The Slow Mo Guys examine the NES Zapper's tech

The NES Zapper is ancient tech in 2023, but it was a one-of-a-kind home experience back in the mid 80s. There was nothing quite like holding up that faux gun to the TV to shoot down some ducks or clay pigeons. The tech behind that magical interaction might be downright rudimentary in today’s day and age, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting to examine.

While we’ve seen countless teardowns and explanations for the NES Zapper over the years, we haven’t seen many that put the device under a slow-motion lens. That’s where the Slow Mo Guys step in, giving us an extremely detailed look at just how the Zapper translates its tech into on-screen action.

Thanks to an incredibly sophisticated slow-mo camera, we can now see how the NES Zapper works line-by-line across the TV screen. Again, it’s rather unsophisticated technology in this era, but it remains incredibly impressive for the day and age it released in.