Light-Gun Glossary

Glossary

CRT	Cathode-ray tube; a display that draws an image line by line and provides the time base that CRT light guns read.
Light gun	A shooting input that reports an aim point; the family mixes optical, positional, and camera/marker mechanisms.
Traditional optical gun	A display-sensing gun whose barrel detects light emitted by the CRT.
Positional / mounted gun	A gun whose aim is read from a physical mount, not from the display.
Pointer / marker system	A gun that observes references (IR LEDs, a border) rather than screen pixels. Examples: Sinden, GUN4IR, OpenFIRE, Wii Remote.
Raster	The line-by-line beam scan of a CRT; its sync signals provide the time reference for a light gun.
Target flash	CRT technique in which the game blanks the screen, then draws each target as a bright box to tell the sensor which one it is.
Raw input	A low-level, per-device input API useful for routing several pointing devices that the operating system would otherwise merge.
Absolute pointer / HID	A controller that reports a stable on-screen coordinate and stays there without continued motion, as a light gun must.
Recoil	A solenoid-driven kick in the gun for firing feedback.
Off-screen reload	Pointing the gun away for by pointing at a sensor pad to reload, instead of pressing a reload button.
GunCon / G-Con	Namco's PlayStation gun accessory; names differ by region.
Virtua Gun / Stunner	Regional names for the Sega Saturn light gun.