I dare you to try to find anyone who was a child back in the heyday of the Nintendo Entertainment System who did NOT ONCE pretend that the NES Zapper accessory was a laser gun between games of Duck Hunt and Bandai’s Shooting Gallery! Go on! Try to find someone. I’ll be here all day.  

As a kid, there was no cooler accessory for the good old NES Zapper (mainly because the Power Glove was a widely acknowledged joke of a peripheral). The team at North Street Labs created their own laser pistol using the classic light gun, a 445nm diode, some batteries, wiring and some sprinkles of imagination. The Zapper was then meticulously re-assembled, along with a physical safety lock and a custom aim-assisting heat sink. Upon completion, the light gun became a honest-to-goodness laser gun with the ability to light matches from afar (and possibly a few other things if it’s not shown the proper respect). As seen in the video above, the North Street Labs team was able to top their laser meter at a rating of 2W. They’re even nice enough to show how you can create your own; for EDUCATIONAL USES, of course.

Now I’m just worried about how many TVs I might go through just from shooting in frustration playing the light gun levels in The Legend of Bayou Billy…

[Thanks Hack-A-Day!]