@UndeadSoul There's nothing to fix. That's how arcade games are built. Pac-Man didn't have two joysticks. Street Fighter did.

@mikebrin
it explains how to run in verbose mode via the link @Clyde provided:

@clyde said in Cannot get Player 2 Joystick to work:

Please run one of the games with verbose logging

but if you can't get into the runcommand menu, it's a moot point i guess.

now, as for your issue - donkey kong's 2 player mode uses one stick - the real cabinet only had one (and why not, since, the 2 player mode isn't simultaneous). you take turns on one stick.

it's possible that there's a cocktail/2p mode you can select via the service menu or dipswitches, or you could map the player 2 controls as alternatives for player 2 via the MAME menu for this game only, or something like that.

note, these instructions are for mame2003 (which is recommended), not the mame2016 which you're using (which is not recommended).

@mitu
you got right!
i start the MetalSlug game and there is it all be correct and works fine.
its only non co-op games there will only player1 work.

will try some other games and will see if all be work fine

thx

@redec easiest way is when you hold a button to configure, the name that shows up. If they match, then they are using the same encoder. Most of the cheap chinese brand controllers tend to use the same one cause its probably cheap and easy to use, but there is never any consistency on what phyiscal buttons are mapped to what virtual buttons on the encoder.

Hello and welcom to this forum.

Did you configure the controller via Emulation Station correctly? Maybe do it again to be sure. There's a script to assign controllers to players. It works very well for me. Maybe it's worth a try for you.

If all of that doesn't help, please give us the information that's asked for in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

@mitu I did remove all connected / paired devices several times. I did also reset ES_input file. Nothing worked. Always when I try to pair it, it gives me error message, that device is already registered. The same with udev.

Please add more info about your system, as detailed in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

@mitu Ah I see.. I was always getting confused when I looked at cfg files and saw the # lines, just cos they looked nothing like technical instruction/code to me 😊. Glad I cleared that up...

So for my own reference I could put a # line in saying here are my latest attempts at the control inputs THEN after after that start that actual control inputs (WITHOUT #)?

@atariplayer I'm not sure you edited the right configuration file. What USB drive ?

Can you please add more info about your system, as detailed in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first ?

Thanks for the broken link notice, we'll try to fix it.

@granderjoree I don't think that's possible either. The input_exit_emulator_btn can only have one value.

I have the same problem, not know how to solve, also my start button becomes X (for example) any tip? Thanks

@deadherring said in Player 2 Left:

@mitu When I exit emulation station and press player 2 left, nothing shows. When I press other keys (e.g. player 2 right) I am seeing the corresponding key show in the window.

This means the d-pad/joystick is not registering in the OS, so it's not a configuration issue - but a hardware one, the button is not registering as d (maybe it's registering as Shift/Ctrl/Alt ?). Make sure it's correctly wired - what controller are you using ?

EDIT: Try running evtest from the command line - after you exit Emulationstation - and press the P2 Left to see if anything registers (key/modifier/F key).

@mitu AHHHH, that worked!!!

Thanks, you're the man!!

Nathan

You my friend are a genius! I set controls on player 1 to "Select" = "Start" and "Start" = Nothing and player 2 "Select" = Nothing and "Start" = "Start". Works like a champ! I wish it was a little more intuitive, but it seems to work great.

Thanks again for all your help!

@mitu Thanks for replying. My gamepads mirror each other, and have the same number of buttons installed and mapped to the same keys. I'm aware that the gamepads won't work correctly if there are any differences at all. In fact, I had to add two extra buttons to the player 2 USB encoder in order to make it mirror the player 1 USB encoder precisely. Initially, we had installed two extra joypad 1 buttons to serve as a hotkey/escape and as a pause button, but they wouldn't work without identical buttons set up in joypad 2. The joypad 2 buttons are actually inside of the cabinet, because there are no holes for them on the control panel. I've already used jstest many times, too. So, I can promise that the two joypads are configured identically, and I haven't set up any player 1 buttons in the 800/5200 emulator that map differently from player 2. I know better.

I really do think the problem is that the Atari 5200 emulator isn't yet set up to recognize multiple fire buttons for player 2. I found a discussion on this forum from May 2016 entitled "Atari 5200: New version of Atari800 (Beta): two triggers (Moon Patrol), hat start and exit buttons" where user jfroco discussed a new port of Atari800 that added trigger1, trigger2, asterisk and hash support for joystick buttons, but only for player 1. A later post from user Veramacor (April 2017) detailing atari800.cfg settings also reflected trigger1 and trigger2 support on Joystick 0, but not Joystick 1. Then, in May 2017 user Used2BeRX asked user future.child if they would be able to properly code the player 2 controller to allow two-player games. It's not clear from the subsequent conversation that this ever got done in the way I'm discussing here.

I'm guessing from this discussion and my experiences this weekend that the Atari800 emulator must still be in that same developmental place, because when I tested the 5200 Moon Patrol ROM (I do own an original cartridge), sure enough, player 1 could use the second trigger (button X on my arcade cabinet config), but not player 2. The X button did nothing for player 2. Again, I'm not having this problem in any of the other emulators I'm using with Retroarch (MAME2003, MAME 2003-Plus, Final Burn Alpha, MAME2010, Stella, CoolCV, or the NES and SNES emulators). On those emulators, all buttons work the same for both gamepads. There are no discrepancies.

However, if someone can verify that they are able to use both fire buttons for both player 1 and player 2 in Atari 5200 Moon Patrol (one to fire, one to jump), RealSports Football, etc., I will be more than happy to try to get it working for Player 2 in Retropie. I just haven't seen anyone confirm that there is trigger1, trigger2, * and # support for Player 2 in the 5200 emulator. The only evidence I've found is that there isn't such support, and I don't want to spend days futilely trying to set up something that isn't actually supported. In fact, a post from three months ago said that the controller upgrades future.child made from 2016-18 aren't part of the current libretro version of atari800. (That thread also suggested that RealSports Football is viewed as a lost cause because of its need for keypad input.) Maybe the best way to ask this question is, does Moon Patrol work properly for player 2 on the 5200? Can you jump and fire?

RetroPie does controls per controller/encoder name, so if two controllers share the same same name, if you change one, you change the other. If you have 2 different controllers using the dragon rise encoder, but they are different, it may be that one is wired up differently than the other.

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Thanks, I will upvote your posts! Don't know if it helps or not. Happy retro gaming!

@meleu thanks so much for making this script! I would be screwed without it! This should be added to the Retropie main builds! It's so useful!