8bitdo NES30 controller works in MAME but not in AdvMame 1.4

picogame

Hello,

My 8bitdo NES30 controller works fine in MAME (lr-imame4all), but it does not work in AdvMame 1.4 ! In AdvMame 1.4, the keyboard is working, but not NES30.

In AdvMame, I have tried to configure NES30 buttons in the input (Tab, and then input, or user1 settings), but it does not read them at all (as if it did not see the NES30).

Same by the way in the ports emulators like eduke32 (duke nukem) : I have the keyboard, not the NES30 working. Actually, the NES30 only works in MAME and in the RetroPie front end, that's all.

How can I set this up?

I have:

RPi 3 Model B
8bitdo NES30 pro : my controller is connected via Bluetooth usually (and it works) although I can also have it work under USB
RetroPie SD card download (May 10 2017)
I get my IP address via Wifi.
AdvMame 1.4

Thanks !

caver01

@picogame I use a keyboard controller (IPAC4) on my setup, so I don't have direct experience with gamepads in AdvanceMAME, but if they present as joysticks, you may be able learn a few things by testing inputs with advancemame's advj joystick utility.

Like the advm utility for testing mouse inputs, you might be able to track details about your gamepads and test if MAME can see them using this at the commandline:
/opt/retropie/emulators/advmame/1.4/bin/advj

I have not tried this myself, but you can read about it on the advancemame support site. If the utility is detecting inputs, you should be able to configure advmame.

picogame

@caver01 thanks - tried, but honestly I don't know what to do with the results!

joy 0, [---------------], 0/0 [ 0 -] 0/1 [ 0 -] 0/2 [ 0 -] 0/3 [ 0 -] 1/0 [ 0 -] 2/0 [ 0 -] 3/0 [ 0 -] 3/1 [ 0 -] [] ( 0 ms)
joy 0, [---------------], 0/0 [ 0 -] 0/1 [ 0 -] 0/2 [ 0 -] 0/3 [

caver01

@picogame So, while the utility was running, were you moving the joystick, pressing buttons etc? And while you did, was the screen changing?

The idea is to make sure that the system responds with some indication on-screen that you are manipulating the joystick. If it does, that means AdvanceMAME is capable of seeing the inputs, and the joystick number shown on-screen that is changing obviously corresponds to the joystick you are manipulating.

This is something I don't need to do with arcade controls, so someone else might chime in here who has done it--but with the above results, you should then be able to use/edit the index number for a device in the advmame.rc file. For example, you might verify or add the line device_joystick_0 raw and perhaps device_joystick_1 rawto the .rc file. Or, instead of "raw" you could try using the "event" driver which may be more appropriate. You can read about drivers in the dev documentation for advmame. My thought is that once the device is properly defined, you should be able to press TAB on a keyboard while in a game, and navigate through the menus to map keys for all games or specific games using the joystick to map buttons etc. A successful test using advj proves that advMAME can see the device, so this is just an exercise to expose it so you can map inputs.

Of course, you could map all inputs manually by editing the .rc file using details here, but that would be extremely tedious.