Menacer
The Menacer is a light gun peripheral released by Sega in 1992 for its Sega Genesis and Sega CD video game consoles. It was created in response to Nintendo’s Super Scope and as Sega’s successor to the Master System Light Phaser. The gun is built from three detachable parts, and communicates with the television via an infrared sensor. A direct-to-TV light gun that includes the Menacer pack was released in 2005.
About Menacer in brief
The Menacer is a light gun peripheral released by Sega in 1992 for its Sega Genesis and Sega CD video game consoles. It was created in response to Nintendo’s Super Scope and as Sega’s successor to the Master System Light Phaser. The gun is built from three detachable parts, and communicates with the television via an infrared sensor. Critics found the six-game pack subpar and repetitive, and criticized the peripheral’s lack of games. Compatible games were published through 1995. A direct-to-TV light gun that includes the Menacer pack was released in 2005. The Menacer was announced at the May 1992 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago and was released later that year. It is remembered as a critical and commercial flop, and Sega did not plan any other first-party releases for the menacer apart from the included multicart. It operates on batteries and works in conjunction with a sensor plugged into the second controller port and placed atop the television display. The sensor counts CRT television scan lines to detect the player’s shots. It automatically activates when aimed at the television and turns off after 30 seconds without input. Sega recommended eight feet of distance from the receiver, though the peripheral works between four and twelve feet from the television. It does not have a turbo mode for continuous fire, unlike the Super Scope. It has two infrared transmitters, and the optional skeletal shoulder stock and binocular twin sights were designed to improve the aim.
The pistol has a double grip and fires the infrared beam with a trigger on the back grip. There are three buttons on the pistol’s front grip: one pauses the game and the other two provide game-specific functions. It’s designed to be reassembled to suit the player. The light gun’s shots are controlled by its aim towards the television, and it operates on a battery that lasts about 18 hours on new batteries, though Will Smith of The Hawk Eye estimated fewer. The menacer lasts 20 hours as opposed to the Super scope’s 50 to 140 hours. It also has an Accu-Sight option that puts crosshairs on the screen to eliminate the need to aim manually through the sights. It can be used to shoot at targets up to 12 feet away from the player, but Sega recommends eight feet of distance for the gun to work properly. It comes in gray, white, and red, and has a pistol, twin sights, and shoulder stock. It works with Terminator 2: The Arcade Game as well as the standard Menacer-compatible Terminator 2 game. Sega produced six minigames based on Sega’s previous intellectual property and licenses, such as Joe Montana, David Robinson, and ToeJam & Earl. The company asked for more games and scrapped all license-based games due to their added cost.
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This page is based on the article Menacer published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
