@mitu said in Can I Bypass Any Need for a Hotkey?: This showed up after I hit "Submit" and the page refreshed. You don't need to use a Hotkey if you don't want to. Bind a button to the Exit action - instead of the default, Esc - and other 'free' buttons to Pause/Reset. You'll be limited by the number 'free' buttons available. Argh! You say it in just a few sentences! (But I was also trying to include enough details to be almost like a HOW-TO.)

I found a solution to this, at least the hotkey part, but it's not universal. It requires editing each emulator's retroarch.cfg file separately. (Of course that means it only works for the emulators that use LibRetro.) This solution is the same as this one. The ultimate answer is "YES." As I mentioned, I have some special reasons for wanting to do this, but if you don't enable a hotkey, then there's a problem because the Player1Start button is used for both starting a game and exiting the emulator. Even if you're not a power user, there are other functions that work only with the hotkey feature. So, at first glance, it seems like there's no way to avoid using a hotkey. I've eliminated the hotkey in Mame-Libretro as well as in EmulationStation, which will help with some groups of friends that will be at my gaming gatherings in the future. (I figure at some point the pandemic will reach a point where we can gather in groups again - at least small groups.) I'm not using a normal gaming controller. I'm using an Emulator Edition Plus console as part of an arcade cabinet: Note the extra white A & B buttons on the top left, as well as extra white A2 & B2 buttons, also at the top on the left side of center. Then, to the right, there's a Navigation Menu with 10 keys, Left Mouse Button, Menu, Pause, Exit, and Right Mouse Button along the top. The next row is StartPlayer1, Coin, Select, Coin2, and StartPlayer2. I also have a door under the console that opens up for a keyboard shelf. It took me a while to realize that I can put power functions on the keyboard so guests don't use them and mess things up. So here's what I did: I went into the RGUI and used it to change /opt/retropie/configs/mame-libretro/retroarch.cfg. Under Settings->Input->Hotkey Binds, I changed Exit to the Exit button, Pause to the Pause button, and Reset to the Menu button. (I figured that when you hit Menu to reset the game, you're going to the game's "Menu.") For a bonus, I changed Left Mouse Button to Slow toggle and the Right Mouse Button to Fast forward. I changed Toggle Menu to F1, which is not reachable or useable from the console panel. I also used the A & B buttons on the left to increment and decrement the save state slots and used the A2 & B2 buttons to save and load states. There's other functions I don't necessarily want people using that I figure I can bind to keys on the keyboard and not to controls on the console. I tested everything out to make sure I had set up the right bindings in the first place. At this point I had to use Select (my hotkey) to make it work. But then, as a test, I went in and undefined the hotkey. I saved the config (again, to /opt/retropie/configs/mame-libretro/retroarch.cfg), then tested it. Everything worked fine. So now I can pause by just hitting Pause, without a hotkey. The same with Exit and other functions that previously required a hotkey. The trick is to redefine all the function bindings and bind them to buttons or keys that are not used without the hotkey first. Once those functions are moved to other keys or buttons, then you can remove the hotkey definition.

Thanks! I did everything via ssh, then when I was able to get to the machine and turn on the display, it was working and I had access to 4,705 arcade games! True, hundreds of those were just Mahjong or different versions, but all the stuff I had fun playing in arcades is all there.

@mitu thanks at least I know I am not crazy! Yeah playing on a PC for lightgun games and lightgun support is wonky for other mame versions and for various reasons not wanting to do advance mame. I use mame-2003-plus and fb alpha on the pi.

@mitu Reinstall RetroArch didn't solve the problem. I am starting to consider reinstall RetroPie from scratch.

Honestly there is enough information out there about installing retropie or some other front end on a PC that the process is pretty easy and spelled out even for someone as tech stupid as me. Given the price vs performance of relatively old and cheap PCs vs a new pi or even a pi4 for that matter, if I had it to do over again I would just go the PC route especially after figuring out that what some people define as “acceptable” performance for emulators like dream cast and N64 is an entire galaxy removed from what I would consider even playable. So really it all comes down to your specific needs. If your trying to emulate simple games >25-30 years old then a pi3 or 3b+ should be able to do it and honestly there are even exceptions to that depending on the game. If it’s after the last two decades just go PC. But really, sit down and make a list of about 10-20 games that you basically can’t live without, research the hardware needs for them and go with the strongest one.

Arcade big joystick or small controller joystick. If you have a big one then dpad. If you have a little one then right stick/left stick.

Then unfortunately my DS3 works in PCSX as classic controller, no matter how type of device I'll set. :( Many thanks for answers, all issues, but this one, your advices helped me to resolve, even a lack of scrapping covers. :)

@Guto-Du it's a possibility it's defective. Try over volting the pi (without over clocking) to see if it's more stable. If it is then your pi isn't stable at factory settings and should be sent back for replacement. I have seen multiple reports of pi zero's not stable at factory clock speeds. I think the quality control on the pi zero might be slightly less than other models. Probably because it's a $5 computer.

Yes lr-flycast is slower than reicast, and lr-redream doesn't start at all

hey hi how did you solved your problem? I have similar issues with the arcade controller of my cabinet. After configured the arcade Control in the reicast conf/menu, I launched a game and try to play. But no buttons work.

this might need a quirk fix. Can you post pictures clear ones of player one and two wiring for buttons and joystick

@stoney66 Thanks for that. I had a look at those cfg files and they all looked fine. So I did a completely fresh install of RetroPie. Tried it out, R-Type controls worked fine. Then I started adding nice tweaks such as ES Themes etc, and suddenly R-Type had the same problem - P1 right not working unless I re-configure the MAME2003 controls every time. Not sure what change I applied that caused this, so I'm going to do it all again step-by-step and see when it reoccurs. My gut feeling is this is a bug in the Pimoroni Picade HAT drivers.

@Efriim Hi. Thanks for your reply. I solved my problem with creating a custom theme file and removing these variables for only configuration menu.

I would recommend the standalone Fuse emulator for keyboard use. Has a lot more functionality if you don't want to just play games. Eg. Typing in code, saving things etc.

Thank you for all the guidance. It appears all is working well.

as always, you solved the problem. Thank you @mitu