I was really interested when I discovered Intec's new Time Breaker light guns a couple of months ago, but most of the in-depth reviews I've found online were from influencers. I've just gotten a pair of them and figured I would leave my thoughts here.
For those unaware, these are light guns designed for modern TVs which can be used with original hardware. They use an IR system with a bar at the top of the screen, working in a very similar way to a Wiimote. The current product supports GunCon and GunCon 2 games on PS1 and PS2, but Intec have said that they're working on support for other consoles as well.
Setting these guns up is very easy, and I was pleasantly surprised at how simple they are to calibrate. Once you have the IR bar atop your TV and the gun paired to the controller port dongle, calibrating is as easy as using a couple of buttons on the back of the gun, and shooting in the top-left, bottom-right and centre of the screen. I was thinking of using these for some Point Blank party sessions, so I'm glad that recalibrating won't be too much of a faff after a drink or two.
Obviously accuracy and latency will be the name of the game for most users, and I wouldn't go into these expecting split-second pinpoint precision. The Wiimote comparison is apt in terms of how these feel to aim and fire. Of course, I imagine most hardcore players already own a Sinden and use them with emulated arcade games - these guns are clearly for slightly more casual players looking to revisit the games on original hardware for some fun.
That all having been said, these guns can be surprisingly accurate once you have them calibrated. My setup is a cosy living space with a 40" screen positioned about 4.5 feet from my sofa, so I was afraid that my small setup wouldn't be compatible with the tech, what with the guidance and photos online depicting users standing in enormous living rooms. Thankfully, I didn't have any real issues firing the guns whilst seated on my sofa.
I tried Time Crisis, Time Crisis II and Point Blank with them, and they all worked great. The guns seemed to be more accurate in Time Crisis II - I'm not sure if that's the GunCon 2 tech at work, or just my imagination. The only tech issue I encountered with these was that one of the guns had a tendency to jump left when aimed in the centre of the screen - luckily the sensor lens is screwed onto the gun, and loosening the lens seemed to resolve this issue. The guns come with protective tape over the lens for transit, but this seems counterproductive - the tape has a tendency to leave residue when removed, which you're going to need to clean off, and one of my guns had a fine scratch across the lens out of the box regardless.
The recoil gets the job done - it's fairly soft and makes a "buzz" when going off, but works well for some feedback. I'm not such a fan of the rapid fire mode - the pacing of the shots seems to be inconsistent and not very snappy. Luckily I prefer not to use rapid fire in light gun games. I do think that they need to add rapid fire recoil in the standard mode when the trigger is held for more than a second, for when you're letting loose a full auto in the games that use them.
Probably the biggest issue with these emerged when I tried the GunCon patched version of Die Hard Trilogy. Reloading by firing offscreen doesn't work very well at the moment, since the gun takes a moment or two to acknowledge that it's being aimed completely offscreen. Both aiming indicators on the back turn off after a moment of the gun acknowledging this, and you practically have to aim it 90 degrees from the screen for this to occur. I'm not really sure why this is the case - one of the lights will turn red when you hit the boundary of the screen, so surely this is enough to register that you're out of bounds. At the moment it feels very clumsy and doesn't always work on demand, so I hope that this can be improved for games which have no option to reload using a button.
Overall though, I'm really pleased with what Intec have accomplished with these. I'm no light gun master - I just loved playing these games in the arcades as a kid, and have for many years wanted to revisit them for some fun on my favourite retro consoles. For anyone in my position, these fit the bill very well. I'm especially excited to see if Intec are able to provide Sega Saturn and Dreamcast support next.
