AimTrak Light Gun

The Aimtrak light gun by Ultimarc is probably the best solution for playing light gun games on a non CRT television a the minute (Early 2019).

It works with an IR sensor bar that you put on top of your TV. Under optimum conditions this can work really well. In practice, you will spend a lot of time calibrating the gun to your exact position and if you move, it will lose accuracy.

It can be perfect at one point but lack consistency over the screen which can make those one shot games difficult.

Don’t get me wrong. This is the gun that I use and it does work very well, just not as well as a traditional CRT light gun. If you are playing on your own, you will manage very well but if you are passing it between people then you might want to re calibrate it to the next person.

Which Games can I Play with the Ultimarc Aimtrak Lightgun?

Basically all of them! The Aimtrak is a very versatile lightgun. It works as a mouse pointer using absolute rather than relative coordinates. That is what you want because it means that you can aim rather than move a pointer around.

So, if the emulator that you are using supports a mouse with absolute coordinates then you will be able to use the Aimtrak gun.

PC – native PC games will just work. Every platform that has a emulator for the PC has something that will work. This is your best bet for all games and emulators and the place to start.

The Ultimarc site is the place to start for set up instructions:

https://www.ultimarc.com/aimtrak.html

Raspberry pi – This works in MAME and a few of the other emulators but I have found it to be very temperamental to set up. This isn’t the fault of the Aimtrak exactly – its more mouse support for the emulators on Linux. It seems like people are working on it so it should get better, but if you just want it to work, I would stay away for now (March 2019).

If you want to play it on MAME on any platform, this is the guide to follow:

https://www.ultimarc.com/AimTrak%20Setup%20Guide.pdf

PS2 – This is the only light gun (other than the ones designed and sold to work for the PS2) that works on a console and definitely the only one that will let you play console light gun games directly on a non CRT TV.

Here is the guide for using the Aimtrak on the ps2:

http://www.ultimarc.com/Aimtrak%20PS2%20guide%20v_1.pdf

6 Comments
  1. Hello!

    Im wondering if the Aimtrak is compatible with phat ps3 console that plays ps2 lightgun games?

    • I don’t think so but I haven’t tried. I’m almost certain that it wont work with the ps3 games as they used a different system but I’m not sure about ps2 games on ps3.
      Please let me know if you give it a try.

  2. Do you known how to do with pcsx2?

  3. The Aimtrak light gun is frikin’ expensive! The cheapest one I could find on ebay is $179.

    • Yeah, it is quite expensive. If they have them in stock then arcade controls is a good place to get them.

      TO be honest I would go straight for the Sinden guns now though as they are much more consistent. They do take some setting up though and I’m not sure if you can actually buy one at the minute, you may have to get on a waiting list at indegogo.

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