But now, it cannot save. I'm running it on the lxde desktop because I couldn't run any program that can turn a controller's joystick into a mouse in a port game

I would not give up: you can install the Pixel desktop and use WINE. Don't forget that behind emulationstation you have a linux machine so games such as Micropolis (SimCity 1) , OpenXCom (Xcom), OpenRA (C&C) work