Like most geeks, I have always had a soft spot for my Nintendo. It brings back memories of the days where gameplay was more important than fancy graphics and lousy gimmicks. In recent years though, emulators have been fulfilling my nostalgia craving while my NES has been sitting in a cabinet accumulating dust. But a few weeks ago, I ran across it and hooked it up to play a little Duck Hunt. While I was playing (and that damned dog kept laughing at me -- man I hate that dog), an idea hit me. Wouldn't it be cool if I had a laser sight on my Zapper? Yes, yes it would. So I got to work on this mod. I figured some other people would enjoy pwning some ducks with a souped up light gun, so I documented the whole project.
By the end of this tutorial, you'll have the knowledget to make your own Laser-Sighted Zapper Light gun. It should be fairly easy for anyone with even a little bit of technical experience to follow.
A Laser-Sighted NES Zapper
You'll need some supplies before we get started. The major stuff is likely already in your house (if you're a geek that is). Most of this stuff (like an NES and a Duck Hunt) are practically necessities even if you aren't going to trick out a light gun with a laser.
Materials:
In regard to the laser pointer, you will probably want to buy a new one rather than using one that you already have because later on in the tutorial, we'll be disassembling it, soldering
wires to it, and attaching it to the gun. I got my laser from
ThinkGeek Computing
because it was cheap and it uses AAA batteries. You have the option of going with
red
or
green
(black version); I got the red one simply because it was cheaper. But whatever, dare to splurge, right?
You will also need a soldering iron, some solder, a paperclip, tools, and various other things that I didn't include because I assumed most people would already have them. If you don't, you'll need to stop by your local hardware store.