@CDNSailor ok, so after getting home and opening my Pi up, I tried plugging the controller directly to the system. Lit up and was picked up immediately. Still can set it up, but I did run a jstest. It's definitely my splitter that is causing the issue with the pi seeing the controller. That said, now I'm going to fiddle with the drivers and see if I can get that one to work. Of that works, I'll be half way there. I just wish I could know exactly what the splitter is doing that is choking it off. If it's power or data throughput.

wireless super Nintendo work great $26 new from amazon

Very likely, it wouldn't be ideal for serious gaming. Maybe only for emulation with rewind enabled :P

I ordered two innext snes pads for $8 total and they just arrived. They feel "ok" for the price. The d-pad itself is acceptable but still has the same problems as 8bitdo but to a lesser degree. The 4 front buttons are a bit taller and can be flimsy. Select/Start rubber feels very cheap. L button feels mushy. Overall, they're usable.

I went ahead and replaced the shell,buttons, and rubber pads with real sfc pad parts I wasn't using. I had to solder the original L/R pcb's because the innext one don't fit. It's just two wires per button so it wasn't a big deal. The innext ones can be glued on but I don't know how long they'll stay in place.

Feels very good now with the original parts. Used original SFC pads can be bought for ~$10-12US on ebay. Original SNES pads are more expensive due to this retrocraze at the moment.

@mitu
Actually, I think I did update it and that caused some of the issues again with it not working properly. It's working well enough as is so I'm a little leery of messing with it at this point. I don't have any games that require thumbstick or trigger input so I'm happy enough with the good D-pad.

@thepuffpuff30 I’ve decided to give up on this controller.

Not sure it will help but i noticed in the RetroPie Setup that there was a driver section from which you could install XBox and XBox360 driver. I also use a XBox 360 wired controller but on a Pi 3 model B and i didn't have to install that driver. I just know it's there so you might want to try, we never know.

Also i don't know about pre made SD images but i sometime hear people saying that some unexplained issues may occur on pre-installed systems, and would recommend users to install RetroPie manually usuing the official download.

That's all i have. Hope it helps.

@burgoyne Did you ever get any resolution to this issue? I had the same thing happen to me and I am also looking for a solution to use the same gamepad.

This should help:

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/2wgty6/how_do_i_connect_a_ps2_controller_directly_to_the/

Sorry, I guess I just assumed it was, but yes it's cased with a fan using a 5V/2.5A power supply. I haven't checked that, I haven't used Linux in years so pretty much back to beginner but I can take a look later on today when I get home. Not sure about the firmware, I've tried so many things it's a possibility but I honestly can't remember.

@Cerealkiller You are asking for support with an illegal 3rd Party image. You are also posting links to the illegal 3rd party image which is in breach of the forum rules which you agreed to read when you signed up. For support with your image, you should consult the creator of it. Nobody on here will know anything about it. I looked at the page you downloaded it from and there are hundreds of comments. Many posters have commented that their controllers do not work. Dr Maxwell claims that he has "taken the best of the best" and made it better. Seems not to be the case. My advice is to use the correct image from this website and start again.

@kleesdad
Check out this thread and should work the same with the wired Xbox 360 controller as well:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3580/wireless-xbox-360-controller-issues-in-kodi-16-1-on-retropie-4-0-1