@Mikeymac02 All I did in my cabinet was run the power coming in through a toggle switch first then to a outlet inside the cabinet. Then I just plugged in a good surge protector to my switched outlet to power everything. To turn on just flip the toggle switch and it boots up. To turn off, properly shutdown retropie from the menu then flip the toggle switch to kill everything else.

@Clyde Well ifconfig works just fine in Debian Stretch / Retropie 4.4

I just tested it in the linux terminal. It also seems that ip addr works as well.

So doesnt matter which one will be used. Either one will do just fine. :-)

Finally, here's how I did to temporarily fix this bug.

edit or create /opt/retropie/runcommand-onstart.sh

add these lines

##reset bluetooth when launching mupen64,vice (fix controller cannot reconnect after get disconnected)
if [ "$1" == "c64" ] || [ "$1" == "n64" ] ; then
sudo hciconfig hci0 reset
fi

each time you launch a N64 or c64 game, you must reconnect (simply press ps button) the controller when game is started.

now if controller get disconnected or out of battery , you can reconnect without issue.

it also work if during the game a second controller want to connect, it is now recognized.

hope this help

So i've finally got further with this issue. I've removed retropie from my SD card and reinstalled it. Added the correct driver and set every GPIO pin in de conf file to 2 so my config now looks like this: gamecon_gpio_rpi map=0,0,2,2,2,2
Interesting enough now all of my controllers seem to work without the 5v mod or extra wires whatsoever. I've attached the NES pad to the PAD 4 pin. The only thing not working right now is in-game. The NES controller works in the menus of retropie and emulation station but not in an actual NES game. Going to figure that out next!

I use something similar to this to hook my pi to an old wood grain tv with a single coaxial input, but there are hundreds of different brands.

https://www.amazon.com/RCA-Compact-RF-Modulator-CRF907R/dp/B0014KKV7W/ref=sr_1_1?s=audio-video-accessories&ie=UTF8&qid=1486677432&sr=1-1

Thanks BuZz! I'll try that in the morning. I'd had my keyboard connected the entire time, so that's likely the issue.