how to use controller without pressing f4 with a keyboard atari 5200

[Deltax5]

Just wondering. I don't know if ill always have a keyboard handy to play 5200 games. Kinda makes no sense really. Is there a way just to start playing with a controller without a keyboard?
some other systems do this to.

[jonnykesh]

@deltax5 Other systems do it. But you probably picked the least popular / worst supported Atari system in terms of emulation, Not just on the Pi but in general. The 2600 and the 7800 have much better emulators and support for controller only input.
I'm no expert and for these type of systems, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari I tend to keep a mini keyboard to hand just because it is less hassle than trying to remember what I mapped the hash key / pause to on my controller for every one.
I'm not sure if his actually helps but this is my experience.

[stitches]

I figured this out. You need to change your input to ATARI Joystick.

To do this, load a game by pressing [hotkey]+X from within the game. You're looking for the white and green options. Go to: Settings -> Input -> Input User 1 Binds -> User 1 Device Type and change this to ATARI Joystick. You should be able to press start on your controller now instead of needing a keyboard.

Replying to this old topic because this is a top result in Google. Good luck future gamers.

[DavidB21]

@stitches This still works is 2019. Thank god I found this I was about to pull my hair out trying to find a solution to this

[rkoster]

I’ll add this to the docs. It does say to select Atari Joystick, but it’s down in the lr-Atari emulator section and 5200 users may not read to there though they should.