If you have purchased an Ipac2 and want to save time......

SloTayHolmes

@mrbone Like you, I'm using Mac primarily. What @caver01 is describing happened to me too. Not sure if you’re using something like Cyberduck to open and edit your cfgs, but that's where my trouble was. Especially when copying/pasting from the clipboard. It's best to ssh from the terminal and use the sudo nano command to edit cfg files (if you're not doing so already). Turning off smart quotes in System Preferences didn't give me any guarantees, because I'd still wind up with crazy @@’s and other syntax mishaps every so often.

mrbone

@SloTayHolmes @caver01
That did it! I am using cyberduck to edit the cfg files. I guess macs auto correct to smart quotes. They copy and paste fine but right when you edit the key it auto changes to the smart quote. From now I'll I'll ssh through the terminal and use the sudo nano command. I just prefer the visual gui of an ftp application. I got both players working in SNES and MAME.

I have another question. Should you be able to navigate menus and pick a game using both players? I noticed right now only player 1 can select a game. If this is just the way it is thats fine. I'm just happy to have both controllers working now. Now I just need to tweak a few of the individual cfgs for the various other emulators I plan on using.

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it. I'm glad the forum has great active members like you all!

caver01

@mrbone I think in Emulation Station it's P1 controls to select games.

As for running on a Mac, you can disable smart quotes in system settings, keyboard. It can get really annoying if you frequently write or edit code or use tools to edit configs.

Glad you got it working!

noremaC1337

caver01, I have been reading multiple things that you have been putting on this site trying to get my issue fixed. After seeing your knowledge, I decided I would give it a shot reaching out to you. I am having an issue of getting my IPAC2 to work correctly. I appear to have all of the settings correct, EXCEPT how to get out of an emulation and back to the menu.

The frustrating part, is I have a gamepad that I had used up until I finally got all my buttons and two sticks, it works fine. I remember I had to configure two buttons to work on the game pad in order to get back to the main menu. After looking at the config, it appears those two buttons are Start+Select. I have tried to set up that same scenario with this IPAC making multiple changes to the retroarch.cfg file and nothing seems to be allowing me to back out.

I noticed that you were explaining the importance of the quotes earlier in this thread, but then I look at a different thread where you posted snippits of your code, and none of your values had quotes. Can you explain when you would and wouldn't use the quotes? I noticed that all of the numerical values for the gamepad configuration had quote, but I didn't put quotes around my manually entered values for the keyboard/IPAC.

caver01

@noremaC1337 If using quotes in a retroarch.cfg file, they can't be smart "curly" quotes that often get added automatically when editing files on a computer. Another gotcha is assigning numbers like "6" instead of "num6". I just checked my default retroarch.cfg and I don't even use quotes for my controls.

My ipac4 is older, so it's a keyboard by default. Modern ipac controllers are gamepads if I'm not mistaken. That can be a challenge that has led some owners to update them with different firmware--something I never had to do.

caver01

@noremaC1337 also, I have escape mapped to a dedicated button on my Ipac, and a corresponding input setup in retroarch.cfg:
input_exit_emulator = escape
and hot keys disabled with
# input_enable_hotkey_btn =
Most folks use the start-select combo via hotkey to exit with gamepads but I found I was triggering exit accidentally. Besides, there is no need for the hotkey exit with a dedicated button.

noremaC1337

Man, this is super frustrating. I feel like i have tried everything, but nothing gets me back to the MAME game menu using my buttons that are hooked into the IPAC.

By default, ESC is set up on the IPAC as Start1 + Start2 as a shift function. I am OK with using that, but it doesn't get me out of the game. So now that I have changed my config to be input_exit_emulator = escape and then commented out the hotkey_btn I should be able to hold the Start1 button and then press the Start2 button, and it will send an ESC command, which should get me out of the ROM and back to the ROM menu within MAME folder on RetroPie, correct?

