New Lightgun Technology for 2024!

RetroRalph·video·5m 50s·analyzed·Jan 2, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.016

TL;DR

BlamCon lightgun startup from Hollywood prop developers launching 2024 with open-source designs and custom hardware.

Summary

RetroRalph announces BlamCon, a new lightgun company launching in 2024 founded by Hollywood movie prop developers. The company will offer open-source 3D-printable gun designs, custom PCB hardware with Raspberry Pi Pico integration, and both DIY and ready-made options with sub-10ms response times. BlamCon is partnering with Integra Retro for plug-and-play compatibility.

Key Claims

BlamCon is planning to release lightguns in 2024 with response times under 10 milliseconds
medium confidence · RetroRalph citing early-stage demos and beta testing that began ~3-4 months prior
BlamCon will offer all 3D gun models as open-source designs for home 3D printing
high confidence · RetroRalph directly describing company's stated approach
BlamCon PCB will use Raspberry Pi Pico with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for over-the-air updates
medium confidence · RetroRalph uncertain on specific Pico model but confident about OTA update capability
Integra Retro will integrate BlamCon lightguns into their plug-and-play cabinet offering
high confidence · RetroRalph referencing existing partnership already in progress
BlamCon will offer both solderless and solder-required PCB versions
high confidence · RetroRalph directly stating company's planned PCB options

Notable Quotes

“The company is called BlamCon, and the guys behind it are a team of actual movie prop developers for Hollywood.”
RetroRalph (Jon)@ 0:41 — Key founding detail establishing BlamCon's unique background and expertise
“I've been sitting on this information for a little while now... they started doing some active beta testing. So they are actually beta testing this with certain individuals.”
RetroRalph (Jon)@ 2:39 — Indicates insider/early knowledge and confirms active development stage
“Their hardware design is going to be a chip that you can buy... you can 3D print it you can get their PCB and you can just be off and running”
RetroRalph (Jon)@ 1:34 — Describes BlamCon's modular DIY-friendly approach to hardware distribution
“My personal favorite is still Gun4IR just because of its sheer accuracy. But what if I told you another new light gun company is about to come out here in 2024?”
RetroRalph (Jon)@ 0:25 — Establishes competitive context and frames BlamCon as a significant new entrant

Entities

BlamConcompanyRetroRalphpersonGun4IRcompanySindinproductRetro ShooterproductIntegra RetropersonChrispersonExtreme Gaming CabinetsproductJudge Dreddproduct RobocopproductNES Zapper

Signals

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business_signal: New market entrant BlamCon with differentiated approach (movie prop background, design focus, open-source philosophy) entering competitive lightgun market
high · RetroRalph positioning BlamCon as significant new competitor alongside Gun4IR and Sindin
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market_signal: Lightgun market expanding with multiple viable competitors (Gun4IR, Sindin, Retro Shooter, incoming BlamCon) indicating growing consumer demand
high · RetroRalph opening summary of 2023-2024 lightgun landscape showing proliferation of options
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business_signal: Strategic partnership between BlamCon and Integra Retro for lightgun integration into existing arcade cabinet product line
high · RetroRalph confirms Integra Retro is already working with BlamCon on plug-and-play integration
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announcement: BlamCon officially announced with planned 2024 launch, currently in beta testing phase
medium · RetroRalph states beta testing active 3-4 months ago, no exact launch date confirmed
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technology_signal: BlamCon introduces new lightgun architecture combining open-source 3D-printable designs with custom PCB and Raspberry Pi Pico integration for OTA updates
high · RetroRalph detailed description of BlamCon's hardware approach and technical specifications

Topics

New lightgun hardware technology and featuresprimaryOpen-source hardware design philosophyprimaryDIY vs. ready-made product optionsprimaryCompetitive lightgun market landscapesecondaryArcade cabinet integration and partnershipssecondaryRetro gaming hardware ecosystemsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— RetroRalph expresses genuine enthusiasm for BlamCon's approach, background, and design quality. Acknowledges early-stage status but remains optimistic about execution and market potential.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.017

