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

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

[jckatz]

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

[Wald]

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

[mrspeeddemon]

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.

[chadquigley]

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 !

[TheDaringPastry]

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

[TDPEquinox]

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.

[fawstes]

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

[rsvp]

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.

[UselessDuckCompany]

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

[yetinother]

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.

[uroborous]

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.

[PotentialEnrgy]

I grew up with this 40 years ago I've always wondered how it worked!! What an amazing piece of engineering!!

[westminsterabbey.]

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

[MrAnimefan]

This continues to be magic. How they figured out they could do this is unfathomable.

[kilbabaplays]

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.

[PixxelWizzard-ddcr]

This is the first explanation of how the zapper worked that I understood. Slowing everything down helped so much. Thank you.

[IndyStry]

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!

[LeeorVardi]

that bit of filming the CRT at super slo-mo alone is worth this video, incredible stuff.

[GunslingerAlGilead]

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!

[naveenraja]

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.