A new $110 light gun for old Duck Hunts: Ars tests an HDTV-friendly option

Enlarge / Duck Hunt without a CRT? It's finally doable, thanks to the Sinden Lightgun. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

Over the past decade, we've seen nearly every classic gaming console receive a cute, miniaturized re-release-and the variety has been staggering, from titans like the NES to arcade niche favorites like Neo Geo and Sega Astro City.

Yet somehow, one massive retro-gaming category has been left unmined for a nostalgic buck: the light gun genre. Nintendo never packed shooting-gallery classics like Duck Hunt into a plug-and-play Zapper, while companies like Sega and Namco have never released their legendary arcade gun games as convenient, shoot-at-the-TV collector's editions.

Until recently, the wisdom preventing such a launch has been limitations with modern HDTVs; light gun games were largely coded for older screen technologies. But one enterprising Indiegogo project from 2019, the Sinden Lightgun, set its sights on solving the problem in a roundabout, DIY way: with a new plastic gun, starting at $110, that combines an RGB sensor with incredibly low-latency response times. After wondering how such a system works in practice (and increasingly wanting a retro-arcade experience in my locked-down home), I finally got my hands on the Sinden this week, provided by its namesake creator, British engineer Andy Sinden.

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