@Brownmonster

Hi Ste,

Thanks for the update, I have downloaded the new version and Amiberry but I am having trouble getting Amiberry to regonise Retroarch Keyboard as Joystick for custom mappings.

My Ipac2 is set up with player one's control as gamepad inputs, this is recognised as "Ultimarc Ipac 2"and I can use custom controls with this, the "r" indicating a retroarch controller shows next to the input box.

Player two is set up with keyboard inputs, this is recognised by Amibery as "Retroarch Keyboard as Joystick [#1]", but for some reason I cannot use custom mappings, and there is no "r" in the input box and it states "Not a valid Input Controller for Joystick Emulation".

It does recognise the standard joystick controls "left, right, up, down and fire button 1" which are mapped via my retroarch.cfg (this is placed in opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/conf/ directory, so the second player controls are working, I just can't get custom mappings to work.

Any ideas why?

@bassman6805 said in Which Joystick for Bartop:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3402

There are just so many options and ideas to consider. The hat is interesting. It is more than just a convenient way to connect wires for controls. It also has an audio DAC and back powers the Pi with a safe shutdown switch. If you are using an HDMI display with sound, you probably won't use the DAC on the hat.

You could also look at ControlBlock.

These solutions rely on drivers to translate GPIO input to virtual gamepad(s) or keyboard input. You could also step up to a hardware controller like an Ultimarc IPAC or others.

If I built a bartop today, I might simply use header wires or split a ribbon cable with a connector and use that to wire up controls to GPIO. I might then use a Mausberry circuit or something simpler to do safe shutdown. Finally, I might just pull audio from the jack on the Pi if my display did not include speakers.

For the actual controls, do you want a ball top style joystick? A bat design (street fighter shape)? Have you considered 4-way vs. 8-way? Ultimarc makes some sticks that allow you to switch between 4 and 8 ways. Otherwise, the HAPP Super or the Competition sticks are very inexpensive.

There are many sources of arcade hardware online. I have had success buying from Groovy Game Gear, Ultimarc, and Paradise Arcade shop. I live in Portland, OR.

I will add that sometimes you will make a decision based on form factor alone. For example, you may be building something with internal size constraints and opt for buttons that are shallow, whereas many arcade buttons are designed to go through thicker plywood and go pretty deep.

On the other hand, you might pick a joystick because of how it feels during gameplay. Do you like microswitches clicking? Maybe you want to find one with copper leaf switches for that quieter, smoother feel. You have lots of possibilities. I would browse some Paradise for ideas, or Ultimarc for some premium options and decide what you need and what you can live without given your budget.

@dsstrainer said in Is there a way to control the retropie-setup menus with joystick?:

but I have my keyboard encoder mapped to other buttons besides enter, space, etc.

That'll do it. I run into this using xboxdrv's key-mapping functions. I just keep a mini keyboard handy where I can grab it for quick maintenance purposes.

Well, I don't have an IPAC, but maybe some forum members can chime in with their experience, but IMHO shouldn't be an issue as long as all controllers are detected by the system.

Hi,
Yes in the end I decided to get a snes-style USB controller, and it seems to be working a treat!
Sorry for the delay in replying...

please fill out the template in the sticky thread above to provide us with information about your setup. having basic info on your pi model, retropie version, and power supply etc. will help with troubleshooting.

have a look here in the wiki where it outlines using jstest to determine the button values.

also in this case, it would help to see the output of the command lsusb before and after you connect the wireless receiver.

@FirestormTimob

I use a madcatz TES+ (Shadaloo version)

it works on the pi3

The GamepadBlock provides a hardware interface for original Amiga, C64 and other home computer controllers. It would be a wired solution, though.

@jdoc said in How to get 8-Way / 4-Way joystick controls in Defender and Stargate:

Just had to nuke and pave my system, but discovered that mame2003 changed a bit. This cheat still works, but “mame2003-cheats” has changed to “mame2003-cheat_input_ports”.

So changing mame2003-cheat_input_ports = “disabled” to mame2003-cheat_input_ports = “enabled” will make this work again.

Thanks for this. This may be the reason that the MS Pacman speed button stopped working a few years ago, too. I'm gonna give this a try and see if it helps there.

