I took everything apart and cleaned all the contacts on the wires, it now seems to work ok, thanks for the help guys

OK, may have solved this, Button B is now working and have swapped over A and B so A is fire, B is bomb for instance by going into the Core remap options.

If this is indeed now working, can someone just point me in the right direction for which options to change in the core remap so that my C and D are the same as C and D on a neogeo control panel?

solved
the problem was on a corrupt file: INDY.RLE
I had a file with CRC32 1dea93b3, while the correct one is f6fd2362

Try maybe the Batocera forum ? This is the RetroPie - different project, same goals - and things are a bit different to configure.
What exactly are you trying to run under Dosbox and how are you trying to make it work ?

this might need a quirk fix. Can you post pictures clear ones of player one and two wiring for buttons and joystick

@theguru , thanks. My advmame files look like that as well. For some reason the trackball coming off the IPAC2 control board is always the default P1 gun cursor control. No matter what I set in the advmame file. I'm going to fool with it a little more tonight.

As for FCEUMM, that makes sense. I backed up my image today so maybe I will update to 1.7.6 and see what happens. It's always fun breaking stuff.

Did you read Validating, Rebuilding, and Filtering ROM Collections? If not, it could help you understand the basics and some specifics about building a romset. The article uses a MAME romset for example, but you can use most if not all of the tools mentioned there also for console romsets.

I use RomCenter with full no-intro romsets (i.e. with all regions in them) and Parent-Clone XML no-intro dats to build a regional mix of my liking. RomCenter can priorize the regions, e.g. use the US version of a game if available. If it's not, use the Japanese version, then the Australian, than the European and so on.

In the end, I connected a mouse to play Arkanoid in lr-mame2003, and it worked from the off. Xbox 360 controller just too baggy and too huge a deadzone to make it playable. Thanks for advice though.

Oops, never mind - I was trying to edit the wrong version of the file. The one in /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/themes/carbon was the one I wanted.

File transfer via wifi will take ages for the 128GB of my content, I wanted to save time by using my image.

The Pi4 is not supported by RetroPie yet - either with the image(s) provided on the download page or through the manual installation (over Raspbian).

@Carnov
If you have no interest in any "3D gaming" then your best bet is the Pi 3B+. It's extremely reliable and the support is outstanding. I can get nearly all systems to run quite well, up to and including, Playstation 1 emulation which was considerably more powerful than any 16-bit console up to that point, barring a couple. If you're planning on emulating systems like the NES, SNES, Genesis, Master System, etc from the late 1980's to the mid to late 1990's then the 3B+ will do everything you'll ever need it to.

Like I said, the support for this model is outstanding here. I have nearly zero knowledge of the intricacies of any version of Linux and I was able to get the OS installed and my system running with very little trouble. Just make sure you follow the instructions. All systems after installation will require a period of time for you to acclimate yourself to the OS, RetroArch, Emulation Station and the many settings and options you'll have to browse and fiddle with to get everything right where you want it.

Each game can have custom options through RetroArch and the amount of control given to the end-user is fantastic. I truly commend the RetroPie team for all their hard work.

Thanks @psyke83 ...

Reguarding the input-keyboard, LED, rumbler and battery status ... All just extra info, hoping that something might help. As a note, the controller was left on all day and night, with no change in the battery state. And it too is listed as a keyboard. This morning the controller was off. I did think that it had run flat. Pressed the PS button, controller started up and paired not problem, thou the LED1 is blinking. Battery state is still fully-charged, so I am thinking this might not be reporting anything.

Totally understand how hard trying to debug or assist with something like this. I looked at the hid-sony.c file and my eyes glazed over ... I would not know where to start to make any difference, let alone how to compile and test.

I am happy to try any change you think might help or give us more info. I don't get notifications on this forum, but I can open an issue or watch your branch at GitHub for any changes and test them out?

Is there a possibility that I can eBay gift you one of these controllers? Thou I don't remotely think you might get the same version that I have, as that info is never listed on eBay, just that it's a PS3 controller.

Thanks

Well yes this did get the BB-GAME controller working in emulation station. And non-retroarch emulators. Unfortunately, Retroach hates this controller for some reason.

@stoney66 I tried setting this up this way and the problem was still the same

Actually, you can't even manually change the config file. It seems that jstest & emulationsation interpret one button as "0" but retroarch interprets that same button as "3". So yeah, you can fix button 10 by changing the config file to say "7" but retroarch doesn't like buttons to have negative numbers assigned so this doesn't work as a long term solution.

Many will say "buy a different controller." The Amazon is so far away. Also, the cost-benefit analysis of using a pi and retropie compared to buying something like the Allcade was that I wouldn't be needlessly buying things that I already had!