How the Nintendo Zapper worked in Slow Motion - The Slow Mo Guys

2024 ж. 19 Мам.
1 853 475 Рет қаралды

Gav cranks up the fastest phantom to show the simple yet fascinating approach to shooting ducks on your telly in the mid 80s.
Instagram - / theslowmoguys
Filmed at up to 1,750,000 with the Phantom TMX 7510
How the Nintendo Zapper worked in Slow Motion - The Slow Mo Guys

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  • I really want to see the laser scanner at a grocery store checkout. It seems to have mirrors moving very fast

    @jckatz@jckatz5 ай бұрын
    • I second this

      @yourejustjelley@yourejustjelley5 ай бұрын
    • This ⤴️

      @thebeardofknowledge@thebeardofknowledge5 ай бұрын
    • i fourth this

      @kuzeyrl@kuzeyrl5 ай бұрын
    • Nth this

      @aesbj9228@aesbj92285 ай бұрын
    • There are! There are actually a few mirrors, 3 or 4 small spinning in the center, and two bigger ones to spread the beam in several directions when the scanner is operating.

      @FelkniaMusic@FelkniaMusic5 ай бұрын
  • I'd love to see an inkjet printer in slow-motion! I think the ink droplets falling on paper would be interesting

    @Wald246@Wald2465 ай бұрын
    • Even the Slo-mo Guys can't afford to waste that much printer ink

      @MrSkinnyWhale@MrSkinnyWhale5 ай бұрын
    • @@MrSkinnyWhale 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

      @Watchyn_Yarwood@Watchyn_Yarwood5 ай бұрын
    • @@MrSkinnyWhale Funny as that is, they could use an Epson Eco Tank printer.

      @mllarson@mllarson5 ай бұрын
    • Sounds great, but it'll probably be tricky to get camera vision there, with the printer head on one side and the paper+roller on the other.

      @DutchBlackMantha@DutchBlackMantha5 ай бұрын
    • @@MrSkinnyWhaleHahaha! 😂

      @kasperchristensen8416@kasperchristensen84165 ай бұрын
  • I'm 55 years old, grew up on Nintendo systems when I was younger. I had the Zapper and Duck Hunt and even back then I always wondered how that gun worked. Now I finally know. My life has come full circle. Thank you for taking the time to make this video.

    @mrspeeddemon727@mrspeeddemon727Ай бұрын
  • I’m so glad you pointed out that on “two duck mode” the light boxes appear at separate frames . Because right from the start of the video I already knew how the light gun generally works , but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how it knows WHICH duck you hit when there’s more than one. 15 years or so of watching you and you’ve never disappointed me . Thanks !

    @chadquigley227@chadquigley2274 ай бұрын
    • Further you stand better luck hitting the duck since it will cover larger area. Even though the receiver sees through a tunnel vision. That would explain why I always hit it even though I wasn't aiming much I thought it was broken.

      @MarkusAvrelius@MarkusAvreliusАй бұрын
  • As a 37 year old now, I was always curious how this worked and I also noticed the whole screen flashing on the menu! Really cool video

    @TheDaringPastry1313@TheDaringPastry13135 ай бұрын
    • Lol same!

      @atpoe2273@atpoe22735 ай бұрын
    • Same.

      @godzilladestroyscities1757@godzilladestroyscities17575 ай бұрын
    • As a kid I assumed it had a ball in it that could detect trajectory based on calibration. Blew my mind seeing how it was done

      @MarmaLloyd@MarmaLloyd5 ай бұрын
    • Same! Also 37 years

      @andreaslu1378@andreaslu13785 ай бұрын
    • Me too! You are not alone.

      @NerdOfftheRoad@NerdOfftheRoad5 ай бұрын
  • I assume it flashes the boxes in two different frames so it can know which one you hit, otherwise it wouldn't be able to tell which of the boxes you're aiming at.

    @TDPEquinox@TDPEquinox5 ай бұрын
    • That makes sense. I was wondering how that worked.

      @Yourtoxicity@Yourtoxicity5 ай бұрын
    • As far as i know thats correct

      @nekrugderzweite8298@nekrugderzweite82985 ай бұрын
    • Let me see if I understand correctly, when you press the button and there are 2 ducks on the screen, the game will generate 2 frames with white squares, if frame == 1 && white square, duck 1 dies, if frame == 2 && white square, duck 2 dies, is that so?

      @fe2k10@fe2k105 ай бұрын
    • @@fe2k10 seems correct to me

      @roberine7241@roberine72415 ай бұрын
    • Yeah makes total sense after seeing it in slow mo.

      @theslowmoguys@theslowmoguys5 ай бұрын
  • Truly brilliant, no emitters and receivers, no screen calibration, no markers on the screen to inform the receiver of any screen dimension, this was really ahead of its time

    @fawstes@fawstes3 ай бұрын
    • Nope there was a receiver that sat on top of tv ... believe it worked like infra red ...to show where gun was aiming , p.s. talking bout uk system ...maybe different

      @wayne7521@wayne75212 ай бұрын
    • @@wayne7521 We owned one when I was a kid. Nothing sits on top of tv. It's just the gun.

      @maryrose2676@maryrose26762 ай бұрын
    • @@wayne7521 I think you're talking about the Wii. NES had no receiver.

