TeknoRaven Released: The Free Arcade Emulator for Initial D, Wangan, OutRun 2 SP and More

Punks, a new bird has landed on the arcade scene. TeknoRaven is a brand-new, completely free arcade emulator for Windows that goes after the hardware most emulators leave alone: the PC-based cabinets from IGS, SEGA, Namco, Taito, Konami and Unis. We are talking Initial D, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, OutRun 2 SP SDX, Battle Gear, Tank! Tank! Tank! and a pile of Chinese racers that most of us have only ever seen in a dark corner of an arcade. Its tagline is “They built an ark. We own the sky.” Cheeky. We like it already.

It has been out for barely two weeks and it has already pushed out 64 releases. Yes, sixty-four. The raven does not sleep. Here is everything you need to know.

What is TeknoRaven?

TeknoRaven is a free arcade emulator and launcher, built by a developer who goes by Gorgias. You get one tidy launcher where you browse your games, set them up and hit Launch game. Behind the scenes, it loads a separate “core” for each arcade platform, and those cores do the heavy lifting.

It runs on Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit), the launcher is only about 45MB, and it is free. Properly free: no ads, no paywall and no locked features. The project says every feature is open to everyone, forever.

Simple tech: why these arcade machines can be emulated at all

Here is the fun bit. From the mid-2000s, a lot of arcade cabinets stopped using custom chips and started using what are basically PCs in a fancy box. SEGA’s Lindbergh is a PC running Linux. Namco’s ES1 and N2, SEGA’s RingEdge and RingEdge 2, Taito’s Type Zero and IGS’s later boards are all built from PC-style parts too.

So instead of recreating every chip from scratch (the way MAME handles old boards), a loader like TeknoRaven can run the original game code on your PC and fake the arcade bits around it: the I/O board, the steering wheel and pedals, the card reader, the network, the security checks and so on. Get those right and the game thinks it is sat in a real cabinet.

TeknoRaven is built in pieces:

• The launcher: your game library, settings and Update Center.
• Platform cores: one per arcade system (Lindbergh, ES1, RingEdge, Type Zero, IGS and so on). You only install the ones you need from the Update Center, so nothing gets bloated.
• The ELF host: a helper that lets Linux-based arcade games, such as SEGA Lindbergh titles, run on Windows.

Why TeknoRaven is so awesome

• Plug and play controllers. Xbox pads, PlayStation pads and USB arcade sticks are supported out of the box, with the buttons mapped for you.
• Wheels and force feedback. This is a racing-heavy library and it shows. Recent updates have added or improved steering wheel force feedback for Hyper Cross, Asphalt 9 DX and Speed Driver 3, plus controller rumble for Battle Gear, Nirin and Speed Rider 2. They even fixed the pedals in Asphalt 9 so you get the full accelerator and brake travel.
• High-res, sharp graphics. GPU-accelerated rendering with higher resolutions, anti-aliasing and custom filters. Battle Gear 2 now has high-resolution rear-view mirrors, and Speed Driver 3 has an adjustable mirror resolution setting. Proper attention to detail.
• Card editors. Your progress lives on your player card, just like the real cabinets. TeknoRaven has an Initial D card editor and a Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 card and garage editor built into the launcher. WMMT4 also has ghost battles and a local service that saves your race results and cars.
• LAN and network play. There is network setup for Speed Rider 3 DX multiplayer, experimental LAN for Dead Heat and Speed Driver 2, shop networking for Initial D and network settings for Hyper Cross and Nirin. Linking two PCs like two cabinets is the dream, and it is being built right now.
• Per-game settings. Every game has its own resolution, key mapping, save handling and cheats.
• A proper game library. Import a game and the launcher scans it, shows cover art and lets you filter by platform, sort by recently played and star your favourites. Each game even has a built-in game guide panel with setup notes, controls and network tips.
• Constantly updated. 64 releases since 30 October 2026, often several a day, and the launcher updates itself and its cores through the Update Center.

The game library

Right now TeknoRaven lists 41 games across 10 arcade platforms. Seven are marked Supported, which means they are tested and solid. Most of the rest are Experimental, meaning they run but are still being worked on and checked, so expect the odd glitch. With the update speed here, that list is moving fast.

