’s claim, not a published measurement	Shmups forum, 202116

5.9 Why this, and why not the others

This project’s question is narrower: whether any of these routes earns a place in the build. The guns being built are OpenFIRE guns on a PC, so none of the original-console routes is on the critical path; the useful outcome is knowing which experiments are worth a bench day later.

Table 3 — 5.9 Why this, and why not the others

Route	For this project	Reason
G-Con emulation from an OpenFIRE gun (the SindenPS pattern)	Worth a later experiment	The console side is solved and open; only the gun-side input differs; it would let the project’s own guns play original PlayStation games on the household LCD
Latch-gun edge generator (§5.5)	Candidate for a later experiment (Original Consoles, Volume 5)	Tractable on an RP2040; two prior designs to learn from (one open but non-commercial), and a microsecond timing budget
Zapper sensor plus patched game	Not pursued	One game per patch; the Modern Mallard design is published if wanted
Scaler or HDMI mod for a CRT gun	Not applicable	Still needs a CRT

5.10 What could not be verified

• Shipped specification of the Hyper Blaster HD: Hyperkin’s page is gone; only announcement coverage and a video review were found.
• Any latency measurement for SindenPS, GUN4IR or any flat-panel rescue.
• Whether the Modern Mallard boards were ever made beyond prototypes after the failed campaign.
• Any latch-gun emulator for sale. Two hobby designs exist (§5.5); none is a product.
• RetroTINK’s own statement on light guns: none found on its product page.

Footnotes

1. Nick Bild, “How the NES Zapper REALLY Works”, Hackaday.io, 5 May 2025. https://hackaday.io/project/203034-how-the-nes-zapper-really-works/details (read 2026-10-19). ↩

2. NESdev Wiki, “Zapper”. https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/Zapper (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩²

3. Teuobk (Jeff Keacher), “Modern Mallard: a kit to make the NES game Duck Hunt work on an LCD TV”, EEVblog forum, 28 June 2018. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/modern-mallard-a-kit-to-make-the-nes-game-duck-hunt-work-on-an-lcd-tv/ (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. “Modern Mallard”, Tedium, 17 July 2018. https://tedium.co/2018/07/17/duck-hunt-modern-mallard/ (read 2026-10-19). ↩

5. Kicktraq, “Modern Mallard” by Metsasta LLC. https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/metsasta/modern-mallard/ (seen 2026-10-19; funding unsuccessful). ↩

6. Mike Fahey, “Soon You’ll Be Able To Play Duck Hunt On Modern TVs”, Kotaku, 7 January 2019. https://kotaku.com/soon-youll-be-able-to-play-duck-hunt-on-modern-tvs-1831548013 (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩²

7. Sinden Lightgun wiki, “OG Console Setup Guide”, as captured on 10 June 2026. https://www.sindenwiki.org/wiki/OG_Console_Setup_Guide (the live page refused automated access on 2026-10-19; read from the Internet Archive capture). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

8. th3drk0ne, “sindenps”, GitHub README. https://github.com/th3drk0ne/sindenps (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Martin Korth (nocash), PSX-SPX, “Controllers - Lightguns - Konami Justifier/Hyperblaster (IRQ10)”. https://psx-spx.consoledev.net/controllersandmemorycards/ (read 2026-10-19). ↩

10. Ben Ryves, “Mega Drive Gun Adaptors”. https://www.benryves.com/products/megadrivegunadaptors (read 2026-10-19). ↩

11. r/crtgaming, “HD CRT with light gun, am I SOL?”, February 2025 (read via a mirror, 2026-10-19). Owner’s anecdote. ↩

12. BuckoA51, “Light Guns and HDMI Mods”, VideoGamePerfection, 12 July 2022, updated 24 March 2026. https://videogameperfection.com/2022/07/12/light-guns-hdmi/ (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩²

13. BuckoA51, “Lightguns and HDMI mods – GunCon 1 Edition”, VideoGamePerfection, 23 March 2026. https://videogameperfection.com/2026/03/23/lightguns-guncon-edition/ (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩² ↩³

14. Nolan Nicholson, “GunCon2-MiSTer”, README. https://github.com/NolanNicholson/GunCon2-MiSTer (read 2026-10-19). ↩

15. beardypig, “guncon2” Linux driver. https://github.com/beardypig/guncon2 (read 2026-10-19). ↩

16. Gunstar, “GUN2CRT - Namco GunCon for USB HID devices (Mame/Mister/Pi)”, shmups.system11.org forum, 20 March 2021. https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=1447180 (read 2026-10-19). ↩ ↩²

17. sonik-br, “GunconDuino: PS1 Guncon controller as a Mouse via Arduino”, GitHub. https://github.com/sonik-br/GunconDuino (seen 2026-10-19). ↩

18. ArcadeControls forum, “WTF - Sega Menacer working on an LCD flatscreen… How???”, from 30 December 2019. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=161682.0 (read 2026-10-19). ↩