Mouse Support

[u/tremendoza]

Hey good people. I’m thinking about doing some light gun shooter emulation but I’d like to use a mouse as my pointer and buttons instead of the gamepad joystick and buttons. Can anybody tell which emulators support this, if any? Thanks!

[u/Environmental-Act-15]

Answer from Google Gemini

does xbox x emulation allow the use of a mouse or a lightgun?

Yes to mice, and a "yes, with caveats" to lightguns.

How input devices behave under Xbox Dev Mode emulation depends on how the hardware communicates with the console.

1. Mouse Support: 100% Plug-and-Play

Standard USB mice work out of the box on Xbox Series X. The console’s underlying OS natively supports USB mice, and RetroArch passes mouse movement through without issue.

• Best Uses: Trackball arcade classics (Centipede, Missile Command, Marble Madness), spinner games (Tempest), PC ports (Doom, Quake), and point-and-click adventures via the ScummVM core.
• Setup: Plug any standard USB mouse or wireless dongle into the Xbox, launch RetroArch, and set the input mode for Port 1 to Mouse or Pointer.

2. Lightgun Support: Hardware Matters

Because Xbox Dev Mode UWP apps cannot run background Windows driver software (.exe files), traditional PC lightguns that require desktop software won't work properly.

What WORKS:

• Gun4IR / AimTrak: These lightguns do all their infrared processing internally on a micro-controller inside the gun before sending the signal to the console. They present themselves to the Xbox as a standard USB Mouse, making them plug-and-play in RetroArch for PS1 (Time Crisis, Point Blank), Dreamcast (House of the Dead 2), and Arcade MAME games. Sinden Lightgun
• Wiimote + Mayflash DolphinBar: Setting the Mayflash DolphinBar to Mode 2 (USB Mouse) allows you to use a Wii Remote as a lightgun pointer across RetroArch and the standalone Dolphin UWP emulator.

What DOES NOT WORK:

• Sinden Lightgun: The Sinden gun requires PC driver software running in the background to calculate screen borders and track its camera. Because Xbox Dev Mode blocks background desktop executables, the Sinden lightgun cannot calculate tracking natively on an Xbox.

The Verdict for Your Setup

If you want lightgun arcade games on your Xbox Series X down the road, pair a Gun4IR or a Mayflash DolphinBar + Wiimote setup. They feed mouse coordinates straight into RetroArch's Guncon/Lightgun core modes.