Platform	Games	Status
IGS	Speed Driver, Speed Driver 2, Speed Driver 3	Supported
IGS	Speed Rider, Speed Rider 2, Power Truck, Power Truck S, Pirate Revenge, Rock Fever 5, Percussion Master 2008, Percussion Master 3, MuziBox	Experimental
IGS	Speed Driver 4	Held back until its online service shuts down
IGS S Series	Speed Rider 3 DX, Hyper Cross, Asphalt 9 DX	Supported
SEGA Lindbergh	Initial D Arcade Stage 4, Initial D Arcade Stage 5, OutRun 2 SP SDX, SEGA Race TV	Experimental
SEGA RingEdge	Initial D Arcade Stage 6 Double Ace, Initial D Arcade Stage 7 Double Ace Cross (plus the Chinese version), Initial D Arcade Stage 8 Infinity	Experimental
SEGA RingEdge 2	Storm Racer G, Storm Rider	Experimental
Namco System N2	Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3, 3DX and 3DX Plus	Experimental
Namco ES1	Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4, Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield, Tank! Tank! Tank!, Dead Heat, Maximum Heat 3D, Nirin	Experimental
Taito Type Zero	Battle Gear, Battle Gear 2, Densha de GO! 3 Tsukin-hen, Stunt Typhoon Plus	Experimental
Konami PC Based	Crazy Streets: Thrill Drive 4	Experimental
Unis PC	Crazy Speed	Supported

The ones we are most excited about

• Initial D, from Stage 4 all the way to Stage 8 Infinity. Five generations of mountain-pass drifting, with a card editor and shop networking. Eurobeat not included, you will have to hum.
• Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3, 3DX, 3DX Plus and 4. Tokyo highway racing with story mode, ghost battles and a full car and garage editor for WMMT4.
• OutRun 2 SP SDX. Blue skies, a red Ferrari and that soundtrack. One of the best arcade racers ever made.
• Battle Gear and Battle Gear 2. Taito’s hardcore touge racers, now with high-res mirrors.
• Tank! Tank! Tank! Giant monsters, tiny tanks, total chaos. A Namco classic.
• Densha de GO! 3. Yes, the train driving game. Do not knock it until you have tried hitting your stopping mark.
• Asphalt 9 DX, Hyper Cross and Speed Rider 3 DX. Modern IGS racers with force feedback and network play, and some of the best-supported games in the launcher.

A nice touch: Speed Driver 4 is deliberately held back. The developer will not release it while the game’s online service is still running. Respect.

What you need

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
• A decent graphics card. Higher render resolutions mean more GPU work, so budget machines may need the resolution turned down.
• The recommended runtimes: the Visual C++ Redistributable Runtimes All-in-One package and the DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010). The site’s top pick is the TBTool Toolbox, which bundles them.
• Your own game files. TeknoRaven does not include any games. You import your own dumps, and each game’s guide tells you which files and firmware it expects.
• A controller, arcade stick or wheel. A wheel and pedals are the way to go for this library.

Getting it running

1. Install the runtimes above if you do not already have them.
2. Download the latest launcher zip from the TeknoRaven releases page on GitHub (or the GitCode mirror). The current version is 0.9.920. If the newest release does not include the launcher file, grab it from the release before.
3. Extract it to its own folder and run it.
4. Open the Update Center and install the platforms you want, such as SEGA Lindbergh or Namco ES1.
5. Click Import game and point it at your game folder or zip.
6. Pick the game, check its Game guide panel and Configuration, then hit Launch game. Press F11 to switch between windowed and borderless fullscreen.

Download TeknoRaven

• Official site: teknoraven.com
• Download: TeknoRaven releases on GitHub (or the GitCode mirror)
• Community: TeknoRaven Discord

Insert coin: supporting the raven

TeknoRaven is a hobby project with no profit motive. If you love it, you can “buy the raven a coffee” on Ko-fi. The site is refreshingly honest about what that means: it is a coffee, not a pre-order and not a ticket. Donating does not unlock anything, does not buy you early access and does not change the update schedule. Every feature stays free for everyone.

The verdict

TeknoRaven is the most exciting arcade emulation release we have seen in a while. It is free, it looks great, it takes wheels and force feedback seriously, and it is updating at a speed that is honestly a bit silly. Plenty of games are still experimental, so go in expecting some rough edges. But Initial D, Wangan, OutRun 2 SP and Battle Gear in one free launcher, with card editors and LAN play on the way? That is a big deal for anyone with a racing cab, a wheel or just a love of the noisy end of the arcade.

Grab it, have a play and tell us in the comments which game you fired up first. If you want more arcade loaders to explore, check out our TeknoParrot section.