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Does Sinden Lightgun work?
Linas Jul 9
Hi everyone, I recently came across Sinden Lightgun, and got a bit of a nostalgia rush.

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It does seem to support Linux to some degree, but appears to be targeted heavily towards emulation hobbyists. I was mostly going to play Steam games like Major Mayhem, and the info regarding whether this would work on Steam over Proton is rather sparse.

So the question is, has anyone tried it, and gotten it to work on Linux? Do games need to be aware of the lightgun like a special controller or can it emulate mouse input?

Last edited by Linas on 9 July 2024 at 5:45 am UTC
whizse Jul 9
It seems to be run as somewhat of an "enthusiast" project as despite the Wiki, information is sort of scattered. Anyhow, there are some relevant notes in the driver package with special instructions for the steam deck.

Sounds like it runs as either a mouse or as a joystick:

Quote"MAKE SURE YOUR SINDEN LIGHTGUNS ARE ON V1.9 FIRMWARE BY USING THE WINDOWS BETA 2.05 OR HIGHER AND UPDATING FIRMWARE. WE NEED THE JOYSTICK FUNCTIONALITY. ALSO ON THE FIRMWARE UPDATE TAB ENABLE THE JOYSTICK FUNCTIONALITY FOR EACH LIGHTGUN.

I'm not sure how well Steamdeck Linux does with absolute mouse coordinates devices, so for this first release I'm recommending you use joystick mode. I think mouse should work but it hijacks the mouse cursor and seemed a bit messy, hopefully people can experiment and feed back."

The example used Mame on the Deck so I'm not sure how well it works with regular Steam games. Guess it doesn't hurt to ask?
joehedrick Aug 14
I've got one I use on my MiSTer which is Linux / custom FPGA core's and it's been working great. They also look to have a RetroPI build for the Raspberry PI4 so, though I haven't tried playing anything on Linux proper yet, it seems to be on offer.

The only thing I haven't found yet is a way to update the gun's firmware... they only have a Windows app to do it now.

Looks like it registers a mouse, keyboard, and standard UVC camera when I plug it into my Debian box.

 
[1537832.271706] usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 48 using xhci_hcd
[1537832.420244] usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=2512, bcdDevice= b.b3
[1537832.420248] usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[1537832.420250] usb 3-1: Manufacturer: KSB
[1537832.421417] hub 3-1:1.0: USB hub found
[1537832.421462] hub 3-1:1.0: 2 ports detected
[1537832.707697] usb 3-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 49 using xhci_hcd
[1537832.818960] usb 3-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=16d0, idProduct=1098, bcdDevice= 4.22
[1537832.818964] usb 3-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[1537832.818965] usb 3-1.1: Product: SindenCamD
[1537832.818966] usb 3-1.1: Manufacturer: WN-220422-A
[1537832.822216] usb 3-1.1: Found UVC 1.00 device SindenCamD (16d0:1098)
[1537832.843256] input: SindenCamD: SindenCamD as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.1/3-1.1:1.0/input/input68
[1537832.923581] usb 3-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 50 using xhci_hcd
[1537833.037268] usb 3-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=16c0, idProduct=0f39, bcdDevice= 1.00
[1537833.037272] usb 3-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[1537833.037273] usb 3-1.2: Product: SindenLightgun
[1537833.037274] usb 3-1.2: Manufacturer: Unknown
[1537833.037275] usb 3-1.2: SerialNumber: HIDDO
[1537833.048942] cdc_acm 3-1.2:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[1537833.050989] input: Unknown SindenLightgun Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.2/3-1.2:1.2/0003:16C0:0F39.001A/input/input69
[1537833.107963] input: Unknown SindenLightgun Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.2/3-1.2:1.2/0003:16C0:0F39.001A/input/input70
[1537833.108419] input: Unknown SindenLightgun as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1/3-1.2/3-1.2:1.2/0003:16C0:0F39.001A/input/input71
[1537833.109096] hid-generic 0003:16C0:0F39.001A: input,hidraw1: USB HID v1.01 Keyboard [Unknown SindenLightgun] on usb-0000:00:14.0-1.2/input2
Linas Aug 14
That is very interesting.

If I understand it correctly (and take this as coming from a complete outsider who has never tinkered with the light gun), it relies on drawing a white border around the edges of the screen for aim tracking and positioning, is that correct? What I couldn't figure out was whether the border overlay would work with Steam, and how would one set that up in the first place?

Last edited by Linas on 14 August 2024 at 7:12 pm UTC
whizse Aug 14
Not sure how they work on Linux in 2024, but otherwise as an alternative: ye olde Wiimote with one of those plastic gun shells?

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