Will the NES Zapper light gun work on a CRT HDTV?
The NES must do the following to "read" the zapper:
- Wait until next frame starts
- Make the screen black, except for a small area where a target is
- Read the zapper to see if it's detecting light
- Wait until next frame starts
- Make the screen completely black
- Read the zapper to see if it's not detecting light
If it detected light in both step 2 and 5, the zapper is not pointed at the TV set and the program should count it as a miss. However, if light was detected in step 2 but not step 5, then the program should count it as a hit. This is why the screen flickers in Duck Hunt, and the duck sprite is replaced with a solid white sprite for 1/60th of a second, when you pull the Zapper trigger.
TL;DR: It should work on any TV if the contrast and response time of the display are good enough.