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. In 2023 we covered a ton of light guns, and the main player that we saw a lot from last year was Gun4IR. But the Sindin is now in full production, so both of those are really great options. We also saw the introduction of a plug and play option, the Retro Shooter. Tonight you have three real viable options. The Retro Shooter for plug and play, you've got the Sindin which is a really viable option too, and then you have Gun for IR. They all have their pluses and minuses. My personal favorite is still Gun for IR just because of its sheer accuracy. But what if I told you another new light gun company is about to come out here in 2024? I've been sitting on this information for a little while now. The company is called BlamCon, and the guys behind it are a team of actual movie prop developers for Hollywood. So they're all from Canada, I believe, but they create movie props. So some of the stuff that they create is absolutely insane and they come at this with a little different approach so they're going to offer all of their 3d models as open source basically they'll provide the designs and then you can print them yourself at home and they'll even show you what materials to use to get the best printing ability out of it so the guns themselves is going to be what they really pride themselves on but i thought well okay cool they're going to look maybe cooler than some of the offerings from Sindin or Gun4IR but they taking it a step further by developing their own hardware and their own software so their hardware design is going to be a chip that you can buy you can buy it as a diy right if you want to build the gun yourself you can 3d print it you can get their pcb and you can just be off and running and they'll provide the software for it too but also they're planning on having ready-made guns so ones that are based on their designs and damn they have some really cool designs. They've got Judge Dredd, they've got Robocop, they have like almost your, I think it was the Sega Master System, they have things like the NES Zapper, but there's a bunch of them and they've got some really interesting and awesome designs too. So they will have them available for you to buy basically off the shelf and here you go. Now, how's the technology compared to something like Gun for IR? Well, in their early stage demos, they're saying that the response time is something like less than 10 milliseconds. So that's actually really good. So it's pretty low latency from what we can tell. And they think it might be better than that when it gets to the production stages. So you're probably going to ask, well, when is this going to be available? They're saying they don't know yet. But my guess is it's going to be sometime in 2024, since about three or four months ago when I found out about this project is when they started doing some active beta testing. So they are actually beta testing this with certain individuals. And what makes this even cooler is that if you remember in Tegram Retro we did the Extreme Gaming Cabinets video That cabinet is awesome It a great shooter cabinet and it has Integra Retro gun drive in it right So Integra Retro is working with them right now and he's going to make his, basically his light gun drive plug and play with the BlamCon. So there's going to be a bunch of different things that will happen as this thing develops. But it's really cool to know there's another company out there. They're focused on the design of the guns being, like, amazing, right, with many designs that you can choose from. They're also custom making the PCB and the software to make it as simple as possible. You can do it DIY, like I said before, or you can just order it from them directly. And they're going to have two versions of the PCB. They're going to have a solderless version, and then one you have to solder. And then the other thing, too, is I think embedded in that chip is a Raspberry Pi Pico. pico i can't remember it's a specific model of the pico that has both wi-fi and bluetooth so they'll be able to do all um over the air updates to the actual pcb itself so some really cool possibilities here but keep in mind this is still early stages so i don't want you guys to get go crazy when do you order it how do you order it there's none of that information exists really yet but what i will do in the link in the description i'll have all the information of all the videos that exist to date that that team has put together and they've got a crazy team they have this team of guys that that just sounds like it a bunch of movie prop guys who just got together and said hey we can do something really cool We know how to make amazing looking guns The other thing too is I believe Chris who kind of the main guy behind it he also is a gun enthusiast as well So he really makes sure that the guns are very accurate. They feel good, not only to an adult, but to a kid. If you're, you know, because a lot of times we're playing these things with our kids. so he's really concerned about the ergonomics of it being accurate and making sure the grip of the gun feels really really good so I'm excited for this I don't know where this is gonna go but it seems like they're really motivated to do this and what a cool background to have guys that have worked in movie props creating these very accurate reproductions and so far all the demos I've seen it looks pretty awesome so I will keep you up to date you know I'm all about the light guns so as soon as there's more information i'll let you know but what a cool way to kick off 2024 than with a new light gun offering if you guys enjoyed the video give me a thumbs up consider subscribing to the channel put your comments below what do you think about this i'm there's gonna be a bunch of other links in the description for you to check out and that's it for now guys we will see you oh the next one We'll see you next time.