@Omay said in Jack of all trades controller needs:

What buttons would I need to be able to run just about any game that RetroPie supports?

Supporting 'any' game is a tall order, since imitating a PS1/Xbox style controller may not work so well with a cabinet style panel - operating 2 joysticks for 3d game while at the same time having to push buttons is a bit cumbersome.

For an arcade style cabinet you may want to use a traditional arcade cabinet with an analog joystick + 6 buttons for actions (A/B/X/Y + LT/RT) + 2 buttons for Start/Select. Optionally, you may want to add a separate button for the 'Hotkey Enable' button used by most libretro emulator - that one can function also as a 'Menu' or 'Exit' button for other (non-libretro) emulators.

You can also use an external (Wired/Wireless) gamepad for more modern games - i.e. PS1/Dreamcast games which require a joystick + D-Pad.

great thanx. so the 2 player must be the start button on the second controller.
perfect. so i have configured the buttons. but if i hit it, i cant play. so there must be an Option to set the which button is the 2 player mode button