Light Phaser

The Light Phaser is a light gun controller created for the Sega Master System, modeled after the Zillion gun from the Japanese anime series of the same name. It was used in several games, including Safari Hunt which was built into version 2.4 of the Master System BIOS.

The Light Phaser consists of a light sensor in the tip of the gun, which is focused on a small area of the screen; and a trigger (which corresponds to Control Pad button 1). When the trigger is pulled, the game flashes the screen in a way that is detectable by the light sensor, and hardware built in to the console allows the game to determine where the gun is pointing. The phaser is heavier than its Nintendo counterpart, the Nintendo Zapper, but considered by some to have a more responsive trigger and more accurate targeting.

The standard Light Phaser is entirely black. As with the Nintendo Zapper, the Light Phaser looked realistic enough to warrant parental pressure to alter the device, so that police would not confuse it with a real gun. Altered Light Phasers are distinguished by a hand-painted neon orange tip, and are much rarer than their solid color counterparts. Tec Toy also released a blue Light Phaser in Brazil. In that same country in 2009, an unaltered Light Phaser was used to hold a woman hostage [1].

Hardware

Pinout

Pin	Signal	Dir	description
1	Up		n/c
2	Down		n/c
3	Left		n/c
4	Right		n/c
5	VCC
6	TL	IN	trigger
7	TH	IN	light sensor
8	Gnd		ground
9	TR		n/c

Notes

The controller ports are active-low (this is achieved in hardware by leaving lines unconnected when inactive, and connecting them to Gnd when active):

• 1 in the corresponding port register means "not pressed" or "dark"
• 0 in the corresponding port register means "pressed" or "light"