Worked like a charm. Thank you very much!

I think I have zeroed-in on the issue (but not solved it yet). The missing puzzle piece was SDL.

Emulationstation is built on top of SDL, which has its own keyboard library. Something is not accounting for modifier keys: either the SDL the way emulationstation is written.
I think there is still hope as the debug log (see end) can see that both Arrow key and Shift and it even shows that my keys are mapped to both down and up in es_input.cfg. Just need to find a way to access that second option in some way.

Anyone has an idea how I can access the second value of my key, or knows their way around emulationstation source so I can add the function myself?

Edit:
I found where F4 is hardcoded for emulation station, which makes me think I can hardcode arrows + shifted arrows in a similar manner. It is not a great solution, but it is something...
The only problem I have is that I don't know how to build my own version of emulation station with the changes if I made a copy to my own github.

Also, I don't know SDL well enough to code it myself. Anyone able to translate my pseudocode into actual SDL and cpp?

IF keydown(shift) AND keydown(down) THEN return up END

Also, happy to hear any other solutions!

@whirlinurd said in Scraped psp not working.:

just use the internal scraper which has root access.

The internal scraper doesn't have root access. Glad you fixed your problem !

@yuke that's just the nature of scaling from one resolution to another. different emulators won't help here, especially as beetle will only run (very slowly) in exactly the same resolution'd software mode, as you won't be able to run it higher resolution open gl mode with the pi's GPU featureset. (even the higher resolution mode I think is a factor of the original resolution anyway, so may still have the issue).

you could eliminate the artefacts by running with integer scaling turned on (you'd get small/large borders, though).

Anyone ???

@cjohnson26 I have set up a working PS3 controller for RetroPie on my PI 3B+.

It is however an original PS3 controller from purchasing the console a few years back.

The instructions from the github page you reference are not as fulsome at step 3 as they could be.

I recommend the following additional thoughts in case you haven't applied them.

3a. Reset your controller, this is a little hole on the underside of the controller that you stick an uncurled paperclip or similar into. Do not touch a button until further notice.
3b. Once the PS3controller driver is installed, you must select it to configure options.
3c. Choose your particular (compatible) controller from the list, hopefully it is there.
3d. A screen will now appear asking you to plug in the controller. Plug it in for 10 seconds, do not touch a button!
I believe at this time certain configuration files are created, including for retroarch.
3e. Unplug the controller and now press the PS button. If working, the lights will 'sweep' back and forth, rumble and settle on the controller number.

You then start ES and configure the controller.

The default setup is pretty good for retroarch emulators, although you may prefer to switch X & O!

With that new angle it looks like they only split the button from the player 1 control panel to the side button for pinball.

So that shouldn’t cause any problems. Hope you get it sorted out.

@dankcushions These "mini" themes work perfect! I never thought of using 4:3 themes or were aware of them; it fixes the distortion problem and now everything's proportional, thank you :)

I guess what I wrote earlier showed the problem.
Will hardcode the retroarch.cfg with correct axis values.
P1
UP=-3
DOWN=+3
LEFT= -2
RIGHT=+2

P2:
UP=-1
DOWN=+1
LEFT= -0
RIGHT=+0

@cacrlhungus74 This is old and maybe you already resolved, but i found saving config file under Amiberry you could also save game-specific controller mapping.
Althought i can only achieved mapping some keyboards commands (like F1) on controller shoulder buttons, which seems reasonable considered frontal buttons are needed for Cd32 games.

@duiz I'm not familiar with Launchbox and what it uses as scraping source, but you can use another scraper to get the media and metadata for Emulationstation. You can choose between Skraper, Universal XML Scraper or Steven Selph's Scraper.

@cjohnson26 the Pie will boot and the function of these few lines are just to ask status for a sensor after the has booted.
But for your idea to work as on off switch for booting up a device this also works but you do not need a code or something. Just connect the hall effect sensor like a switch on a power device like the Mausberry or a Pimoroni on off SHIM and it will act like a button press. For switching of you need to ask status then you can use that code.

no luck as of yet

@bobharris thx

Of all the stupid things. I never thought to unplug the keyboard. Both controllers work as long as the keyboard is not plugged in.