      @UncleUncleRj@UncleUncleRj2 ай бұрын
    • @@wayne7521you are probably confused with the superscope for the snes because that one uses a infrared reciever,BUT it still works on some of the same princeples of the nes zapper gun.

      @johneygd@johneygd2 ай бұрын
    • What are you rambling, this is Not ahead at all. It's really simple, archaic, repetitive and boring gameplay.

      @takemebacktothen@takemebacktothen2 ай бұрын
  • Christmas morning, 1985. Santa left the NES for us. Duck Hunt and Excitebike. Came with the Zapper and the ROB robot thing. I still remember being blown away by the graphics. A huge step up from Atari and Coleco. Always wondered how the Zapper worked. Thanks! They changed it from grey to orange so cops would know it wasnt a real gun. In 80's SoCal, you always heard stories of kids being shot accidentally playing Lasertag. I also remember every market sold cap guns, usually like a old west revolver. You put a roll of caps in it and "BANG". Eventually, all those guns had bright red tips. Then they all disappeared.

    @rsvp9146@rsvp91462 ай бұрын
    • We lived through magical times. For me it was a Mario Bros / Duck Hunt cartridge with the zapper. Every now and then we would go to the video club and we would rent a NES game for the weekend. Simpler times. Think about it: we saw the evolution of graphics, computing, science and technology. Something actual generations might never get to truly experience.

      @Oli-Ravioli@Oli-Ravioli2 ай бұрын
    • Same, only it was Christmas 1988 and we got Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt and Commando with an NES.

      @SydneyCarton2085@SydneyCarton2085Ай бұрын
    • @@SydneyCarton2085 it was 1993-94 for me (but i live in poor third world country caled russia so its normal here)

      @ivan4087@ivan4087Ай бұрын
  • I love these quieter informative videos you do Gav, I’m glad you’ve kept them going after the lockdowns, they’re fascinating

    @westminsterabbey.6916@westminsterabbey.69165 ай бұрын
    • Same! I see "how ___ works" and I get so excited.

      @pat2rome@pat2rome5 ай бұрын
    • Exactly. Doesnt have to always be over the top and flashy

      @Geeksmithing@Geeksmithing5 ай бұрын
    • Amazing

      @MARKBaid@MARKBaid5 ай бұрын
    • What lockdowns

      @smittywerbenjagarmanjensen3059@smittywerbenjagarmanjensen30595 ай бұрын
    • @@smittywerbenjagarmanjensen3059 bless your heart ❤️

      @Geeksmithing@Geeksmithing5 ай бұрын
  • I used to cheat on this game with my brothers. We had a pull-down shade for the kitchen window that reflected perfectly on the TV in a particular spot I learned that if I pulled the window shade down to exactly the right spot it would mimic the square that the gun picks up, so just before my turn to play I would go into the kitchen and adjust that blind so that I could just point at the reflection of the kitchen window with the gun and score perfect points. Then when it wasn't my turn I would intentionally stand in between the TV in the window to make sure the reflection couldn't allow anybody else to do the same thing.

    @yetinother@yetinother5 ай бұрын
    • That's some big brain brother cheating right there. XD Me, I just never told my bros about how the 2nd-player controller could control the ducks, and I'd hide it under a pillow on my lap and give my brother terrible advice on where it "looks like" the ducks are heading. I've changed a lot since then, and it only took finally getting punched by him as a grown man...

      @SomeYouTubeTraveler@SomeYouTubeTraveler5 ай бұрын
    • LMAO !!! That is hilarious

      @CapStar362@CapStar3625 ай бұрын
    • But what about the black frame? The reflection would always be there, so the game would never be able to get the black image to confirm you weren't cheating. (Obviously you won't know the answer to this, but it does confuse me.)

      @NoName-ik2du@NoName-ik2du5 ай бұрын
    • Yeah he's just a dirty liar. We literally just watched the explanation, and this guy's cheat is clearly not enough to satisfy the requirements@@NoName-ik2du

      @Ineedanaccountnow0@Ineedanaccountnow05 ай бұрын
    • ​@@NoName-ik2duyeah and also the gun doesn't see the shape of the square, it's just the "hitbox" of the duck. So whether the shape of the reflected window resembled the hitbox doesn't matter, the gun just sees the difference between light and no light on the specific frames when you're shooting and the specific area you're aiming at.

      @LarsWilms@LarsWilms5 ай бұрын
  • I remember when it first came out. I remember my first time playing. I remember how awesome it was. The only person in the room interested in the mystery of how it worked was my electrical engineer father. Now all these years later its so cool to see the whole process in its ballet of technological prowess. It really was the best time to be a kid. And i am so glad i made the effort to get and keep 2 crt tv’s specially for the nes and snes.

    @uroborous01@uroborous015 ай бұрын
    • Indeed! The (S)NES days were the best and most fun days of all the video games. Playing meant fun and enjoyment. There was nothing else.

      @maboleth@maboleth5 ай бұрын
  • I grew up with this 40 years ago I've always wondered how it worked!! What an amazing piece of engineering!!

    @PotentialEn3rgy@PotentialEn3rgy4 ай бұрын
    • Lol ure old

      @samuraidoggy@samuraidoggyАй бұрын
  • This game was a gem of my childhood. Once you discover the second controller can control the ducks it's a whole new game.

