Light Phaser

The Light Phaser is a light gun created for the Sega Master System, modeled after the Zillion gun from the Japanese anime series of the same name. 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. 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; an unaltered Light Phaser was used to hold a woman hostage in Brazil in 2009.

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 joypad 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.

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"