After returning home, Kobayashi Tetsu thought carefully about what needed to be done. That same night, he called Kitagawa Takeshi, explained the required art assets, and arranged a schedule for regular in-person check-ins.
With no internet in this era, Kobayashi had to inspect Kitagawa's progress personally to ensure nothing drifted off-model.
---
The next morning, just as Nakayuji walked in humming some anime tune, he was greeted by the muzzle of a gun pointed straight at him.
He jolted, nearly raising his hands in surrender—
then he saw Kobayashi's expression, and finally exhaled.
When he noticed the gun was wired to the console, he could only laugh helplessly.
"Where did you get a light gun, Kobayashi-kun?"
"Sega gave it to me for free." Kobayashi swung it twice with a grin. "I can't tell you the rest, but—this time, we're making a light-gun shooting game."
Light-gun arcade games were common enough.
But on a home console? That was still experimental and very rough.
Which surprised Nakayuji.
"A light gun on a home console? How would that even work?"
Kobayashi spread his hands.
"Sega's approach is absurdly high-cost. They plan on using four position sensors. Players place them on the four corners of the TV, and the gun uses an infrared emitter to triangulate position."
Normally only arcade cabinets used such expensive setups.
A home console doing this was… madness.
Nakayuji was stunned.
Just the sensors plus gun would cost thousands of yen—far too expensive.
"I do have a not-quite-polished idea," Kobayashi said. "But I need to test it myself first. I've already prepared the game framework. You handle the code."
He pointed to the whiteboard. Nakayuji leaned in to read.
Title: Duck Hunt
Genre: Light-gun Shooter
Tone: Relaxed, humorous, silly, fourth-wall jokes
After reading everything, Nakayuji sat at the computer and immediately started writing.
As the saying goes:
Open the command line, and it's time to work!
If you haven't typed two hundred lines of code, don't even call yourself a programmer!
The framework included:
— Player (represented by an arm holding a gun)
— Enemies
— The hunting dog
In Duck Hunt, the dog was the soul of the game.
Hit a duck? He brings it back proudly.
Miss? He pops up and laughs at you.
Some players and critics found the dog annoying, but most agreed he was essential.
Because the dog is so irritating… players are driven to aim better.
Who could stand being mocked by a dog?
For now, Kobayashi focused on one thing:
making the gunfire and hit-detection system work.
The rest would be layered on later.
---
Light-gun games weren't obscure. Arcades were full of them: fixed-path shooters where the player fired at the screen using a gun-shaped controller. Early electronics relied heavily on such simple mechanisms.
And among early home-console light-gun games, one title was unavoidable:
Duck Hunt.
Released by Nintendo in 1984, it wasn't the first light-gun game, nor the first light-gun shooter—but it was by far the cheapest to manufacture.
Because it was cheap, it sold exceptionally well.
And Nintendo's Zapper didn't use external position sensors.
So how did it work?
The secret: in early light-gun shooters, the television, not the gun, was the one sending the signal.
A photodiode was far cheaper than an infrared transmitter, and the console didn't need four expensive calibration beacons.
Here's how Nintendo did it:
The human eye perceives motion at roughly 24 frames per second; anything happening in a single frame goes unnoticed.
So when the player pulls the trigger, the game instantly generates one extra frame:
— The entire screen becomes black.
— The target (the duck) is shown as a white box.
It lasts only one frame—players never see it.
But the gun's sensor detects that single burst of white light.
If it receives white light, the shot is a hit.
If not, it's a miss.
That's why if you point the Zapper at a bright desk lamp, it always registers as a hit.
The gun isn't detecting ducks.
It's detecting white flashes.
CRT televisions made this reading instantaneous.
Modern LCD TVs, however, introduce delay; hence Duck Hunt becomes unplayable.
In the 1980s, this method was the perfect balance between low cost and playability.
---
Without hesitation, Kobayashi completely disassembled Sega's prototype light gun, scattering screws and boards across the table, then began reassembling it into something new.
If there's a cheaper method, why would anyone use the expensive one?
He left the coding to Nakayuji.
Kobayashi had just one task now:
Build a better light gun.
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