The Life of Reidy

I stumbled across an interesting little article on digg.com today, and if you had the simular NES childhood like I did then you might be interested in this too. It's an article actually explaining how the television, or the NES itself, knows that you've actually hit the duck when playing Duck Hunt. Obviously the article isn't for those cheaters who just stood inches away from the screen to get perfect scores everytime, but the more hardcore gamers who are actually interested should check it out here.

I guess the basic science is that there is a photo sensor within the gun, and whenever you pull the trigger the NES blacks out your screen except for the small, duck-shaped target and if you are aiming correctly the game will suggest that you have indeed shot the duck! Pretty nifty, not very useful in common knowledge, but it's always cool to know a few extra things about how the stuff we use actually works. Or at least I think so.