I know this isn't news for a lot of you, but it doesn't seem to have its own thread in the Brewery yet, so here we go...

A genius named Alexey over at NESLCDmod.com has devised a way to hack ROMs of certain beloved Zapper Gun games so that you can auto-calibrate a reaction delay so that they will play on HDTVs with new third-party gun controllers.  The OEM Zapper doesn't appear to work on LCDs (although it does seem to work on plasmas) but a $6 Tomee Zapp gun does the trick perfectly (for me at least!) and the trigger mechanism is much easier on the forearm than the OEM Zapper.  Just download the ips patches from the site, patch the ROMs, load them on to your favorite flashcart, set your TV to GAME mode, boot the game, fire your Zapp gun at the top of the screen to auto-calibrate the delay, start the game, and presto!  You're in Duck Hunt heaven.  I tried it for the first time this morning on my Sony 4K TV and it worked perfectly using the modified ROM on my PowerPak with my toaster NES and Tomee Zapp gun.  Keep the room as dark as possible for best results.  If you are using an AVS, make sure the Four Score setting is turned off.  If for some reason the auto-calibration doesn't work for you, you can dial it in manually at the title screen using the D-pad.  Patches are currently available for:

Duck Hunt (works perfectly whether ducks or clay pigeons)
Duck Hunt Vs. (buggy -- aiming is way off)
Hogan's Alley (works perfectly for Hogan's Alley Game A; Game B and Trick Shot are buggy)
Wild Gunman (works perfectly on all game modes)
Barker Bill's Trick Shooting (buggy)

Here's hoping they have Mechanized Attack in the works!

http://neslcdmod.com/...

Many thanks to Avlon for making me aware of this over on the Scoreboard/AVS forum!

Def works and is decent. I tried to mod my og zapper with the LED from the zap gun as seen one of the yt videos and failed. I gotta have a real Zapper solution. The zap gun is shit with it's cheap feel and short ass chord. Still pretty dope tho.

Little bit of a discussion here too: http://nintendoage.com/forum/mess...

Ya know, I'd forgotten that I had posted on that other thread, and didn't even realize it was primarily about these ROM hacks and not the Hyperkin gun.  DOH!

At any rate, except for the admittedly short cord, I vastly prefer the Tomee gun to the OG Zapper; no, not as rugged of plastic, but quieter and much more comfortable to use for long periods of time due to the lighter plastic and improved trigger mechanism. If Mechanized Attack ever gets one of these patches, I'd actually be able to play it without my arm falling off. Extended rapid firing is a real bitch on the OG Zapper.

I think patching the ROMS and using the off-the-shelf Zapp gun is a great solution.  If there were NES controller extension cords that were actually any good and didn't glitch all the time, it would be a stupendous solution.

https://www.lightgunverter.com...

That was mentioned in the other thread.  Clunky.  For NES games I prefer the romhack & Zapp gun solution.

 

I just found this vintage set of NES controller extension cables on eBay that says they're Zapper compatible right on the box.  Can't wait to test them out, both for Zapp gun purposes and because the two sets of new ones I've gotten are glitchy garbage.  I'll report back afterwards.

Hi there! You could do the cable by your self. There is only 4 pins in use for Zapper. It could be internet cable. Socket could be done out of non working gamepad or any potato  

Hi Alexey!  Glad you could join us!   

I'm not much of a do-it-yourself guy, so I really hope these vintage cables work!