Light gun in the context of "Light Phaser"

A game controller, gaming controller, or simply controller, is an input device or input/output device used with video games or entertainment systems to provide input to a video game. Input devices that have been classified as game controllers include keyboards, mice, gamepads, and joysticks, as well as special purpose devices, such as steering wheels for driving games and light guns for shooting games. Controllers designs have evolved to include directional pads, multiple buttons, analog sticks, joysticks, motion detection, touch screens and a plethora of other features.

Game controllers may be input devices that only provide input to the system, or input/output devices that receive data from the system and produce a response (e.g. "rumble" vibration feedback, or sound).

The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September 1972 and overseas the following year. The Odyssey consists of a white, black, and brown box that connects to a television set, and two rectangular controllers attached by wires. It is capable of displaying three square dots and one line of varying height on the screen in monochrome black and white, with differing behavior for the dots depending on the game played. Players place plastic overlays on the screen to display additional visual elements for each game, and one or two players for each game control their dots with the knobs and buttons on the controller by the rules given for the game. The console cannot generate audio or track scores. The Odyssey came packaged with dice, paper money, and other board game paraphernalia to accompany the games, while a peripheral controller—the first video game light gun—was sold separately.

The idea for a video game console was conceived by Baer in August 1966. Over the next three years he, along with Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch, created seven successive prototype consoles. The seventh, known as the Brown Box, was shown to several manufacturers before Magnavox agreed to produce it in January 1971. After releasing the console through their dealerships, Magnavox sold 69,000 units in its first calendar year and 350,000 by the time the console was discontinued in 1975.

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on July 15, 1983, as the Family Computer (Famicom), and released as the redesigned NES in test markets in the United States on October 18, 1985, followed by a nationwide launch on September 27, 1986. The NES was distributed in Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia throughout the 1980s under various names. As a third-generation console, it mainly competed with Sega's Master System.

Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi called for a simple, cheap console that could run arcade games on cartridges. The Famicom was designed by Masayuki Uemura, with its controller design reused from Nintendo's portable Game & Watch hardware. The western NES model was designed by Lance Barr and Don James to resemble a video cassette recorder. To aid the console's acceptance in stores, Nintendo released add-ons such as the Zapper, a light gun for shooting games, and R.O.B., a toy robot.

The Zapper is an electronic light gun accessory launched within the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America on October 18, 1985. It is a cosmetic redesign by Nintendo of America's head designer Lance Barr, based on Gunpei Yokoi's Video Shooting Series light gun (光線銃シリーズガン), which had been released in Japan for the Famicom on February 18, 1984. The Zapper requires compatible NES games, such as Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman, Gumshoe, and Hogan's Alley. Its internal optical sensor allows the player to aim at a television set and accurately shoot at in-game targets.

The Zapper bridged Nintendo's existing library of hit arcade light-gun shooter games into the NES's launch library. As distinct toys, the Zapper and R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) were key to the identity of the NES bundle, for positioning the NES's 1985–1986 launch into the North American toy market instead of into the crashed video game market.

The Atari XG-1 is an electronic light gun accessory manufactured by Atari Corporation. Released in 1987, it is compatible with the Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 7800, and Atari 2600. It was bundled with the Atari XEGS Deluxe home computer and video game console combination system, and with the light gun game Bug Hunt for the 7800 as model XES2001 for US$34.95 (equivalent to about $100 in 2024). Atari eventually released five light gun games on the 7800 (Alien Brigade, Barnyard Blaster, Crossbow, Meltdown, and Sentinel) and one on the 2600 (Sentinel).

Light-gun shooter, also called light-gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is to simulate a shooting gallery by having the player aiming and discharging a gun-shaped controller at a screen. Light-gun shooters revolve around the protagonist shooting virtual targets, either antagonists or inanimate objects, and generally feature action or horror themes and some may employ a humorous, parodic treatment of these conventions. These games typically feature "on-rails" movement, which gives the player control only over aiming; the protagonist's other movements are determined by the game. Games featuring this device are sometimes termed "rail shooters", though this term is also applied to games of other genres in which "on-rails" movement is a feature. Some, particularly later, games give the player greater control over movement and in still others the protagonist does not move at all. On home computer conversions of light-gun shooters, mouse has been often an optional or non-optional replacement for a light gun.

Light-gun shooters typically employ "light gun" controllers, so named because they function through the use of light sensors. However, not all "light-gun shooters" use optical light guns, but some may also use alternative pointing devices such as positional guns or motion controllers. Mechanical games using light guns had existed since the 1930s, though they operated differently from those used in video games. Throughout the 1970s mechanical games were replaced by electronic video games and in the 1980s popular light-gun shooters such as Duck Hunt emerged. The genre was most popular in the 1990s, subsequent to the release of Virtua Cop, the formula of which was later improved upon by Time Crisis. The genre is less popular in the new millennium, as well as being hampered by compatibility issues, but retains a niche appeal for fans of "old school" gameplay.

Lethal Enforcers is a 1992 light gun shooter video game developed and published by Konami for arcades. The graphics consist entirely of digitized photographs and digitized sprites. Home console versions were released for the Super NES, Sega Genesis, and Sega CD, and include a revolver-shaped light gun known as the Justifier.

The game was a critical and commercial success, becoming one of the top five highest-grossing dedicated arcade games of 1993 in the United States. However, it also caused controversy as it allowed players to shoot photorealistic representations of enemies. Lethal Enforcers was followed by Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters. Both games would later be released in the two-in-one compilation Lethal Enforcers I & II (Lethal Enforcers Deluxe Pack in Japan) for the PlayStation. Years later, Konami released the Police 911 series as a Japan-themed sequel to the original plot. This was also followed by the arcade game Heroes of Justice, which was localized and renamed as Lethal Enforcers 3 for Western audiences.