    @UselessDuckCompany@UselessDuckCompany5 ай бұрын
    • Whaaaaat?! No way!

      @brod520@brod5205 ай бұрын
    • Wait whaaaat

      @tonybeaumont8289@tonybeaumont82895 ай бұрын
    • This feels like a company of ducks trolling people as revenge for Duck Hunt.

      @twelvecatsinatrenchcoat@twelvecatsinatrenchcoat5 ай бұрын
    • Wow memory unlocked!

      @bskibinski@bskibinski5 ай бұрын
    • YOU COULD WHAT??

      @StraveTube@StraveTube5 ай бұрын
  • This is genuinely ahead of its time. So much thinking and programming went even to make sure you won't cheat by pointing it at a white bulb, not to mention nobody back then had slowmo cameras to even figure this out. Do more such smaller but super intriguing videos man!

    @IndyStry@IndyStry5 ай бұрын
    • Hardly “ahead of its time” Nintendo copied earlier American duck hunt games, the game goes back to the 1970’s.

      @jpe1@jpe15 ай бұрын
    • ​@@MidwestRainstorms They're at least partially right though. The Magnavox Odyssey had a primitive light gun back in the 1970s. Nintendo didn't invent the peripheral so much as refine it, and make much more enjoyable games. As for copying "earlier American duck hunt games," that's a new one to me, and sounds a bit dubious. Electromechanical light gun games were a thing prior to light gun video games, and Nintendo had dabbled in such technology in the 1970s, but I can't find any articles mentioning specific examples of earlier games that they'd have copied. But I also only did like 2 google searches, so don't take this as the definitive final word.

      @Jaspertine@Jaspertine5 ай бұрын
    • @@MidwestRainstorms I stand by my comment… my parents bought me one for Christmas in 1978, yes the graphics were literally just a white square that went across the screen, but all the core concepts were there, the “gun” that was a photo sensor, the video blanking, the timing… Nintendo just refined the graphics and put some marketing into it, no new innovations at all.

      @jpe1@jpe15 ай бұрын
    • Slowmo wouldn't be necessary though, as they could just tweak the duration of e.g. the black or white boxes as they pleased within the game code

      @lalle5000@lalle50005 ай бұрын
    • @@MidwestRainstorms Did you research anything your self, or do you just like to spread misinformation? 😉

      @Bonde7280@Bonde72805 ай бұрын
  • I've known this for a very long time, but I always wondered how they managed to decide between multiple targets on screen (especially with later lightgun games on NES and other systems, even arcade). I just kind of forgot to go and find out. Nice to have such a clear video and amazing footage showing the scanlines and the black frames etc. Great watch.

    @kilbabaplays8944@kilbabaplays89444 ай бұрын
  • This is the first explanation of how the zapper worked that I understood. Slowing everything down helped so much. Thank you.

    @PixxelWizzard-dd5cr@PixxelWizzard-dd5cr26 күн бұрын
  • This continues to be magic. How they figured out they could do this is unfathomable.

    @MrAnimefan7@MrAnimefan75 ай бұрын
    • Them Nintendo people are pretty damn clever, ain't they

      @Doktor_Vem@Doktor_Vem5 ай бұрын
    • We put a man on the moon before iPhones.

      @ColdPotato@ColdPotato5 ай бұрын
    • @@ColdPotato Absolute nerd knowledge: An single iPhone 6 could control around 120 million Apollo space flights at the same time!

      @joergojschaefer3521@joergojschaefer35215 ай бұрын
    • The tech was not new and inferior to other systems. With the system Nintendo used it was nearly impossible to detect many objects at the same time. They would have to induce an epileptic shock by flashing the screen over and over to achieve that. Try playing operation wolf with the zapper and you'll know what I mean.@@Doktor_Vem

      @timvangenechten5258@timvangenechten52585 ай бұрын
    • ​@@joergojschaefer3521Jesus. I never knew the "at the same time" part to that fact

      @DeanQuinn-ep2lt@DeanQuinn-ep2lt5 ай бұрын
  • I appreciate the slower episodes that you make between the main uploads with Dan. It is nice to get some more lightly edited videos in between to make sure you guys aren't dead.

    @pawnix4122@pawnix41225 ай бұрын
  • My family couldn’t afford it when I was a kid and I saw this first when invited to someone’s house. Blew my mind straightaway. It was good growing up in 90s though tough times in an ex-USSR country for adults. Appreciate it, mom, dad and grandma!

    @GunslingerAlGilead@GunslingerAlGileadАй бұрын
  • This truly is brilliant. I never would have guessed that’s how it worked.

    @austensperry4163@austensperry41635 ай бұрын
  • that bit of filming the CRT at super slo-mo alone is worth this video, incredible stuff.

    @LeeorVardi@LeeorVardi5 ай бұрын
    • They have an even better video about that from 5 yrs ago: "How a TV Works in Slow Motion"

      @user-bw6jg4ej2m@user-bw6jg4ej2m5 ай бұрын
    • ​@@user-bw6jg4ej2m Thanks! Gonna watch it now.

