controller not working in MAME

onsmike

Greetings,

I am new to retropie but managed to set up a raspberry pi-1 (the original) working with ease. I thank you for your effort on making the installation package easy to use; I previously have tried retro-pie 3.7 but gave up after a day or two simply I couldn't get a controller working (in any games).

I have an NES controller (made by iBuffalo, 8 buttons, USB connection) which I mapped all the buttons during the retropie setup, and it works wonderfully for all NES games. However, there are a few old arcade games I would like to play; while I can run those games under MAME emulator, the controller simply doesn't work.

After googling a bit, I found the following links:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3440/getting-a-controller-to-work-in-mame4all/6

I tried the suggestion solution, which were to:

use a keyboard,
during MAME game, use "tab" to get into menu,
map the key in there

However, inside the MAME menu, I can use the d-pad arrows to move the selection options, but none of the other buttons would work, thus I still can't map anything.

any suggestions?

any help is very much appreciated,

klachow

I'm having the same problem. I'm running MAME4All on Retropie 4.2 on a Zero W. I've tried multiple wired controllers and also an 8bitdo NES30 PRo bluetooth controller. All of the controllers work great in the other emultators I've tried in Retropie. The MAME Roms seem to work fine with the keyboard, except you know it's a key board and I have no desire to play TMNT 4 player on a keyboard. Any help would be appreciated.

BGallagherLA

What I've noticed since upgrading to 4.2 is that Mame controls do work, but the buttons for Start and Select don't work on your joystick, if you have a keyboard plugged in. The start button is 1 on keyboard and select is 5, and once you get the game started, you can use regular controls on joystick. That's how it works for me anyway, not sure why.

Wulf

I haven't used MAME, but, looking at the documentation from https://retropie.org.uk/docs/MAME/ the controller settings might be stored in /opt/retropie/configs/mame-mame4all/cfg/default.cfg. You might be able to manually edit that file. You could also read up about 'Universal Controller Calibration & mapping using xboxdrv at this link https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Universal-Controller-Calibration-&-Mapping-Using-xboxdrv/. No idea if it will work, but it's a starting point at least.

Hope this helps

klachow

@BGallagherLA Hmmm... I'll have to try that. It isn't optimal, but it would be acceptable.

klachow

@klachow Seems like it sort of works. In some games "1" does act like start (Punisher and The Simpsons) but in others like TMNT "a" on the game pad starts the game. "5" acts like putting a quarter in player 1, "6"=player 2, "7"= player 3, and "8" = player 4. In Cadillacs and Dinosaurs "1" starts player 1, "2" starts player 2, and "3" starts player 3, and quarters work the same as TMNT. In The Simpsons I can't seem to play the game with a wired controller, but the blue tooth controller works. In TMNT and Cadillacs the wired AND bluetooth controllers work. Also "Esc" exits the rom on the ones I've tried.

onsmike

sorry, being a newbie I am a bit confused. Wulf/Klachow, are you both suggesting that a keyboard is still needed during play?

klachow

@onsmike Yes, it seems a keyboard is needed. That's what "solved" the problem for me when I tried it last night at any rate. It's a bit annoying, but it works on the roms I tried.