Light Phaser

Light Phaser
Made for: Sega Master System
Manufacturer: Sega
Release Date RRP Code US 1986-10 3050 EU 1987 EU (Newer) 199x MK-3097-50 DE 198x PT 19xx UK 1987-08 £44.9544.95 AR 19xx BR 1989-09-04 R$180.00180.00 KR 198x

The Light Phaser is a light gun controller created by Sega for the Sega Master System. It is the Master System's equivalent to Nintendo's Zapper for the Nintendo Entertainment System or Atari's XG-1 for the Atari 7800 and XEGS. It was released alongside the Master System in the US in 1986, and also saw a release in Europe, Brazil and South Korea. No equivalent peripheral was produced for the Japanese market.

Design

The Light Phaser is a plastic gun consisting of a light sensor (in the tip) 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, a compatible 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, 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 harder to find 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.

Contrary to popular belief the Light Phaser was not modelled on the Sega-backed anime, Red Photon Zillion, in which characters use Light Phaser-shaped guns. It is in fact, the other way around - Zillion debuted in April 1987 several months after the peripheral was released in the United States. It is therefore more likely that the Zillion design was borrowed from Sega, similar to the Opa-Opa cameo who had debuted in Fantasy Zone in 1986. The Zillion Fighter Set, a light-gun tag toy developed by Sega, borrows the shell of the Light Phaser, but this too was released in 1987.

As with all light guns, the Light Phaser was designed solely for CRT television sets, which were the standard for televisions during the 1980s and 1990s. The Light Phaser will struggle with LCD and plasma televisions and monitors, as well as projection screens. The Light Phaser is also incompatible with the Mark III as that system lacks the TH signal needed for the Light Phaser's light sensor. It is however compatible with the Japanese Master System, which has the TH signal present on both controller ports.

In 1989 Virgin Mastertronic released the "Magnum Light Phaser" for the three leading 8-bit home computers in Europe; the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. Each were bundled with either cassettes or floppy disks containing six games, with the company releasing a handful of other titles to make use of the peripheral in the months that followed. Despite the similar name and aesthetics, and Virgin Mastertronic's role as the UK's official distributor of Sega products, the Magnum Light Phaser is unrelated to Sega's Light Phaser (though could be infringing on Sega's trademark).

In the United States, a federal law came into force in November 1988 forcing toy gun manufacturers to add an orange tip to distinguish them from real guns. This means Light Phasers produced after this date which were intended for the US market have an orange tip.

Hardware

Pinout

Pin	Signal	Dir	description	cable color
1	Up		n/c
2	Down		n/c
3	Left		n/c
4	Right		n/c
5	VCC		+5V	green
6	TL	IN	trigger	blue
7	TH	IN	light sensor	white
8	Gnd		ground	black
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"

Compatible games

• Assault City (also compatible with standard control pad)
• Gangster Town
• Laser Ghost (also compatible with standard control pad)
• Marksman Shooting
• Missile Defense 3-D
• Operation: Wolf
• Rambo III
• Rescue Mission
• Safari Hunt
• Shooting Gallery
• Space Gun
• Trap Shooting
• Wanted!

History

In 2009, the accessory was used by a Brazilian criminal while holding a woman hostage for 10 hours.

Promotional material

ES advert (1990)

Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #90: "April 1989" (1989-03-16)
also published in:

• New Computer Express (UK) #21: "April 1, 1989" (1989-03-30)
• Computer & Video Games (UK) #91: "May 1989" (1989-04-11)
• New Computer Express (UK) #23: "April 15, 1989" (1989-04-13)
• ACE (UK) #20: "May 1989" (1989-04-06)
• Computer & Video Games (UK) #92: "June 1989" (1989-05-16)
• ACE (UK) #21: "June 1989" (1989-05-04)

Print advert in Excalibur (CZ) #12 (1992-09-01)

Print advert in Game Champ (KR) #1992-12: "92/12" ()
also published in:

• Game Champ (KR) #1993-02: "xxxx" (199x-xx-xx)
• Game Champ (KR) #1993-04: "xxxx" (199x-xx-xx)

Print advert in Game Champ (KR) #1993-03: "xxxx" (199x-xx-xx)

Gallery

• 

  US orange tip model

• 

  KR model

• 

  BR first model

• 

  BR first model Zoom

• 

  BR blue model (Master System III Compact bundle)

Magazine articles

Main article: Light Phaser/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Master System, US
Cover
Manual

Master System, EU
Cover

Master System, EU (with Marksman Shooting / Trap Shooting / Safari Hunt)
Cover

Master System, EU (newer)
Cover

Master System, EU (black)
Cover

Master System, DE
Cover

Master System, BR
Cover

Master System, BR (Alt)
Cover

Master System, AR
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