      @danieldavis8607@danieldavis86075 ай бұрын
  • Geez that robocam shot midway through was so butter smooth I thought it was a 3D render. I always love seeing how y'all make usage of that.

    @arfdinglare@arfdinglare5 ай бұрын
    • lol i probably would've been fooled as well had i not immediately seen the tape holding it down lol only the highest of budgets on Slow Mo Guys!

      @mitchib1440@mitchib14405 ай бұрын
  • As an Australian, I appreciate you having the more pleasing PAL version consoles there as opposed to those American bricks. Even our cartridges were a nicer shape 😆 My mate had Duck Hunt and that orange version of the Zapper. Decades later as an adult I had theories about how it worked, cool to actually see it in action.

    @I.Lostalim@I.Lostalim5 ай бұрын
  • This game was ahead of its time. Awesome days. Thank you for sharing this...really interesting.

    @yemarican@yemarican5 ай бұрын
  • I remember being very young playing this game and not understanding how it worked felt like magic. Great explanation Gav!

    @tmaris@tmaris5 ай бұрын
    • Same. I’d try puttin the gun directly on the screen then bring it back and different angles. I loved it😂

      @TheGman0808@TheGman08085 ай бұрын
  • as a guy who grew up on this game I can say that was such a legendary demonstration.

    @lightseeker1813@lightseeker18135 ай бұрын
    • I can still hear that dog lol

      @confushisushi@confushisushi5 ай бұрын
    • Same here!

      @kenwillis8487@kenwillis84875 ай бұрын
    • We got the original Nintendo with Mario and duck hunter in 1986 I was 6 years old! It was a family gift for us kids to share ( one brother two sisters ) I bet my dad played it more in the first month that us kids!

      @kenwillis8487@kenwillis84875 ай бұрын
    • including the fact he was just a few inches from the screen, which is how we always got to the higher levels

      @jlt131@jlt1315 ай бұрын
    • Oh yes we did lol I still have my original zapper just got to get another NES

      @spike3082@spike30825 ай бұрын
  • I grew up playing Duck Hunt as a kid. Really cool to see how it all worked 30+ years later. Thank you Gavin.

    @browaffle1268@browaffle12685 ай бұрын
  • Born in 1982, played this tons! THANK YOU SO MUCH for demystifying this tech for me!!

    @jesse00pno@jesse00pno4 ай бұрын
  • So creative… I love how when a technology is less developed, creators are forced to use ingenuity and you get so many interesting things instead of twelve versions of the same thing

    @TheLastArbiter@TheLastArbiter5 ай бұрын
    • So true. I just wish Nintendo would stop deliberately creating such a scenario 🤨

      @jerotoro2021@jerotoro20215 ай бұрын
    • Oh I was looking for this. It's mostly sad to look where the world is going now as compared to older times.

      @S.M.HassanShah@S.M.HassanShah5 ай бұрын
    • Keep in mind all that was done in Bytes 56 copies of duck hunt would fit on 1.44 floppy 💾 North America (NTSC): 26,214 bytes Europe (PAL): 32,768 bytes Japan (Famicom): 32,000 bytes

      @jckatz@jckatz5 ай бұрын
    • Yeah, you don't get as much cool and clever mechanical stuff anymore, people will just use microcontrollers, sensors, and motors. Of course there is a lot of ingenuity that went into designing those, but it isn't as visible or as fun, and means that not much ingenuity has to go into the projects that use them.

      @theneonbop@theneonbop5 ай бұрын
    • @@jckatz Someone recently fit snake game into 64 bytes in assembly.

      @theneonbop@theneonbop5 ай бұрын
  • One thing people (my friends at least) didn’t notice in Duck Hunt was that while in two player mode, you could control the duck’s movement with the controller while the other player was playing. My friends would get frustrated that there ducks would move a lot more then mine would and I’d tell them they’re imagining it.

    @colinmacvicar2507@colinmacvicar25075 ай бұрын
    • Really? I'm pretty sure I always knew that back when I played. Maybe that's the difference between people who are willing to tinker with things and those who aren't.

      @fllthdcrb@fllthdcrb5 ай бұрын
    • @@fllthdcrb I would say it is more the difference between those who read the manual and those who don't.

      @meanmutton@meanmutton5 ай бұрын
    • @@meanmutton That, too. I loved to read the instructions, but I'm not sure whether I did in this case. It's also possible the person I was playing with told me, since it was their NES and copy of the game. But it was so many years ago, and I was pretty young, there are a lot of details I've forgotten.

      @fllthdcrb@fllthdcrb5 ай бұрын
    • @@meanmutton when i had this game i wasn't even in kindergarten yet and def couldn't read anything but i fig it out because just cause when you are waiting on your turn and you see a controller not doing anything you just decide to mess with stuff

      @rongill1234@rongill12345 ай бұрын
    • I remember playing a really old, long racing game on the atari. My cousins came over and they tried it out. They didn't have a system. They would play and play and complained that their hands were hurting and needed a break. I said tuff. They died early and handed me the controller.... I played until my hands were killing me, and told them to pause the game (button on the console!) I won the first round.

      @jakefriesenjake@jakefriesenjake5 ай бұрын
  • Solid trigger discipline, even with a toy. Respect.

