Depending on game, you may need to change the machine - some will work only on 400/800, 800XL (64) or 130 XE. Other thing that often helps is to "enable BASIC on boot" in options.

Of course you need to have all the appropriate bioses in the right place/detected too.

lol fixed it. So apparently I didn't have to edit the retroarch.cfg file I thought I had to, which was the one under config/retroarch/config. The one I had to edit was under "all", some sort of root directory not accesible through the File Manager. I had to use the Configuration Editor to make the change. Initially I had tried using the editor within File Manager (nano).

@arcee84 I will remove. I would recommend not signing up in the future to forums if you're going to make a few posts then ask for the account to be removed. It's a waste of your time and mine.

@Outlawedpizza that's not how it works - we don't work for you. I will remove your account.

@mitu gotcha

@mitu I will. I've been into Retropie for a couple of years now so have a reasonable handle on the themes available, the challenge is always finding one which hits the spot but gives you what you want. Given it's a build in an actual PS1 case, the Playstation theme was the obvious, choice but it didn't really tick all the boxes. After a lot of trial and error, Showcase seemed the next best alternative. I'll keep on looking.

I've been meaning to build this for about a year now, just sod's law when I get round to it, it looks like modding the PS Classic is now the way to go. :)

Many thanks for your advice and assistance, greatly appreciated.

Regards
Andrew

Please add more information about your system, as requested in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

How did you install the drivers ? The root account doesn't have a password on the default Retropie image, you need to use the pi user and sudo to gain root access or run commands as root.

@Affleck001 Exit Emulationstation and then rename the one that does not have the images, then reboot and check if images are working ok.

@mppsan If the system you're copying to has also RetroPie, chances are the system is loading you USB pendrive in the ROMs folder and you're just re-copying the files on the usb. Disable the USB mount service from the RetroPie-Setup script and then mount the USB pendrive manually from the command line.

@ballboff No, the USB hub would only power the usb devices you connect to the Pi. The Pi itself would be powered from its own power supply. Having more power supplies isn't unusual with USB hardware, in example hard drives. I also use a HDMI to VGA converter which comes with its own power cable too.

@mbrett I just installed Kodi using Linux instructions outside RetroPie, and IPTV Simple dl'd fine.

for mame2003-plus on digital only turn analog off you only turn this on for analog controllers if your using them.

ie snes and joysticks use dpads (digital hat). analog off( this is the default mode)

you should do the following in settings
enable legacy mapping ( this is important when it needed for analog or games using analog controls even on a dpad)

in analog mode : directons are on axis 0 an axis 1 (lstick)

in analog mode off (dpad is used)

I got it working now. Problem is I don't know what I did differently so I can't explain it for the benefit of others. What I did was I reinstalled meleus joystick script and now it works. If I plug in the SUB pads while still in ES I can then use them as P1 and P2. If I unplug them the Controlblock controllers become 1 and 2. This is perfect. Thank you @mitu for your patience and for being so helpful all the time. In addition to this now being solved I also learned to SCP and SSH in the process so I solved a couple of other issues myself that I couldn't have before. Thank you.

Advmame 3 uses the same ROM set (0.106), advmame-0.94 uses an older one (0.94). See https://retropie.org.uk/docs/MAME/.

This worked thx

@mitu Got it. Thanks for the answer. I guess I wish it were a bit more flexible but I'll go with the hot key enabled then.

@mitu Just did it.
Everything went smooth as we discussed it above.
From the SD's roms folder I only deleted the actual ROMs not the folders.

So far I didn't notice any performance hit nor any decrease. All the same as it seems. I'll let you know in case that impression should change.

One more thing about backup: Since the configs share is not being transferred to the USB stick (unfortunately) I want to stress the importance to (at least) backup this one manually and frequently ;-)

Thanks!!