Saving games with NES controller

[fsd2s]

Could someone walk me through how to edit retroarch.cfg to save a game with an NES controller.
-OR-
Use a keyboard since a keyboard has more keys than an NES controller.

I've search google and found this answer:
Go to your NES retroarch.cfg which can be found here:
cd /opt/retropie/configs/nes
sudo nano retroarch.cfg
Add the following lines:
input_enable_hotkey_btn = <button of your choice>
input_save_state_btn = <button of your choice>
input_load_state_btn = <button of your choice>

But what are the mapped buttons for an NES controller?

[unkis17]

I do this by changing the joystick / gamepad file, not the retroarch.cfg (as I am using auto config method, not hard coded, which is what you may be wanting to do)

you can find your controller mapped in:
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch-joypads/

using nano to edit the XXX.cfg gamepad file you can add / modify your hotkeys.

I have removed the "reset" hotkey and added
input_save_state_btn = "Your A button"
input_load_state_btn = "Your B button"

As a NES has less buttons you can't use many of the hotkeys, but I think you get the idea.
HTH

This link might help explain better then me:
Controllers

[edmaul69]

@unkis17 you can assign them to the d-pad. If your d-pad is an axis you would change the word "btn" to "axis" and assign an axis.

[fsd2s]

It worked. I'm so elated. Awesome.
Thank you to unkis17 and edmaul69

@ unkis17, if it wasn't for your explanation I would have never gotten this.
@ edmaul69 thank you for telling me about the "axis" change, I couldn't get input_menu_toggle_btn to work with up-arrow, until I read your comment, changed btn to axis.

Maybe in the future this will help someone, so I'll post what I did:
/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig
NES PC Game Pad NES PC Game Pad .cfg

input_device = " NES PC Game Pad NES PC Game Pad "
input_driver = "udev"
input_start_btn = "3"
input_exit_emulator_btn = "3"
input_up_axis = "-1"
input_a_btn = "0"
input_b_btn = "1"
input_reset_btn = "1"
input_down_axis = "+1"
input_right_axis = "+0"
input_state_slot_increase_axis = "+0"
input_select_btn = "2"
input_enable_hotkey_btn = "2"
input_left_axis = "-0"
input_state_slot_decrease_axis = "-0"

Then went to:
cd /opt/retropie/configs/nes
sudo nano retroarch.cfg

Settings made here will only override settings in the global retroarch.cfg if placed above the #include line

input_remapping_directory = "/opt/retropie/configs/nes/"

#Hotkeys- Hotkeys enable you to press a combination of buttons to do such things as exit emulators, save states,

and load states, as well as any other functionality in an emulator. (In the example below 8 is the select key

and 9 is the start key so when I hold down select and press start it will exit the emulator.)

input_enable_hotkey_btn = 2
input_exit_emulator_btn = 3
input_save_state_btn = 0
input_load_state_btn = 1
input_menu_toggle_axis = -1
input_state_slot_increase_axis = +0
input_state_slot_decrease_axis = -0

#include "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"

[meleu]

@fsd2s you've forgot to give attention to this part of the "read-this-first" post:

Format your posts! - put small logs in code blocks - see http://commonmark.org/help/ - and put large logs on a pastebin type site like http://paste.ubuntu.com/ http://pastebin.com/ or similar.

[briandamico]

@edmaul69 hey Ed!! maybe you can make good english of this. i have come to crossroads of save states with my nes controller and wanted to get your wise words of if i want to set up my nes controller with the following

Right D Pad + Select to save the state
Left D Pad + Select to Load Save State
Up or Down D Pad + Select to select the Save state slot

make sense?
do u have a preferred solution?

[edmaul69]

@briandamico i dont use savestates myself, but for friends i set it up that exact same way.

[briandamico]

@edmaul69 so would i follow the solution above to change that?

[edmaul69]

@briandamico so i believe if your d-pad is seen as an axis, you want it to look like this in your controllers config file:

input_state_slot_decrease_axis = "+1"
input_state_slot_increase_axis = "-1"
input_save_state_axis = "+0"
input_load_state_axis = "-0"

[briandamico]

@edmaul69 ok great, just to confirm, what is the proper file and location i am editing?

[edmaul69]

@briandamico i dont know the name of your controller but its config file will be located in /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/autoconfig/ .