Light Gun - Positional Guns

Positional Guns

Positional guns are fairly common in video arcades. A positional gun is a gun mounted to the cabinet on a swivel that allows the player to aim the gun. These are often confused with light guns but work quite differently. These guns may not be removed from the cabinet like the optical counterparts, which are tethered and stored in a mounted holster. They are typically more expensive initially but easier to maintain and repair. Games that use positional guns include Silent Scope, the arcade version of Resident Evil Survivor, Space Gun, Revolution X, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. console Ports sometimes use light guns.

A positional gun is essentially an analog joystick that records the position of the gun to determine where the player is aiming on the screen. The gun must be calibrated, which usually happens after powering up. Early examples of a positional gun include Sega's Sea Devil in 1972, Taito's Attack in 1976 and Cross Fire in 1977, and Nintendo's Battle Shark in 1978. Some games, however, have mounted optical guns, such as Exidy's Crossbow.