    @kriegschwert@kriegschwert5 ай бұрын
  • It's also interesting that when you have two ducks, as you said, the white boxes appear on different frames. This must be so that the game can figure out which duck you shot. Pretty cool.

    @MikaelMurstam@MikaelMurstam4 ай бұрын
    • I figured out long ago how the Zapper worked, but couldn't figure out how it knew which duck was being aimed at. I could see the screen flash and the white boxes, but not the separate frames.

      @RevDrTarr@RevDrTarr4 ай бұрын
  • Anything that has alternating current and a gas discharge looks neat in slowmo. Neon lamps, neon signs (those with actual neon and clear glass), low pressure sodium bulbs, AC welding, Jacob's ladders, and more.

    @galfisk@galfisk5 ай бұрын
    • That's a good one

      @RealUlrichLeland@RealUlrichLeland5 ай бұрын
    • I wonder what the start up of a plasma globe would look like. Or what it would look like when you touch a single part of the globe.

      @CorporateZombi@CorporateZombi5 ай бұрын
  • Gotta say that no matter what new peripherals they come out with, nothing beats that satisfying, *_“ker-tang!”_* when you pull that old light gun trigger.

    @PierceArner@PierceArner5 ай бұрын
    • Zwuh-cruck was how mine sounded 🤷🏼‍♀️

      @ThisisDD@ThisisDD5 ай бұрын
    • can't beat the simplicity of a light sensor in a piece of plastic with a button

      @roberine7241@roberine72415 ай бұрын
    • They put a big old steel slug in the handle, too, just to give it a sense of heft. Someone obviously cared when they designed that thing.

      @nickwallette6201@nickwallette62015 ай бұрын
  • Almost 40 and still have my sns... my kids play with it too which is awesome to show them old game's

    @andrewhonn@andrewhonn3 күн бұрын
  • This is something i didn't know i needed!!! As a 80s baby this is EVERYTHING 😮

    @joedirt5720@joedirt5720Ай бұрын
  • This is my favorite video you guys have done in a while. So fascinating

    @Silent_Sounds@Silent_Sounds5 ай бұрын
  • The reason it shows two white boxes on separate frames is so that it can tell which duck you shot at, because whether it sees the first or second frame determines which duck it was

    @paytonfeery5898@paytonfeery58985 ай бұрын
    • This strengthens the concept where the gun is the receiver of input and not the screen nor the software in the game, if the game software is the one that checks for hit, it could probably just get the coordinates of the box on the screen but that would require a lot of memory for computation. Alternating between two white boxes, th3 game can check for hits without knowing the coordinates because the game can simply infer the white boxes as duck 1 and duck 2. Very clever piece of technology! I could have worded this better but the idea is there.

      @daleryanaldover6545@daleryanaldover65455 ай бұрын
  • Wow. Such an incredible video. Have spent countless hours playing this game with my parents and family members. Back then, we used to be super amazed at the "tech" Nintendo pulled off. Your video made me feel real old and nostalgic at the same time ❤

    @stufflistings@stufflistingsАй бұрын
  • I was always curious about how it worked so when I ran across this video in my YT feed I just had to check it out! It was worth it! That's genius level of engineering with such simple components. Thank you for making this video!

    @RohitSharma84@RohitSharma842 ай бұрын
  • I was a Sega kid, never had a Nintendo. The Sega Master System also had a gun which was only released in the West, called the Light Phaser. I'd always assumed it worked similar to the Nintendo version, but it appears not! I just found a reference that describes Sega's method. In short, it does math because it knows exactly what part of the screen is being drawn at any given time. This allowed the Light Phaser to have a higher accuracy than its Nintendo counterpart, although it was thrown off by some later CRTs that had unusual geometries (I found several users reporting issues with the Sony flat-screen Trinitrons, where the gun was consistently shooting to the right). To summarise what I've just read: When the trigger is pressed, the next frame will be a solid bright color (in Sega's version of Duck Hunt, "Safari Hunt", I believe the entire screen was painted the color of the sky for that one frame). When the scanline reaches the point visible to the gun, the hardware locks in the horizontal position (software would be too slow), and the software reads this value and together with the current scanline, it can determine an x,y coordinate, which allows the system to effectively map out a rough semi-circle of the view of the gun, and thus compute where the center of the circle would be. (I'll link my references in the next comment, since I expect they'll be held for moderation as links in comments often are)

    @BleuSquid@BleuSquid5 ай бұрын
  • When you said “40 years ago” I realized how old I was. Amazing it’s been that long. My first console was the Atari 2600.

    @BaltiSean@BaltiSean5 ай бұрын
  • this was a big question for me back more than 20yrs ago, thanks for giving answers to my curiosity back then!!!!

    @KenoPotato01@KenoPotato014 ай бұрын
  • Mind: blown. The simplicity yet genius behind this peripherial is amazing.

    @HuckelberryFriend@HuckelberryFriend4 ай бұрын
  • Since you have SNES there already Gav... the Super Scope was a more complicated system, while using similar(ish) functionality; maybe do a high speed breakdown of that?

    @dannygraves4997@dannygraves49975 ай бұрын
    • Is that some kind of sniper version? xD

      @Pauly421@Pauly4215 ай бұрын
    • @@Pauly421 Nope, just the (wireless) lightgun for the SNES. Or perhaps I should say light Canon, because honestly, it looks more like some kind of grenade/rocket launcher.

