@Russelkm I got that configuration from here: https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Overclocking and it was the cause of my issue. As of now I'm back to using the default configuration settings.

Here is what I'm currently using (it's the default settings) and the scraper seems to be working fine:
#For more options and information see

http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md Some settings may impact device functionality. See link above for details uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode

#hdmi_safe=1

uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible and your display can output without overscan

disable_overscan=1

uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border

#overscan_left=16
#overscan_right=16
#overscan_top=16
#overscan_bottom=16

uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus overscan.

#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720

uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output

#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)

#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=1

uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in DMT (computer monitor) modes

#hdmi_drive=2

uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or no display

#config_hdmi_boost=4

uncomment for composite PAL

#sdtv_mode=2

#uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
#arm_freq=800

Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces

#dtparam=i2c_arm=on
#dtparam=i2s=on
#dtparam=spi=on

Uncomment this to enable the lirc-rpi module

#dtoverlay=lirc-rpi

Additional overlays and parameters are documented /boot/overlays/README Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)

dtparam=audio=on

#gpu_mem_256=128
#gpu_mem_512=256
#gpu_mem_1024=256
#overscan_scale=1
gpu_mem=320

@edmaul69 No unfortunately the only other buttons are for assigning and clearing turbo. It is so strange that it wont work, as the joystick is picked up in the device test in console, and every other emulator is OK with it (or is should say emulation station.) Thank you for the help by the way.

@darthpaul
i guess you followed https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive ?

what's the output of df?

if you navigate to your USB driver, what are the contents if you do ls -l ?

what is the output of ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ ?

can you paste the contents of /etc/fstab?

@bobchiba yeah. No clue. What bothers me about these if you arent putting it inside the playstation 1 like i did is the first player is on the right. I dont recommend buying any single player versions. They still read as two controllers and the port you have to use is player 2. The radio shack one is the only true single player one. Also look at the solder points on the bad controller port. Do they look like bad soldering? One of the pins doesnt get soldered

I actually use the lr-pcsx-rearmed from retropie 3.7. I had the same problems on the latest version along with the mess of problems with the added multitap and not being able to have second player on analog.

@BuZz Thank you! I currently reformatting an SD card to start fresh. Hopefully I will have better luck this time.

Over here is says that the gamelist.xml is just for games that you have Scraper info/pictures for:
https://github.com/Aloshi/EmulationStation/blob/master/README.md#gamelistxml

It's not a complete list of all the games you have.

What file(s) do you have in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads ? (Can you post them on pastebin.com?)
Are you sure no yellow text appears in the extreme bottom left of the screen when you start a game that uses RetroArch?

update the Raspbian packages sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade and sudo apt-get install raspberrypi-kernel-headers

@Arcuza i thought loadstate was on the direction pad by default? I disabled them so i cant verify by looking at my settings.

I bought a bluetooth dongle and after testing and playing the whole weekend, finally, no crashes or weird exits on emulators.

First of all, I had to edit /boot/config.txt with nano and add dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt at the end of the file, with this disable bluetooth on board, save the file and then turn off Retropie.

Then, I connected the bluetooth dongle, turn on retropie and add the controller to Retropie as wiki says https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Setting-up-a-Bluetooth-controller

Thank everyone!

finally got something running - installed for xbox360 controller but can't seem to use it with pacman or bombjack. more googling!

Thanks a lot guys.

Now it works..

via SSH:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo reboot

then i update the retropie-setup script and install the gamecon driver over the menu...

Ah okay cool, thanks for the replies!

@nemo93 hi,

Whilst the can't provide specific help for compiling the mame core, you may find my guide to obtaining and compiling the ffmpeg suite from source, directly on the Pi, illuminating:

Compiling Software from Source Code on the Raspberry Pi: The FFmpeg Suite

Compiling FFmpeg and Codecs from Source Code: All-in-One Script