I remember being told once but I can’t remember what was told.
Cecil did do a thread on this. It’s been awhile, so I’m rusty. But, IIRC, something about when you pull the trigger on the gun, a negative image is created on the screen for half-a-second, so to speak. If a negative image is detected by the gun (which does not really send anything to the TV screen, but just the opposite), then the video game’s processor knows you’ve scored…such as in “Duckhunt”. Maybe some SDoper can add to this… - Jinx
I’m not an authority, but I’d imagine when you pulled the trigger it waited until the image the gun saw of the TV screen was the brightest. Then it’d send a pulse to the console. This way the console could simply check to see where the TV’s refresh was at the tme that it received said pulse.
I believe this is how it worked, as well as those light pens, etc. Just a little Jamaican rum in me, so might have something backwards.
It’s simple: The instant you pull the trigger, the screen goes completely black except for a white spot where the duck was. If the gun senses the white spot, the duck dies. If it doesn’t, the duck lives (and, eventually, that DAMNED DOG snickers at you… I spent half my time shooting at it).
The short way it was described to me: You shoot the gun with the TV, not the other way around.
Search doesn’t like me very much. I searched both the archives and forums and didn’t find anything. Guess “nintendo” was to narrow of a subject to search.
If anyone wants, here’s Cecil’s column which also includes a link to an explanation by How Stuff Works.