Topic: Duck Hunt?

Do people reckon Duck Hunt will ever get a Virtual Console release? I could see a Wii Remote being used as the gun but I reckon Ninty may not go for it.

I hear the NES zapper doesn't work the same internally as a Wii remote even though you're still pointing them at the screen.

I don't think any Zapper game is on the VC so I would not get my hopes up.

Nintendo had plans there, a round of Zapper releases saw ESRB reviews during the early months of the original Virtual Console. But nothing ever happened.

Doesn't matter, they'd make them work by having the emulator interpret where you were aiming and have that translated to the appropriate signal. In other words, exactly how you'd control them with your mouse in a PC NES emulator. And hopefully a calibration routine so you could disable the on-screen aiming reticle if you desired would be included like a few light gun style shooters on the Wii did after getting everything set, for an experience closest to the original.

For games without such a thing, where you're aiming with a Wii remote never precisely matches what you're aiming at on-screen, which requires that something be displayed on-screen. So instead of really aiming with a gun, you're just moving an on-screen cursor with your Wii remote.

Better than moving it with an analog stick, but if Nintendo ever releases these, I hope they go all the way so we could use the sights on gun shells like the Zapper and Nyko's Perfect Shot or whatever that popular one was called.

...No. It's really just because there aren't any zapper games on the Virtual Console, so my hopes aren't very high.

Nope

They're more likely to make a new Duck Hunt game for Wii U

Only Operation Wolf on the Wii VC, but I read that only supports the standard controller mode.
(if it had remote support, I might consider playing it as I find the physical NES Zapper uncomfortable for a fast-action game)

Duck Hunt was made with CRT's in mind so I'm kind of sure it's impossible actually to get it on VC if you still want to hold a gun and point and shoot at the screen. I really do recommend getting a NES and copy of the game (which is worth like 50 cents) though. It's ridiculously fun.

Again, it would be extremely easy to simulate with a Wii remote just as most any homebrew NES emulator can do with your mouse cursor on the PC.

Nintendo had plans there that were never followed through for whatever reason, but Zapper games on the Wii or now Wii U would in no way be dependent upon getting an actual light gun working.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/07/dunk-hunt-others-get-esrbs-...

They didn't pay ESRB rating fees just because they felt like spending money.

It can be done — NES emulators for the Wii do it by having the Wiimote display a cursor/sight on the screen. You can't do the same "line of sight" thing that classic light guns did because of the way that the Wiimote interacts with the screen (i.e., via the sensor bar).

But that being said, having the on-screen sight/cursor makes the games so stupidly easy that they're barely worth playing.

In short — don't expect to ever see Zapper games on VC.

With a good calibration routine, it's possible to aim with accuracy without displaying something on-screen.

There's several Wii light gun style games that let you turn off the on-screen crosshairs and aim accurately after calibrating just with the sight on something like the popular Nyko Perfect Shot gun shell (Ghost Squad and House of the Dead II/III leap to mind).

Duck Hunt Uprising for Nintendo Wii U

Good point. I expect that Ninty wouldn't want to put the time and money into coding a solid calibration system into the NES Zapper games (which obviously weren't coded in the same fashion — and weren't needed to be, when taking into account the differences between CRT and modern screens).

I would love to see a release of Gumshoe though. Such an awesome game, and highly recommended to anyone with an NES/Zapper/CRT screen.

Also, i have the Nyko Perfect Shot, which is an excellent peripheral. I don't play House of the Dead Overkill any other way

They wouldn't be touching the NES code for each game, it would all happen at the emulation layer just as we've already talked about with the various workarounds that many homebrew NES emulators have done for years.

It's really not a difficult thing to accomplish, so hopefully they do just that one of these days. Would open up a fair selection of titles as likely candidates for release and several others that would be reasonable possibilities (I've listed those that would appear to have a chance of release, below).

-The Adventures of Bayou Billy (Konami)
-Barker Bill's Trick Shooting (Nintendo; Easy to eliminate the licensing since it's just a name on the title screen)
-Day Dreamin' Davey (HAL)
-Duck Hunt (Nintendo)
-Freedom Force (Sunsoft)
-Gumshoe (Nintendo)
-Hogan's Alley (Nintendo)
-Laser Invasion (Konami)
-Lone Ranger (Konami; Questionable, but the famous theme is public domain and I think the tv series also now is)
-Mechanized Attack (SNK; Not a Wii U Virtual Console supporter at this time, but they were last time)
-Operation Wolf (Taito; Owned by Square Enix and they're releasing games in Japan, plus this saw a Wii release)
-Shooting Range (Namco Bandai)
-To the Earth (Nintendo)
-Track & Field II (Konami)
-Wild Gunman (Nintendo)

I think the critical mass is there even with just 1/3 of these to justify the minimal amount of programming to modify the emulator to allow the Wii remote to move an on-screen reticle around and translating each shot to the appropriate input to the software. And a calibration routine that has you shoot the four corners of your television to be able to disable the on-screen crosshairs and shoot accurately if desired is unlikely to cost much.

The nostalgia and resulting sales with Duck Hunt alone would probably more than justify the effort.

True. Duck Hunt would almost certainly be insta-downloaded to a tremendous extent (and Wild Gunman would probably be not far behind).

Of course, this would require effort, something that Ninty has demonstrated that they are rarely willing to contribute when it comes to releases of VC games.

Duck Hunt was announced today for the Wii U Virtual Console and will require a Wii remote to play.

Maybe, just maybe, they will also be revisiting their SuperNes emulator and patching in Super FX support. I'd love to download Star Fox on my Wii U.

@GoneFishin: The reason that they can't do Super FX is that Nintendo doesn't fully own the Super FX chip technology A company named Argonaut Games developed the chip for Nintendo. Sadly the company was liquidated in 2006, so its anyone guess who owns the rights to the chip now which I am guessing is not Nintendo. More then likely it's whoever bought the IP rights to the chip in liquidation court.

So I am a bit confused when this game arrives will I be able to play it on my current TV or will I have to use my CRT TV? I thought that modern TVs can't recreated the light gun technology needed for games like Duck Hunt or Hogan's Alley? I mean this is coming to the VC so its just an emulation of the original game, or am I missing something?

You use the Wii Remote.