Another thing that I have noticed, is that when there is a "_btn" located at the end of a config, doesn't that mean for a game pad? I noticed that all my game pad configs have the _btn at the end, but the keyboard configs don't.

Let me try this one more time and get back with you. I saw somewhere on this forum that you have a specific way of getting retroarch.cfg files, can you tell me how to get that to you so maybe you can check it over and see what is going on?

noremaC1337

@caver01 That initial change did not work. Something very strange happened to. I don't know what I changed, but I rebooted (as normal after a change like this) and it said that emulationstation.sh was missing from the appropriate folder. I SSH to the folder, and there is a 4MB file named "emulationstation" but had no extension. I had to chmod the file, then rename it to emulationstation.sh before it would load back up. This is the first time that has happened to me.

I went back into the retroarch.cfg that I have been working in. The location of this file is /opt/retropie/configs/all. I see that the changes you recommended, and I applied are still in there, so the file saved correct. Then I found an entry named "input_enable_hotkey" this goes along with what I was asking above. This didn't have the "_btn" at the end, like you had me comment out earlier. Does this mean that this specific value is for a keyboard set up? Regardless, I imagine you are going to say it would be best to comment this out too, as I am still OK with ESC getting me back to the menu, which would be achieved by holding Start1 and then pressing Start2. I just can't get it to work. Let me know about that code upload thing too.

rbaker

@noremaC1337 said in If you have purchased an Ipac2 and want to save time......:

By default, ESC is set up on the IPAC as Start1 + Start2 as a shift function. I am OK with using that, but it doesn't get me out of the game.

I have an Ipac2 with the default "new" firmware in it. On non-libretro emulators such as Mame4All, Start1 and Start2 works out of the box to exit the game. For libretro emulators, Start and Select together works as default for me, the only thing I added to retroarch.cfg was:

input_player1_start = "num1"
input_player1_select = "num5"

The ipac is pre-configured for MAME by default so on the non libretro emulators, it just works. If you have used autodetect though on a fresh install instead of configuring a keyboard first, it wont. Did you follow the instructions in my very first post?

noremaC1337

@rbaker I noticed in your original post, your complaint was that you were unable to play 2 player games. Only the 1 player side worked. I tested that both of my worked by loading up the simspson rom, which I know is a two player simultaneous game. Both sticks, and the buttons for each player work. It seems the only thing that I am unable to do at this time, is back out of a ROM into the MAME menu.

rbaker, just so that I am not assuming, you are editing the retroarch.cfg file that is located in the /opt/retropie/configs/all/ location, correct?

I would really like to avoid a reinstall, as it has been a few months since I ran through the process. I am worried it will put me back further than it will get me ahead. I am, however, thinking that might be what I end up doing. I just cant imagine that there would be this many problems right out of the box. I figure that a config that was created for the gamepad that I have that may be interfering some how. I just cant isolate how. I have even removed all of the configs I could find, for the game pad, out of their original locations in an attempt to break the gamepad configuration. No dice. I am shocked that the game pad still works, I don't know where it is getting the config from for it now. (They used to live in the /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads).

I too noticed that the IPAC, out of the box, was configured for MAME. I got mine a couple months ago, I am not exactly sure what firmware came with it.

Here is what I have in the retroarch.cfg file that is located in /opt/retropie/configs/all/:

input_player1_a = alt
input_player1_b = shift
input_player1_y = space
input_player1_x = ctrl
input_player1_start = num1
input_player1_select = num5
input_player1_l = ctrl
input_player1_r = rctrl
input_player1_left = left
input_player1_right = right
input_player1_up = up
input_player1_down = down
input_player1_l2 = num1
input_player1_r2 = num0

NOTE - I just changed the input_player1_start and input_player1_select after your suggestion. Trying now.

noremaC1337

@rbaker It appears that changing this:

input_player1_start = num1
input_player1_select = num5

in the retroarch.cfg in the /opt/retropie/configs/all/ did nothing. It just seems like it is getting it's values from some other file to me.