      @dannygraves4997@dannygraves49975 ай бұрын
    • Yes my brother and I had the Super Scope, and as you say it looked like a rocket launcher. I've never seen the smaller zapper gun.

      @Nicola_Bailey@Nicola_Bailey5 ай бұрын
    • Definitely worth a slow-mo. I believe it worked by actually knowing exactly where the CRT beam was at the time the trigger was pushed.

      @Shoopity@Shoopity5 ай бұрын
  • You just answered a question I've been pondering since I was like 5! "How does it know where you're pointing???" Its so simple now that I understand... THE GUN ISNT PROJECTING ANY KIND OF MAGIC BEAM IT IS THE SENSOR! That's genius! 🤯🤯🤯Thank you Gav!

    @Pauly421@Pauly4215 ай бұрын
    • The way I heard it explained the first time was that actually the TV shoots the gun.

      @GODDAMNLETMEJOIN@GODDAMNLETMEJOIN5 ай бұрын
    • I thought it was some magical beam from the tv too. So mysterious

      @Cindyo77@Cindyo775 ай бұрын
    • Same here Paully421. I never thought I would get the answer 30 years later in slow motion.

      @suhail802@suhail8025 ай бұрын
    • I remember reading something about later similar products detecting when the beam crossed the point it's looking at and using the timing to determine the hit pixel. That's why they required you to shoot the corners and center of the screen to calibrate them and the Zapper didn't. It also meant they didn't need to flash the screen.

      @Erkle64@Erkle645 ай бұрын
    • Can't believe none of you ever googled it.

      @peterwhitey4992@peterwhitey49925 ай бұрын
  • Always wanted to know how that thing worked. And this was the exact video I've been looking for from someone who can accurately explain. Thanks so so much for the video. You guys are awesome.

    @naveenraja7@naveenraja75 ай бұрын
  • Incredible. When I was a kid, and up til now, I was very intrigued about how it was done. Thank you!

    @jnchacon@jnchacon2 ай бұрын
  • This video is absolutely insane. The sheer depth of perspective you can provide on CRT TV's and the NES Zapper by just simply showing us what our eyes can't.

    @jong2359@jong23595 ай бұрын
    • Your eyes can, it's our brains which are much more limited.

      @TheRealSkeletor@TheRealSkeletor5 ай бұрын
    • @@TheRealSkeletorI mean, OPs brain probably but a couple of outstanding humans like us?! No shot! ;)

      @NotHereForLikes@NotHereForLikes5 ай бұрын
    • These videos really make me appreciate the utter marvel that is old technology. It's one thing what we have now, understanding that it's built on these foundations we laid so many years ago, but seeing the older stuff makes you understand just what phenomenal feats of engineering must have gone into making these ubiquitous things like electronic displays possible in the first place.

      @Starfloofle@Starfloofle5 ай бұрын
  • Gav, you just have lifted one of the heaviest loads off my shoulders. I've been wondering about how this thing worked for almost my entire life.

    @BodomFox@BodomFox5 ай бұрын
    • Yes I've been wondering how that works my whole life and now I no!

      @themightyspudmurphy8@themightyspudmurphy85 ай бұрын
    • You could have googled it.

      @peterwhitey4992@peterwhitey49925 ай бұрын
    • Smarter Everyday also covered this topic

      @CapStar362@CapStar3625 ай бұрын
    • Really? It's not hard to figure out

      @penguin44ca@penguin44ca5 ай бұрын
    • Same I actually wondered again the other day. Not enough to google it but a very convenient video to click on

      @jaymac1022@jaymac10225 ай бұрын
  • brilliant! ive ALWAYS wondered how these systems worked with such old tech. thanks!!!

    @ThreeToesofFury@ThreeToesofFury5 ай бұрын
  • More of these types of slow mo videos, please, these are so damn fascinating

    @remlapgarage@remlapgarage5 ай бұрын
  • Very cool! The white box has been known by most gaming nerds for a while, but I never knew about the blank frame first. This actually explains the behavior some friends and I saw at a LAN party once. Someone brought an NES with Duck Hunt, and we all knew the gun was just looking for a white box. So I got out my iPod Touch and used the flashlight app (which was just a white screen and max brightness) and we just pulled the trigger looking at that. But it only worked once, and we didn't know why. I guess that one successful hit was just luck or a fluke.

    @ZeroSuitSamo@ZeroSuitSamo5 ай бұрын
  • Been gaming since 86..started with a C64 then a master system...had every console ever since...i still play the snes and ps1 more than my PS5..miss those days

    @GDI-disc-accepted@GDI-disc-accepted4 ай бұрын
  • I remember using the grey zapper back in the 80’s and it was amazing and still is today! Thanks for the video 👍🏻

    @bvz9712@bvz9712Ай бұрын
  • I already knew how the Zapper worked before hand, but seeing it in slow motion was definitely pretty neat!

    @rashira9610@rashira96105 ай бұрын
    • @rashia9610 How does it know which duck you shot at in 2 duck mode? The lens sees white, but there are two white squares. There's no way for it to know which of the two you were pointing at.

