@draksus said in Boomer friendly way to exit games using a n64 controller?:

Is there a way to have the pause button function in game AND be the hotkey?

Probably yes.

Its ok if a shortpress brings up ES menu, a medium press brings up RA menu.

That's not how it works. Once a game is started, ES is no longer active and you can't open its menu(s) anymore, you'll have to exit the emulator before ES becomes active again.

If you're only interested in N64 (or maybe just in a couple of systems), you can run RetroArch directly - without EmulationStation acting as a front-end. See Lakka for a similar gaming distro that has just RetroArch running.

Add an VNC client like Vinagre