EDIT: Confirmed. This fixed the issue. I posted on this forum about it ages ago and nobody had any idea what was wrong. Thanks!

Yes, the method to make two-handed "tank" controls work on a single 8-way joystick does not require any cheats, just a clever set of controls mapped to what is sometimes called a "tankstick". The mapping makes use of <CODE_NOT> logic where you are actually excluding certain input combinations. MAME lets you setup mappings like this by using a double-tap of an input while in the GUI menu which changes it to a <NOT>, so if you do several inputs in rapid succession, before MAME accepts an entry, you can make some combinations that work in interesting ways.

Here's a mapping for a single 8-way joystick to control two tank sticks like Battlezone:

Game Control Mapped to Right/Up Up <not> Right or Left <not> Down Right/Down Down <not> Right or Right <not> Up <not> Down Left/Up Up <not> Left or Right <not> Down Left/Down Down <not> Left or Left <not> Up <not> Down

There is an odd situation for Keyboard controller users in lr-mame2003 that requires you to first set all retroarch inputs to NUL using a per-rom config file if you want to do this. You can read about it here.

Similar problems. Two identical DragonRise USB Joystick, with same identical connection to usb encoder. In EmulationStation Player2 buttons respond correctly, also if just one config is written (identical joystick). When i start lr-mame2010 with - for example - street fighter i see that player1 controls are OK, player2 controls are ok BUT only 4 buttons of 8 is working. Tryig to make /boot/cmdline.txt mods. Trying also to reconfigure manually in retroarch. What can be? becoming crazy from a week !!! Thanks

@mr_fredricksen You will have to do some research on the interface requirements. The joystick is like buttons--the microswitches will have to lead to some kind of controller interface like an IPAC USB keyboard interface for example, or directly to GPIO, etc. This will largely depend on the other controls you hope to use. For example, is this a single player arcade system? 2-player control panel? 4? How many buttons? I don't really need to know those answers, but you need to plan for all of your inputs and decide how you are going to handle them. The optical part is trickier. The endgame will likely look like a USB mouse when connected to the Pi. You will need to research the rotary joystick you want to get and find out what your options are for a compatible rotary interface. Maybe there is a USB board for it? Maybe they expect you to connect it to a spinner interface. I would read everything I can find via Google on the subject, as people have been building emulator-based arcades for years before retropie, so there is a lot written on the topic of rotary joysticks.

You are asking the right questions though. You definitely need something between the controls and the Pi computer. Depending on how many controls, you might need multiple somethings. You cannot, for example, just plug a rotary joystick into the Pi somehow. You need a USB interface and possibly more than one. A lot depends on your design ideas. Check out Ultimarc for some ideas, or Groovy Game Gear, or follow examples others have used in years past when building systems with rotary.

@mrinfected101 Well, I am at a loss. Since your original post says that the emulators work with the keyboard, just not with the joystick, I gotta believe there is something amiss with the adafruit/retrogame configuration. In some ways, RetroPie is working, but your adafruit stuff isn't.

I know controller setup is the most common challenge people face with RetroPie, but this one might be better asked of Adafruit. Perhaps they have some specific suggestions for when this comes up. I would definitely open a dialog on their forum if you haven't already.

@jfrmilner Thanks for the kind praise. My answer about multiplayer games is going to come from the arcade game options, as my build obviously has that emphasis. There is another thread here somewhere that lists all of the 4-player games (4-player MAME lists can also be found online). But I have far far less than a full ROMset loaded on my system--I load games as I learn about them. That said, it is hard to beat a good game of 4-player Gauntlet and Gauntlet 2. Try Xenophobe. Then, there are the fighter games like X-men, or the Simpsons and TMNT. Battletoads has 3 player capability, Rampage is fun. Then there is a handful of sports titles. Stone Ball is super fun! NBA Jam, and a few racing games like Super Sprint.

My build looks like a 4-player cabinet, but remember, many classic arcade games have the CRT oriented vertically, so for those, even though they are not 4-player games, I play them from the vertical sides of the cabinet (players 3 and 4) to get the best, full-screen experience.

@deeobat the manufacturer confirmed that the cable is not compatible with Retropie. Oh well.