      @kevintyrrell7409@kevintyrrell74095 ай бұрын
    • He explained in the video, each duck gets its own frame.

      @GODDAMNLETMEJOIN@GODDAMNLETMEJOIN5 ай бұрын
    • I knew it was a light detection device rather than a light emitter, but I would never have imagined that the technology was this integrated, displaying the frame of the square because you pressed the trigger. The engineering of analog input solutions always seems crazy to me.

      @babbiification@babbiification5 ай бұрын
    • @@kevintyrrell7409 You'll notice that the two targets get their own frame, that's how the game determines which duck is being hit because only one of the two will be "seen" at once. If the gun doesn't see a white square during the first frame it knows the first target wasn't hit, and if the gun doesn't see a white square during the second frame it knows the second one wasn't hit either. If instead it sees one of the two target it can determine which one was hit based on the frame. In other games with more potential targets it's the same thing, the screen will show as many frames with a single square as there are targets on the screen. In some games that means up to 7 flashes every time the trigger is pulled.

      @RAHelllord@RAHelllord5 ай бұрын
  • I always knew that CRTs draw their frames line by line but i always thought they glow for longer, like in a way that half or 2/3 of the screen is illuminated at a time. It's crazy to realize a running CRT is 99% black at all times

    @Dschonathan@Dschonathan5 ай бұрын
    • The slow motion might be deceiving, because when filming in slow motion, the camera picks up way less light, meaning that although the slow motion camera can't see the line that was drawn 50 lines ago, your eyes might still be able to see it.

      @Dash323MJ@Dash323MJ5 ай бұрын
    • It depends on the phosphor. Monochrome PC monitors would have a much longer persistence, but for a regular TVs it's just about right and it actually helps to make motion smooth, unlike how LCDs blur any movement.

      @noop9k@noop9k5 ай бұрын
    • @@noop9k Yep - it really IS dependent on the phosphor. I always thought that some TVs flickered more back then, and years later I realized that was actually the case. It was a compromise between eye strain and detail, particularly temporal detail. You could have a TV that flickered less, but smeared movement more; or a TV with super clean motion, but more flicker.

      @nickwallette6201@nickwallette62015 ай бұрын
  • looking at the tile i wondered how can the slow mo cam show us how this tech works , but I am beyond words after watching the video ! Amazing and simplistic tech for its time ! and thanks for making such informative videos !

    @daarshg@daarshg2 ай бұрын
  • The trigger on the Zapper was so satisfying to press, no other light gun or gun controller I've used in general felt as good. It was so loud and tactile

    @oswith972@oswith9724 ай бұрын
  • Til. I love how "old" technology was so simple and practical, and yet perfectly functional.

    @Pi7on@Pi7on5 ай бұрын
    • With all the power that we have now, I can only imagine, what sort of amazing things could be, if we were developing with such clever efficiency, as they were in the past…

      @Inertia888@Inertia8885 ай бұрын
  • I wondered about this for 30 years. Genuinely... This came up in my brain about once a month!

    @jimbothesailor4217@jimbothesailor42175 ай бұрын
  • I always wondered. Thanks for such a good explanation! All genius ideas have an inherent simplicity that solves a complex problem. Awesome!

    @herq2409@herq24094 ай бұрын
  • I still have Nintendo 8-bit in excellent condition with accessories. Played duck hunt and Mario Lots with kids on last christmas. It it a gift from 80's that just keeps on giving. 😊

    @suomenpresidentti@suomenpresidentti2 ай бұрын
  • I'm always impressed by the process of collecting the footage and the editing too but this one takes the cake! Cheers for continually fascinating shots AND editing!!!🖤🖤

    @ticklemetango@ticklemetango5 ай бұрын
  • I really like these “how it works” style of video. There is so much technology that we take for granted that do amazing things in the blink of an eye

    @ouch1011@ouch10115 ай бұрын
  • That was a beautiful display of how Raster Scan works! I learned raster scan when I was in Electronics School, in the US Navy. What we could only see in our heads, through classroom explanation, we can see in your video!

    @Kickinpony66@Kickinpony663 ай бұрын
  • I watched that first video of a TV in slow mo when it came out all those years ago. It's great to see a followup! it feels just like yesterday...

    @Imaproshaman7@Imaproshaman75 ай бұрын
  • ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING - I was total Duck Hunt maniac back in 80´s and also obsessed about how things work - thank you so much for this slo-mo retrospective! 🤟🤟🤟

    @mikakettunen7939@mikakettunen79395 ай бұрын
  • i always wondered how that worked. thank you so much. that really is a genius piece of engineering.

    @capt_bry@capt_bry5 ай бұрын
  • Good memories with this game. And to learn now how it worked, it is simply genius!!

    @hrishikeshpatil6962@hrishikeshpatil69625 ай бұрын
  • Wow. I always wondered how that worked. That was fascinating. Thank you!

    @wjhung2@wjhung25 ай бұрын
  • this is the first time i've clicked on a video with gavin in it in years, and i just gotta say that i love that he hasn't changed a bit. still a wonderfully charming content creator. keep it up gav

    @tdiman46@tdiman465 ай бұрын
  • My favorite part about this video is how ingrained gun safety is in you -- you kept your finger off the trigger, even of a video game gun!

