@barbudreadmon yeah, think you are right, it was just a thought i had whilst planning what i needed to buy. will go for a 3bplus as at least i already have very good images so it should be an easy install

@mitu Power switch as in "shut down gracefully?"

I also want to boot right into this one game and am not sure you still use E.S. when you implement this way. Was saving that for another search/question.

You should try out the xpadneo driver: https://github.com/atar-axis/xpadneo

see the section under install. This is specifically designed to work with the bluetooth xbox one controller model 1708.

@kingfrankbob Your last post doesn't seem to fit to this topic. Wrong thread?

@stoney66 Ha! Yep, I've become spoilt and I like instant gratification!

Yeah I like the keyboard one better, but maybe someone has some advice if this is still possible with the joystick type. I would think it would be but who knows ;)

@tobas Are you using a Raspberry Pi or a PC?

@Comm64WTB if you are using vice, you just press f12 then add the second disk etc to drive 8 when it asks for it. If the game supports multiple drives then you can pre add drives 9 to 11 with those disks. Most games afaik though didn't support multiple drives (Ultima 4 supported two drives)

All sorted guys. I have found that editing the actually config file for the roms is an easier approach for some reason. Thank you for your help.

@mitu success - I'm now in. Thank you so much for your help - much appreciated and sorry for my daft questions

@mitu Ah, I like that. I actually do have everything in the rom folders because I keep the files on an SSD, so I think that will be way easier than my idea. Actually I'll try both because I'm curious if they'll both work, and I'll tell my results here in case it helps anyone else in the future that gets themselves in a bind like I did.

@ExarKunIv I have ordered a SF30 Pro. This time from a fairly reputable website. So from what I have seen, do I need to update the firmware before trying to register it with Retropie or should I only do that if I get confiugration issue? Thankfully there seems to be more videos and support for the Bluetooth version of their controllers.

@mitu
That's aces, thanks Mitu. I was just worried that there might be some jiggery-pokery going on behind the scenes, and if I kept doing this it could cause a problem I hadn't thought of.

@Clyde Thanks Clyde I'll have a look. Cheers for the heads up.

Go to launchbox or game faq and see if the game has an alternate title. I know I had issues and it couldn't find Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3 until I put the full title as the name. Donkey Kong Country 2 - Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3 - Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! Twisted Metal III won't scrape, but Twisted Metal 3 will... it doesn't take much to throw off the scraper.

@tigerzblud See https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroArch-Configuration/#default-core-controls-for-all-emulators and pick the controller that resembles yours the most to see how RetroArch "sees" the buttons of your controler regardless of their labelling.

You are correct about the 49-way control, and yes it can be replicated.
I'm currently using MAME-2003 and a PS4 controller. The left analog stick absolutely works well with Sinistar. When playing, gradually rotate the stick and you will see it handles more than 8-way control.

FWIW: I couldn't get the same results with MAME-2003-Plus. I think it has special configurations to handle analog, but I never researched, as 2003 (standard) does the job well.