Zebra

You must be young if you think "Windows is the most user unfriendly experience ever". You obviously never had to wrestle with loading games from cassette on a Spectrum 48k or a Commodore 64. Or deal with all the silly command line BS of Dos. Windows, in my experience, is the most intuitive and user friendly experience of any multi-purpose computer. You literally just point n click to load games. It's designed to be simple enough for a monkey to operate. You can run emulators on multiple different consoles but none are anywhere near as easy to set up or versatile. Windows let's you run games and emulators from multiple systems without any evil corporation trying to brick your computer. Sony won't even let you use your own controllers on their consoles. The rest of the world has moved to standard USB devices while Sony force you to use their "approved" gamepads. They act like North Korea... telling what you can use and who you're allowed to buy games from etc... You can also easily upgrade a Windows PC to keep up with the times while continuing to play the thousands of games you already have. Consoles keep making you start again. It's only cheaper the first time. I used to be a console guy but I got sick of all the BS after the PS3. Being forced to play HOD4 with the Sony dildo (AKA eye n sharp shooter) was the last straw for me.

Asking about the specs needed for Teknoparrot is like asking what specs you need to play PC games. Every game is different. It's not the same as running a console emulator which is always emulating the same hardware regardless of which game you play. Teknoparrot isn't an emulator. It's software that allows you to play arcade games that ran on regular PC hardware with your own controls on a regular Windows PC while bypassing security checks. The devs describe it as a "compatibility layer" (a bit like Steam). It's really just playing PC games on a PC. In other words, a PC can easily be enough to run one game in TP but be completely inadequate for another - just like with any other PC games... The easiest way to see what sort of specs would be needed for a particular game in TP is to look up what CPU and GPU was used in the original arcade PC. For the most part, any hardware that is the same or superior to the original PCB will be fine. It's not like emulators that need to be many times more powerful than the original hardware Sometimes games that used Nvidia GPUs work better on PCs with Nvidia GPUs and same with AMD but there are usually patches to get around such issues. While most arcade PCs are low spec compared to home gaming PCs, there are some of the latest ones that will require something decent when they eventually become playable (like House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn). So.... It's best to leave yourself some head room...

I don't know if you specifically need mame 227 roms but I use this site for Mame 198 roms. It's safe and fairly reliable: https://www.planetemu.net/roms/mame-roms?page=M It's been years since the mame development team added anything worthwhile so I find no reason to have the absolute latest set. A reasonably recent one is usually more than good enough. Every time I check the update to see what's new with Mame releases I usually wonder why they even bothered. Apparently preserving games is no longer their priority. I was hoping to see Time Crisis 2 and some of the never ported Konami 3d games at one point but I gave up waiting. I'd advise against downloading a full rom set. You'll end up spending more time searching through endless lists of garbage than you will playing. Mame apparently "supports" 10,000 games but the reality is that there is probably less than 500 working games that anyone would actually want to play in 2021. I recommend just downloading the 100 you'd actually play.

Or just get an Apac or UHID from Ultimarc.

The guncon 3 outputs like a regular analog controller (same as a Wiimote). The problem is that Namco encoded it (I assume to prevent it's use with non-Namco games). Even the PS3 can't recognize it without the custom drivers on the Time Crisis 4 and Razing Storm discs. There is a whole bunch of gun options for a PC but none of the good ones are cheap. Examples include: Aimtrak EMS Topgun 3 Wiimotes Sinden Act Labs (CRT only) Guncon 2 with Windows drivers (CRT 15khz only) Various DIY options using cameras or laser pointers I use real arcade guns with my PC for emulators. I consider this the best option in terms of accuracy and build quality. I use Sega IR guns for HD games or arcades that used this type of gun. These output like regular analog controllers so I connect them to my PC using a UHID. Eg I'm using a Ghost Squad arcade gun to play Ghost Squad in the Dolphin emulator in this vid: I use an Arduino with absolute mouse code instead of the UHID for emulators that only allow mouse input for gun games: This method also works with the Namco IR guns used in Time Crisis 4 and 5 (it's the same OMZ gun tech). These guns work on any display. They are accurate enough to play real light gun games without adding visible crosshairs too. For positional gun games I use analog arcade guns. These can also be connected to a PC using a UHID (or an Apac). They can often be found fairly cheap on ebay: I don't recommend using positional guns for real light gun games but I guess you could. For real light gun games nothing beats real light guns on a CRT monitors. I use Happ guns with my PC using the USB2Gun board in my America's army cab. If you really like arcade shooters and care about accuracy then my advice would be to not cheap out. Invest in something good that you will actually want to play with. I'd rather not play at all than use a Wiimote or an Aimtrak but, everyone is different.

If you're using a laptop, try going to the gpu control panel and make sure the right graphics card is selected for this game. I.e. Make sure it's using the MXM 3 Nvidia or AMD gpu and not the one built in to the CPU. I had that issue a few times with PC based arcade games. Also, limit it to 60fps if you don't have a display and a game that allows a variable refresh rate. When a game loads and then immediately crashes, this has usually been the issue in Teknoparrot. Other issues usually seem to prevent a game from loading at all.

Is there any way to use guns that output like analog controllers in Windows with HOD4 yet? I use a USB2Gun board for real light guns and I have various positional and IR arcade guns connected via a UHID and an Apac. All of the above output like HID analog controllers but Demul Shooter only works with guns that output as a mouse. When you try to use analog controllers in Teknoparrot it converts it to relative positioning. That's fine if you are using an Xbox360 pad but not for a gun. I need absolute analog positioning to use my arcade guns...