    @davidalexallen@davidalexallen5 ай бұрын
  • I love the cat being so curious

    @kroepoekhetkonijn5296@kroepoekhetkonijn52962 күн бұрын
  • I was always wondering about this. I started to think that it was a gimmick and worked randomly without any logic but gave you a feeling of working. Now I get it with your thoroughly illustration.

    @yashargarrett1789@yashargarrett17895 ай бұрын
  • Thank you for this, I've always wondered how the Zapper works, and you explained it in the most beautiful way possible.

    @tommymclaughlin-artist@tommymclaughlin-artist5 ай бұрын
  • Loving the trigger discipline from Gavin 😂😂

    @ExiledPalace@ExiledPalace5 ай бұрын
    • Dan's influence?

      @JamesQMurphy@JamesQMurphy5 ай бұрын
  • Blew my mind. Sophisticated at the time

    @maquinaghost389@maquinaghost3894 ай бұрын
  • I saw this for the first time in 1999 and have been intrigued ever since. Thanks for clearing this up

    @pathakkkk@pathakkkk4 ай бұрын
  • Thanks for the nostalgia! The hours I spent on this game as a kid.

    @sylance777@sylance7775 ай бұрын
  • This stuff is so amazing!! I live seeing how things from my childhood worked! Thank you

    @lebronshoecollector2556@lebronshoecollector25565 ай бұрын
  • The way a color laser printer writes the image onto the photo receptive drum is very cool. It will use 4 lasers to write each of the primary colors that will overlap to create a photo

    @jmack0013@jmack00134 ай бұрын
  • You have just answered one question from my childhood. Thank you!

    @segretoesconociusto@segretoesconociusto4 ай бұрын
  • If you had a second CRT on a channel that wasn't broadcasting (static / snow) and shot at it, it was always a hit.

    @CarlScripter@CarlScripter5 ай бұрын
  • This was such a unique video. I would love a series just slowing stuff from our every day lives down.

    @youtubeSuckssNow@youtubeSuckssNow5 ай бұрын
  • Super interesting and very well explained 👏. You're so right that it's a remarkable device, and it's kind of mind-blowing that 40 years ago, this genius invention was compatible with most if not all TVs, without a receiver or transmitter on the TV. Very cool.

    @pm12321@pm123215 ай бұрын
  • 0:47 "It could tell exactly where you had this pointed" I would disagree from personal experience. My brother pointed the gun at my butt, away from the TV set, pressed the trigger and got a hit on the screen. I will forever remember this.

    @Circenn@Circenn4 ай бұрын
    • 0:44 if you want tu hear the quote

      @ramsoomair@ramsoomair2 ай бұрын
    • @@ramsoomair you must have a brightest ass ever

      @catisop@catisop2 ай бұрын
  • This is the coolest video you guys have done in years to me. I already knew how the zapper worked but it was still super cool to see in person

    @topazboy333@topazboy3335 ай бұрын
  • Shout-out to that clay shooting bonus mode in Duck Hunt! (clay disc totally should have been the one added to Smash)

    @BoomstickGaming@BoomstickGaming5 ай бұрын
    • Clay pigeon is my favorite projectile in the series

      @GODDAMNLETMEJOIN@GODDAMNLETMEJOIN5 ай бұрын
    • You actually can shoot the clay discs in Smash Brothers.

      @TheRealSkeletor@TheRealSkeletor5 ай бұрын
  • Aaabbsolutely Ammaazing old tech. Your demo/ explanation & lesson thanks! I had always wondered how a standard TV could be used !

    @valve0radio@valve0radio5 ай бұрын
  • I was born in 84 and always wondered how this worked because it seemed so ahead of its time. Thank for this in depth explanation.

    @jedmcdonald4695@jedmcdonald46954 ай бұрын
  • really impressed recently with how much content is being posted here. Almost one a week is very impressive considering you guys used to be once a month. Loving it all

    @raineylights@raineylights5 ай бұрын
  • Those things had the most satisfying click.

    @stevenjordan9497@stevenjordan94975 ай бұрын
  • So that's how it works! I always wondered about that. Thanks for sharing this with us!

    @scotttaxdal5297@scotttaxdal52975 ай бұрын
  • Thank you! This was pure magic! Always wanted to know how this works. And that in the eighties.

    @gabevdm@gabevdm5 ай бұрын
  • Oh my God! My childhood has been completed! No more mysteries, no more questions, just complete understanding and a newly gained reverence for what seemed to be electronic magic! 🤯

    @CamoGuy76239@CamoGuy762395 ай бұрын
  • this is so cool, I love these types of slo mo videos

    @henrysteven137@henrysteven1375 ай бұрын
  • Absolutely fantastic! I always wondered how this worked.

    @stevedrollinger9691@stevedrollinger96914 ай бұрын
  • As a kid, I took my blaster apart and put it back together without the case, used electric tape to hold the lens much closer to the parts. No matter where I aimed, I would get a successful hit and got all the levels.

    @AppaTalks@AppaTalks2 ай бұрын
  • Generally I have been curious about how that worked for years. Didn't realise there was a light sensor in the gun!! Thanks Gav for another great video

    @CallumN2006@CallumN20065 ай бұрын
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