Drive Emulationstation menus with either joystick / buttons on a 2P Bartop Cabinet (IPAC)
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Hi all
Looking for some help to understand whether what I am thinking in my head is possible. I have a 2P Bartop Arcade with each player having 6 buttons. The buttons and joysticks are connected to an IPAC 2 and on the whole it is working.
When first configuring Emulationstation for the first time I was able to set everything up using P1's joystick and buttons and that is what drives the menu options currently. What I am trying to do is see if you can have either P1 or P2's controls drive Emulationstation so that either could choose which game / menu etc to jump into.
Is this possible and if it is then can someone point me in the right direction as to how? I have looked at a fair few posts and none clearly call it out to me. I thought about jumping in and editing .cfg files but I don't want to break something by thinking I know what I am doing when in fact I don't.
Any pointers would be welcome.
Cheers
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@jollster101 said in Drive Emulationstation menus with either joystick / buttons on a 2P Bartop Cabinet (IPAC):
IPAC 2
Keyboard or Gamepad Configuration (Or Multimode? Though I haven't flashed mine to the newer Firmwares with that feature)?
For using the IPac in Keyboard-mode I think the Guide: Setting Up a RetroPie controls using IPAC2 Controller - Extensive Tutorial + Preconfigured files made by @theink could still be recommended as a RTFM base ;) (Edit: Just keeping in mind that it dates back to Firmwares < 1.5)
Back to your question: navigating around in ES and launching games ever was (to my knowledge) possible with all controlls, but only player 1's "Hotkey"-Actions are recognized/parsed - but on "Cabinets"/"Control-panel" Configurations, I think that most of the times, the Special Keys/Buttons are either mapped to Player 1 ( Gamepad-Mode or with Zero-Delay USB Encoders acting as such), or (mostly) with keyboard encoders are configured in retroarch.cfg without the use of a extra hotkey-button.
P.S.: At least on my Wall-mounted Semi-Cab, I've used the I-PAC2 in Keyboard Mode without a hotkey assigned in retroarch, but am utilizing the I-Pacs own "shift"-feature for all the extra-stuff needed (switching save slots, exit emulator, volume control, etc.).
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@Ashpool Thanks for the reply.
I am fairly sure the IPAC2 is set up for Gamepad mode as I recall seeing "Gamepad detected" when I first went through the setup in ES. I was hoping that I could use either set of controls for the menus but Player 2 joy doesn't cycle through the menus and the buttons do nothing.
Drop into a game and PL 2 works fine.
I will have a look at the link you provided.
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Back to your question: navigating around in ES and launching games ever was (to my knowledge) possible with all controlls, but only player 1's "Hotkey"-Actions are recognized/parsed - but on "Cabinets"/"Control-panel" Configurations, I think that most of the times, the Special Keys/Buttons are either mapped to Player 1 ( Gamepad-Mode or with Zero-Delay USB Encoders acting as such), or (mostly) with keyboard encoders are configured in retroarch.cfg without the use of a extra hotkey-button.
Should that read that "navigating around in ES and launching games never was possible"
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@jollster101 Nope, ever was what I meant - as on my Raspberry 3B with 2 connected gamepads, each of them can navigate ES and launch items, but only the gamepad for player one can use the configured "hotkey"-features (exit emulator, open libretro-menu, save/load state, etc.).
If that's not possible with your IPac configured as 2 Gamepads, more Info is needed: What IPac (pre or post 2015) and which Firmware/Mode??
How are the controlls detected by ES? What does "configure input" states if you opt for it in the "?? Devices detected... press a button on the one to be configured" window?
Some older (Pre 1.5) Firmware with Gamepad enabled Mode where not "usable" on retropie as such (I think those may have been the old one currently called Mixed-Mode Firmware (which nowadays needs a seperate version of the Winipac tool for configuration)) ... Between the old Firmwares (the times with different firmwares for gamepad and keyboard only setups), may have been in the time around 2019/2020, there where some changes in the naming of firmware-/&modes on Ultimarcs behalve and sadly I haven't archived the "inbetweens" and properly named my old-archive of the tools/firmwares to use the terms in a correct/everyone knows whats meant way :/
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