You are saying that if it was set up incorrectly before, it would recognize the IPAC as a joystick/gamepad, right? I will tell you that when I do a jstest in /dev/input/ it appears that the only option that would make sense would be "js0" at this time. I think that is the same value that was there when I did the jstest for the gamepad a few months ago. Are you saying that the only way to get the IPAC to recognize as a keyboard again would be a new install? I will also mention that I did the "configure input" option through the emulation station menu. when it tells me to hold a key for it to recognize what we are configuring, I will hold one of the buttons on my custom arcade that is hooked into the IPAC, and it pops up on the screen "keyboard". Does that mean anything?

caver01

@noremaC1337 I am actually glad @rbaker chimed in here. He has a much closer configuration to help. As I have said, my iPAC4, old as it is, may not be the best example. In fact, it's better to think of me simply using an actual keyboard with wires soldered to the keys.

There are actually several ways to get exit to work.

Method 1:
Configure your iPAC to send ESCAPE key (either dedicate a SW to that key and set it up with the WinIPAC UTIL which is what I did), or use the iPAC SHIFT combo Start1 (hold for a second) + Start2 which should also send ESCAPE
Then, you also need to setup RetroArch to interpret ESCAPE as I noted 7 hours ago, also disabling the retroarch hotkey.

You can probably test method one even with a regular USB keyboard attached. If you press ESC on a regular keyboard, it should kick you out of MAME if retroarch is setup to do that.

Method 2:
Leave the hotkey setup in retro arch and simply use it. You would configure

input_player1_start = num1
input_player1_select = num5

and

input_enable_hotkey_btn = num5
input_exit_emulator_btn = num1

which would now let you press Start1 and Select1 and trigger the emulator to exit.

noremaC1337

@caver01 Alright, what you mentioned is something I have already tried. With just a normal keyboard connected, once I get into the MAME rom, I hit escape, nothing happens. I am thinking it isn't using the retroarch.cfg file as expected...

caver01

@noremaC1337 What MAME are you running exactly?

caver01

@noremaC1337 By the way, you can use a service like pastebin to post the contents of your /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg and put the URL to that pasted stuff here in a message. That way we can see your config.

Note that if you have a retroarch.cfg in your config folder for that emulator, it can override.

caver01

@noremaC1337 The thing is, I am confident we can get you straightened out. You should not have to re-image to get a working config. The question is more about how you want to perform your exit. Do you want to send ESCAPE (which by the way works in many emulators that may or may not be running inside RetroArch), OR do you want to use a hotkey combo (which only works in RetroArch)?

noremaC1337

@caver01 I figure since Start1 and Start2 together send ESC from IPAC, I am wanting to go that route. Meaning to exit the ROM, I would hold Start1 then press Start 2 for it to escape. That would be great.

Can you tell me how to locate what version of MAME I am running? I made a note when I first started this project stating this:

MAME4ALL uses 0.37b5 ROMS

So would that be the version?

caver01

@noremaC1337 Where did you put your roms? What folder? If they are not in a libretro folder of some kind, you are NOT using a retroarch version of mame, so all of the editing inside retroarch.cfg files DOES NOT APPLY. Of course, it would apply, if you are using mame-libretro folder, and if so, you would pick which MAME you are running using the runcommand.

noremaC1337

@caver01 mame-mam4all is the folder they are all in.

noremaC1337

@caver01 after looking at the "runcommand" link that you put in, I realized a similarity to that strange issue I had earlier where the emulationstation.sh file was missing. After I renamed the emulationstation putting the .sh extension back on the file, every time I load a game now it has that grey box in the middle of the screen telling me it is loading. It used to just have text in the upper left of the screen. I wonder what caused this.

I also notice that there is a "runcommand.cfg" and "runcommand-launch-dialog.cfg" file now located in the /opt/retropie/configs/all/ folder that wasn't there before the strange emulationstation.sh issue...