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The Super Scope or the Nintendo Scope in Europe, is the official Super NES light gun. It is shaped like a bazooka and is the successor of the vastly popular NES Zapper. The Super Scope was released in the European and US-markets (in Japan it was very limited due to a lack of consumer demand). It is a wireless gun, like the Sega Menacer, and is connected by an infrared receiver which plugs into the console. It has three buttons and a power switch and is powered by 6 AA batteries. The Super Scope does not work with NES games in conjunction with a SNES to NES converter such as a Super 8.
Physical description The gun body is a bazooka shaped device, about just under 2 ½ feet long. Located about midway on top of the barrel are two buttons and a switch. The first is the purple "fire" button, which is used to fire at the enemies onscreen, and a pink "pause" button, which maps to the same button on the SNES controller. The switch is used to turn on the Super Scope, and to switch between regular or turbo mode. In the middle, on both the left and right hand side, are two clips on which you slide the sight. On the far end of the gun, on the bottom, is a 6" grip. On the grip is another, small button labeled "Cursor", which, moves the cursor in some games that use it, kind of like the SELECT button. On the end is the lens, slightly larger than the size of a quarter, which picks up the light from your TV, and right above that is the infrared transmitter. The sight mount is shaped like a wide, very shallow "U", about five inches long. One end, that faces toward the shoulder mount end, has a round open cylinder holder, where the eyepiece goes. The other end has a short, narrow tube, which forms the sight when one looks through the eyepiece that is in-line across from it. The end of the eyepiece is very simple: it is a cylinder with the diameter of a quarter, with a removable rubber piece through which the shooter looks. If all is set up right, the shooter will see a small bit of the screen right through the sight. The sensor is a small box, 2 ½" by 2 ½" by 1", with a standard SNES controller cord attached. On the front is an oval-shaped black area, receding back from the two sides to a red sensor, about the size of a dime. Detecting A Target Hit The Super Scope's barrel has a light receiver, control circuit and infrared LED transmitter. When a player presses the fire button, the light receiver detects the light which has been gathered by the lens in the barrel. Next, the control circuit amplifies and converts the light receiver's signal to a pulse signal having a horizontal scanning cycle. The LED transmits this pulse signal back to the set-top receiver. The receiver then passes the signal to the SNES. When the SNES receives this signal information, it compares the coordinate position represented by the pulse signal to the coordinates of a target on screen to determine if a hit or miss has occurred •. Legacy The Super Scope was never very commercially successful. Critics blasted it as a bulky and cumbersome device that was difficult to use, especially in comparison to the lightweight NES Zapper. Consumers were also frustrated by the Super Scope's quick battery consumption. After four hours of continuous gameplay, the 6 AA batteries had to be replaced. In addition, the device was hurt by a lack of compatible software, although it is difficult to know whether a lack of software can be blamed for the Scope's unpopularity, or if the Scope's unpopularity simply scared off software developers. Appearances within video games The Super Scope has appeared inside several video games for several Nintendo products. For example, In Super Smash Bros. Melee for the GameCube, the Super Scope appears as an item that can be used against other players. It can shoot normal, small shots (which can be fired like an assault rifle, so an enemy gets hit over and over until the shooter runs out of ammo), and can charge up to three major shots, sending the opponent flying and resulting in a "Bull's Eye KO" bonus. The Super Scope also appears in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga as a weapon carried by the Sniper Bill enemy in Bowser's castle. Trivia Games Cameos and other appearances See also Menacer - The lightgun accessory for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive | ||||||||
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