Computer systems with a joypad

[guythp]

Evening all,

I am and have been happily using my pi3 with a 3rd party xbox360 controller to play console and arcade games, I did briefly try some amiga games (though i'm more of a fan of the ST) but I wondered if anyone has tried with any success to play computer games just using joypad : My previous experience of this was on the dreamcast, where the emulators took in to consideration that a joypad was the only controller, things worked well as one of the buttons brought up an on-screen keyboard when required..,
Do the pi emulators allow for this or do they require a keyboard, are there button shortcuts for certain keys? I'm not asking for a step-by-step, just your personal experiences of playing computer games with just a joypad.

[MajorDangerNine]

@guythp I haven't really looked into the computers, though I believe lr-o2em for the Odyssey²/Videopac has full RetroArch gamepad support and lr-fmsx for MSX/MSX2 should also have full RetroArch gamepad support. Pretty sure that's why I have them on my Pi... not that I've checked beyond reading commits on Github.

And I remember reading this comment when it comes to playing C64 with a controller in Vice: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/7l43nk/is_there_an_alternative_atari_jaguar_emulator/drjpgz2 . Never tried it out though.

Think RetroPie's pre-installed ZX Spectrum emulator has a virtual keyboard, though... that's a computer I can't bring myself to play. I'm sure it brings back fond memories to some, but it's just not my cup of tea.

[pimpmaul69]

@MajorDangerNine lr-vice has a virtual keyboard and you can control the mouse with your controller. Lr-bluemsx works. Msx does have some games that require some keyboard keys. Linapple works but there might be some games that require a keyboard press. Not sure though. After setting up controls you can play a ton of games in dosbox without a controller. Thats the extent of my computer gaming systems.