I worked on this a little bit more last night while watching the Rio Olympics and this is what I got so far...

nano /opt/retropie/configs/ports/quake/retroarch.cfg

input_libretro_device_p1 = 3 input_player1_a = "space" input_player1_b = "backslash" input_player1_y = "q" input_player1_x = input_player1_start = "escape" input_player1_select = "tab" input_player1_l = "a" input_player1_r = "d" input_player1_left = "left" input_player1_right = "right" input_player1_up = "w" input_player1_down = "s" input_player1_l2_btn = input_player1_r2_btn = input_player1_l3_btn = input_player1_r3_btn = # Hotkey button input_enable_hotkey_btn = "tab" # Exit emulator input_exit_emulator_btn = "x" input_exit_emulator = "del"

The hotkeys to exit the emulator do not work for me and also the Esc key doesn't show Quake's menu. Right now the only way to exit Quake is to SSH in and administer the killall retroarch command.

If anyone has any further customizations, please let me know.

@wetriner said in Keyboard Emulation with Gamepad outside of emulators:

@TheLuthier There is definitely supposed to be joypad functionality in the retropie setup menus, and I believe it has been there for as long as I've been with RetroPie(something like 2.7 or so) It's just based on your joypad 0 button and DPAD. But it's set to work for typical setups.

UPDATE: Aahhha! You sir, are correct. I tested and indeed my joypad 0 works (R1 for my setup) and my analog stick is used for navigation (though it's a bit backwards with X axis being up and down). Essentially this solves my original question - Thanks!