A Chinese seller on eBay is selling the cabinet cameras for time crisis 3, the only thing I don’t see for sale are the guns themselves until they posted some guns that claim to work for time crisis 1-4. This caught my attention because this light gun was in the original design opposed to the upgrade version time crisis 4 uses. Plus, time crisis 4 doesn’t uses optical gun technology. I went ahead and bought one. Well, it’s a NAMED branded gun. It uses an optical sensor instead of a camera. The manual for the camera version uses the rays pcb but I think time crisis 3 is also compatible with crisis zone’s I/O pcb, with a different eprom? What I’m most curious about this setup is if it still needs a crt or projector screen for the cameras to register the shots or can a led/lcd screen can be used? I wish I had a complete crisis zone set or vampire night pcb to test this theory out as well. I guess that one reason they’re so rare is because they (the gun sensor and cabinet cameras) break/fail so easily. Plus, I’m guessing no operator wanted to pay more for the camera technology opposed to the easy to “fix” optical technology version.
As for Namco not sticking with camera technology, I guess that IR was far more cheaper and easier to work with than camera setups. Obviously, as IR tech became more cheaper and widely used, camera tech wasn’t going to stick around for much longer. Hopefully we don’t have to worry about this longer as I have some hope that the sinden light gun and the OSSC can make these games playable on a modern flat screen and with great accuracy!
Time Crisis 4 (and all of Namco's subsequent HD shooters) use the same OMZ IR guns as Sega. It's definitely not a cheaper set-up. I'd say it's probably even more expensive than the CCD camera set-up.
It's weird that the CCD option exists for Time Crisis 3 given that the camera version cabs still appear to use the same CRT rear projection TVs as the regular deluxe version.
I always thought that the only reason that Crisis Zone used a camera set-up was because it's a machine gun only game. When you play it on the PS2 with a real light gun the flashing is a bit much. It looks like a Japanese wedding...
Time Crisis 4 is a 480p game so they wouldn't have been able to use the same light gun I/O as TC 2 and 3. The company seemed to lose it's taste for developing it's own custom hardware in that period. The OMZ guns were an easy off-the-shelf 3rd party option.
My guess as to why they didn't use CCD guns for TC4 would be compatibility issues with monitors that have anti glare / anti reflective coatings. Who knows though. It could have been maintenance issues too as used Crisis Zone guns always seem to be broken...
BTW, those "Named" Time Crisis guns are just Chinese knock-offs of the regular Time Crisis 1, 2 and 3 guns. Compatibility with Time Crisis 4 would have been a typo.
The only way you'd be able to use a Time Crisis 4 gun to play TC3 or TC2 would be a custom USB adapter / converter (like a UHID but for a Namco 246) or... Using a PS2 emulator on a PC.
Personally, I think playing Time Crisis 1, 2 and 3 on HD flat screen monitors is the wrong goal. Old light gun games look an play best with a real light gun on a CRT.
If the goal is to play them on a larger screen then a CRT projector is the way to go IMO. I bought a pair for my basement recently. With the right screen and Namco's amplified gun sensors, a 70"-100" 4:3 screen is no issue.
This isn't my video but it does the job:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxbrxXPBigk
The old 15khz only 7" CRT projectors with RGB are dirt cheap on ebay. They're small and light enough to move on your own and take up no more floor space than a 27" crt monitor.
All fellow light gun fanatics should own a set of OMZ guns too but for all the Sega and Namco's HD shooters.
There is a whole lot of awesome light gun games and HD shooters. Enough that it's worth investing in both IMO.
