PC (Windows)

Light guns on Windows: mouse and gamepad modes, MAME, TeknoParrot, DemulShooter, RetroArch and the gun apps.

Firearms

PC (Windows) · Deep Dive

PC (Windows)

Where most modern light-gun games are played.

Light guns on Windows: mouse and gamepad modes, MAME, TeknoParrot, DemulShooter, RetroArch and the gun apps.

Photo: A Sinden light gun aimed at Duck Hunt on a flat screen by Damien McFerran / Time Extension

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Whole deep dives are listed first, then the pages inside them.

    Volumes

    1. Vol 1 The Gun as Windows Sees It — One Device, Three Readers, a COM Port and the Primary Monitor What a Windows PC makes of an OpenFIRE light gun, the three different ways programs read it, why two guns need two identities, why the gun's screen must be the primary monitor, and a first map of what runs where
    2. Vol 2 MAME on Windows — The Four Light-Gun Settings, Two Guns That Stay Put, Off-Screen Reload and the Outputs How MAME 0.289 reads an absolute-mouse light gun on Windows, how to switch guns on only for gun games, how to pin Player 1 and Player 2 to their guns with mapdevice, how to reload off-screen, what the crosshair does, and the real output names a hook program must match
    3. Vol 3 RetroArch on Windows — The raw Driver, Mouse Index, Gun Binds and the Light-Gun Cores How RetroArch v1.22.2 reads two absolute-mouse guns on Windows, which input driver to pick and why, how a port finds its gun, the eleven gun binds, the core options that make each console's gun work, and what RetroArch cannot do for recoil
    4. Vol 4 The Sega Boards and the PlayStations — Model 2, Supermodel, Demul, Flycast, PCSX2 and DuckStation The Windows emulators behind House of the Dead, Virtua Cop, The Lost World, Confidential Mission, Time Crisis and the GunCon games: each one's Raw Input setting, its reload, its in-game calibration, what it can and cannot send back for recoil, and the PlayStation 2 emulator that can only see one gun
    5. Vol 5 TeknoParrot, DemulShooter, PC-Native Games, and Getting the Game's Recoil to the Gun The PC-based arcade games TeknoParrot runs and how a light gun is bound in them, what DemulShooter does and the outputs it adds, which PC games need it, and the four hook programs that carry recoil, lamps and life to the gun's COM port on Windows
    6. Vol 6 Latency, Two Guns End to End, Troubleshooting, and Where Every Game Runs What Windows adds between the gun and the picture and which settings take it away, a single checklist for keeping Player 1 and Player 2 straight across every program, the faults that recur and their causes, and a game-by-game table of the documented route, the second gun and the recoil source