Alternate Emulator Controls

ipodfreek

Having the worst time with some roms not working with advmame-1.4. I can get them working with mame 2016, but I can't get the options to configure. For instance, I'm trying to get the coin button setup. I can only get the emulator to recognize me pressing the keyboard; it won't acknowledge when I press the button I want to assign to coins. I also can't cancel out of the game and go back to ES. What am I doing wrong? Sorry... I swear I've been looking all over for an answer. Thanks.

Pi Model or other hardware: B
Power Supply used: Standard 5v
RetroPie Version Used: 4.7.3
Built From: RetroPie base installer image (from RP site)
USB Devices connected: Windows Keyboard, Arcade Joystick
Controller used: Trying to configure for joystick

Peetem

I’m essentially having the same problem. I can’t get the second set of controls for player 2 to work in Mame - no coin, no 2 player start, nothing, for any of the roms.

However, ES and RetroArch “sees” the controller and the buttons I’ve assigned. I can even use the 2nd player joystick and buttons in Emulation Station to pick a game and perform some navigation (but start and select don’t work).

I’m using lr-mame2003 on Rasp Pi 4 running retropie 4.7.1.

Somebody also posted that the default “coin” was the “select” button and player 1 start is “r3”.

OK, that’s great. How would I know that? What documentation spells out what keyboard commands map to the controller?

IanDaemon

@peetem This section has a lot of info: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Keyboard-Controllers/

Peetem

@iandaemon said in Alternate Emulator Controls:

@peetem This section has a lot of info: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Keyboard-Controllers/

Thanks!

Unfortunately I’ve read that page it it didn’t help. While I can hard code the joysticks and buttons as described, the information doesn’t detail things like “Player_1_input_coin_1 =...”....it doesn’t tell me what is valid syntax (i.e., is “Player_1_coin_1”). I can map several buttons manually to Mame, but not [Tab] and other keys.

In the end all that still wouldn’t matter if I could hard code - None of the 2nd player’s controls work in Mame except the joystick. Mame doesn’t detect them when I push them down. The Joystick and A/B buttons work in Emulation Station, but not Mame.

So in the end I have the same problem as the OP....

Sorry to hijack!

ipodfreek

@peetem hoping for an answer. 🙂

mitu

@peetem said in Alternate Emulator Controls:

So in the end I have the same problem as the OP....

Similar, but maybe not the same. Advmame is not a RetroArch core and has its own input handling process.

@ipodfreek is the controller working with other emulators ? What kind of arcade joystick do you have - can you offer some more details ?

ipodfreek

@mitu The only other one I’m running is Daphne, and it seems to work. Right now I have a cheap, import joystick (Arcade Classic Competition 5Pin 4 and 8 Ways Joystick). It’s a little loosey-goosey, but works fine. The button I added as select/coin is from Amazon (Easyget 5X 30mm LED Arcade Button 5V).

Everything is working unless I try to run a game on a different MAME version. At that point, I can’t select anything or escape back out to ES without rebooting.

Thanks!

mitu

@ipodfreek advmame doesn't have any controls configured by default, you need to use a keyboard to open the configuration menu (via Tab) and configure the input. Same menu can get you out of the game (I think Esc exits the game).

ipodfreek

@mitu advmame works. I can’t get something like MAME 2016 to configure. It only sees the keyboard.

mitu

@ipodfreek Mame2016 is a bit much for a 1B model, however it should use the gamepad configuration that you defined in EmulationStation, since it's a RetroArch emulator.

ipodfreek

@mitu it ignores me when I try to choose the buttons. If I hit Enter on the keyboard, it clears out the entry, but I can’t hit any buttons to assign.

mitu

@ipodfreek Are you referring to EmulationStation's input configuration or the MAME2016 input menu ?

ipodfreek

@mitu It’s when I hit Tab on my keyboard and go into the emulator’s settings (after the game loads). None of the ES controls are working from inside this alternate emulator at this point, and I can’t configure the arcade joystick/buttons for that emulator.

ipodfreek

@mitu I’m at a loss. Any ideas? Thanks.

mitu

@ipodfreek I don't know Mame2016 enough, but it might be that the MAME menu is not working/isn't implemented. Any reason you're trying to use Mame2016 instead of Mame2003 or FBNeo (which have much better RetroArch integration) ?

ipodfreek

@mitu I’ll try those. I think 2016 was just the first one I got to work on some of the games. Thanks.

mitu

@ipodfreek Picking various ROMs and trying out emulators that work with it is not the recommended approach - see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/. Choose an arcade emulator to use for your Pi, then find the correct romset collection that is supported by the emulator, not the other way around.

ipodfreek

@mitu I agree. It’s just seems like it’s getting harder to find them than it used to be. Thanks again.

dankcushions

@ipodfreek the recommended emulators' romsets are very easy to find, but obviously i can't provide links or specific advice. remember to search for the romset version number, not for individual games.

ipodfreek

@dankcushions good advice. Thanks.