Unresponsive Buttons in Game

mystdota

Raspberry Pi 3
Lastest Retropie v4.4
Imaged the Retropie to the SD card

Hello all, this is my first time using a Raspberry Pi and Retropie. I had built an arcade machine using 2 joysticks and a set of buttons. However, when I start a game, all the buttons become unresponsive. This is very strange as during testing before putting everything together I was able to play a number of games, but now, navigating menus and such is fine but as soon as the game starts, nothing. Can't even press start to begin. I'm having to unplug the power cable to turn everything off.
I followed TheGeekPub quick video on installing Retropie, wrote the image onto the SD card extracted a handful of games.

Thank you all in advance for any advice on this issue!

mitu

@mystdota You'll have to provide a few more details - what type of joystick/gamepad are you using ? What emulator are you using - NES/SNES/Arcade/etc. ?
Where did you get the RetroPie image ?

mystdota

Joystick/Gamepad = Reyann 2 Player LED Arcade Game DIY Kit 2x No Delay LED Encoder + 2x Joystick + 20x LED Illuminated Push Buttons for PC MAME PS3 & Raspberry Pi RetroPie (from amazon)

I used a few different emulators for different games. On NES, Atari 7800 and GBA the buttons were unresponsive, despite them working just a few days ago.

The RetroPie image I got from the Retropie site.

mitu

@mystdota So, what did you change that made the gamepad not working ? I assume they still work in Emulationstation, when navigating through the systems and games.

mystdota

I have no idea, I've even done 2 fresh installs and it's still unresponsive.

mitu

@mystdota Are you able to configure them in Emulationstation ? Are they detected by RetroPie ?

mystdota

@mitu Yes, they are all mapped correctly. Navigating emulationstation isn't an issue at all.

mitu

@mystdota Can you run a game with verbose logging enabled from the Runcommand lauch menu and add the resulting log file (/dev/shm/runcommand.log) to pastebin.com so we can take a look ?

mystdota

@mitu Hey, sorry to sound clueless. I'm not sure how to get the log file, I can't find anything in the boot drive of the Retropie SD card, and the other drive is unreadable by my PC.

mitu

@mystdota Enable SSH on your PI, and then you can use WinSCP from your PC to access the files on your PI - this was you'll be able to get the log file.

Clyde

@mystdota You also could copy the file to the boot partition of the sd card. After running a game with verbose logging, press F4 in Emulation Station to go to the command console and enter this command:

sudo cp /dev/shm/runcommand.log /boot

You can exit the console back to ES by entering exit.

Mind that /dev/shm is a RAM disk that will be wiped with each system shutdown or reboot. And remember to delete the file from /boot afterwards to save space.

mystdota

Hello guys.

Sorry for the late replies, I've been really busy at work.

I was about to hook up a keyboard to get the logs when I discovered some new developments. I added a new rom, and managed to play it the first time, albeit on the 2nd player set of buttons, though left was right and up and down wasn't working and such. I restarted, remapped all the controls and went into the game again, just to have the same problem at square one, which is I'm assuming the Start button got remapped somewhere else.

I then remapped again and navigated through Retropie's options. Upon entering an option screen, I was unable to select the quit button, so the A button had been remapped somewhere else. I then spammed every button until I could leave, which ended up being Player 1 Left Shoulder button. After returning to the options screen, my joystick had inverted and only the player 2 A button worked.

Very strange, and very confusing!

mitu

When using a 2 player combination with the same gamepad remember that

you have to wire the buttons for both players in the same position, so they produce identical results for the same button (A for P1 should be wired similar to A for P2, etc.)
you only need to map the buttons for 1 player (P1 or P2), since the mapping will automatically apply to the other player. That's why it's important to have the gamepads wired identically.

Clyde

As @mitu said. The reason behind it is that the mappings are stored under the name of the controller in the directory /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig/. Thus, if you have identical controllers, only one mapping will be stored for both of them, and if their wiring is different, their common mapping won't fit one of them.

edit: "will be" -> "are" + "doesn't" -> "won't" 😉