The Nintendo NES Zapper
February 18, 2008 - 10:41 pm - Posted by Sean R.
The Zapper was a light gun produced by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in 1985 along with the launch of the NES. At that time the body of the Zapper was grey as seen in my photo below, but soon after the color was changed to orange.
Unlike most modern light guns, it operated without a sensor on top of the TV and did not need calibration. It was surprisingly accurate despite this. The Zapper also emitted a very distinctive “KA-PANG!” when the trigger was pulled.
There only appear to be 17 games released in the U.S. that utilize the Zapper:
- Adventures of Bayou Billy
- Baby Boomer
- Barker Bill’s Trick Shooting
- Chiller
- Duck Hunt
- Freedom Force
- Gotcha
- Gumshoe
- Hogan’s Alley
- Laser Invasion
- Lone Ranger
- Mechanized Attack
- Operation Wolf
- Shooting Range
- To The Earth
- Track & Field 2
- Wild Gunman
If you know of others, let me know in the comments and I’ll update the list.
So how does the Zapper work? Taken from the official Nintendo Zapper manual:
The Zapper works by receiving the light from the screen. The contrast and brightness controls of the TV must be adjusted properly or the shots may not register. (The characters should be as bright as possible while the background areas should be as dark as possible.)
Connecting the Zapper to the NES: Make sure it’s connected to controller port 2. Usually you have a regular controller in port 1.
The range of the Zapper depends on the size of the TV screen, the TV adjustment, and surrounding light, however from my own testing, 6 feet seems to be fairly accurate. Anything beyond that your mileage my vary.
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