Topic: The Zapper

Which do you like better, the grey one or the orange one?

I've had the orange one all my life, but I think the grey one looks cooler. Darn regulations.

The orange one.

I had the gray one cause I got my NES the first week they came out in the US, and my friend had the orange one cause he got his about a year later. I like they gray one alot better the orange one reminds me too much of a water gun lol.

I guess I'll keep my nuclear orange one.

I believe the reason why they changed the Zapper color to orange is because people would think it'd be a real gun since it was gray.

It was regulations. If anything, the Japanese revolver would be unallowed.

The gray one (which I have).

Yep that was exactly the reason they changed the color.

It was due to regulations. The thing didn't even look like a real gun.

It wasnt a question of if it looked like a real gun but could it be mistaken for a real gun. Thats all Nintendo would need is for a police offer to mistaken the original zapper for a real gun and worst case scenario shoot and kill someone than have that persons family sue Nintendo over it. Its just a case of CYA.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/03/05/hostage-held-for-10....

That doesn't stop them from being mistaken for guns.

So, earlier today I had wanted to play Gumshoe on the NES, since I hadn't played it in a long time. I had pulled out my Zapper from the drawer, but something was amiss. Now, the Zapper functions (it still has the shoot effect onscreen), but it doesn't work. I tried shooting my Zapper at Stevenson, and he wasn't jumping. I also tried to shoot at the can, but it wasn't being shot. I'm wondering if it's because of my widescreen HDTV, because these games were originally meant for normal TVs, though I'm unsure. Either way, if the objects onscreen can't be shot, I can't play my light gun games.

Yah, the Zapper only works on older TVs.

sigh
Thought so.

Yes, sadly, the tech used for the Zapper will not work with modern TVs.

By the way, Gumshoe is an AWESOME game. I loved finding all the alternate paths through the levels, and finally beating it after putting hours and hours and hours into it was so satisfying. I wonder why there weren't any more similar zapper-based platform games made? I mean, it was very challenging, but it seems like the kind of original type of idea that Nintendo would have pursued further.

I have never owned an orange Zapper, nor has anyone else I know. Are they rare or something?

Not really. When the NES first came out in the US the NES zapper was gray about a year or so later they changed the color to a bright neon orange so as not to confuse it with a real gun or so the story goes. You can probably google pics of the two zappers to see what the different color schemes.

To answer your question I would think that the gray zapper is more rare than the orange one since the gray one had a shorter life span. Other than the color they are exactally the same.

I see. Oh well, I never used the Zapper much anyway. The only game anybody I know ever really played that used it was Duck Hunt.