Newbie controller questions

retromikey

Hi there,

I've always been a bit confused about the controls in Retropie. I've got two quick questions below. My setup is that I have a home-made arcade machine using an iPac controller with the main buttons mapped to two joysticks with six buttons each. I also have a wireless keyboard...

I can't work out how to press 'Y' to add games to my Favorites list. Does the 'Y' refer to an Xbox controller? I've tried pressing every button on my arcade and every key on my keyboard (including 'Y' on the keyboard of course) but nothing seems to work. Do I need to map 'Y' somehow?
For my NES/SNES and Master System/Mega Drive games I've never had to remap controls. The Player 1 controls just work automatically. But I can't play 2 player games as my second joystick and buttons don't work with those console games. Can I remap controls for those consoles in an easy way?

Thanks a lot.

Michael

rbaker

@retromikey

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Keyboard-Controllers

Ecks

@retromikey said in Newbie controller questions:

Hi there,

I've always been a bit confused about the controls in Retropie. I've got two quick questions below. My setup is that I have a home-made arcade machine using an iPac controller with the main buttons mapped to two joysticks with six buttons each. I also have a wireless keyboard...

I can't work out how to press 'Y' to add games to my Favorites list. Does the 'Y' refer to an Xbox controller? I've tried pressing every button on my arcade and every key on my keyboard (including 'Y' on the keyboard of course) but nothing seems to work. Do I need to map 'Y' somehow?

For my NES/SNES and Master System/Mega Drive games I've never had to remap controls. The Player 1 controls just work automatically. But I can't play 2 player games as my second joystick and buttons don't work with those console games. Can I remap controls for those consoles in an easy way?

Thanks a lot.

Michael

Y is the button you configured when you first added in a controller and for 2 player games you have to configure another controller in order for it to work.

retromikey

@rbaker Hi rbaker. Thanks. I have my keyboard working already though, but when I press 'Y' on the keyboard nothing gets added to Favorites. I'm just confused about if the 'Y' refers to the 'Y' on an Xbox controller maybe, or should it work when I press 'Y' on the keyboard? Thanks. Michael

retromikey

@ecks Hi Ecks. Thanks, but I don't remember ever configuring a controller, because I was never going to use a controller with my arcade machine. Is there a way to re-configure a controller?

And for the 2 player games, I want the player 2 controls for Nintendo and Sega consoles to work with my arcade joystick and buttons via my iPac controller. I'm just not sure how to remap these. Is it via Retroach config somehow for each emulator?

Thanks a lot. Michael

rbaker

@retromikey said in Newbie controller questions:

Thanks. I have my keyboard working already though

I was answering your second question. How to get your ipac working with two players.....

"The Player 1 controls just work automatically. But I can't play 2 player games as my second joystick and buttons don't work with those console games"

You need to read the instructions. The IPAC is a Keyboard controller. You need to configure it to read the key presses. The ipac allows your button presses to be seen as a keyboard input. If you have a keyboard plugged in, you have effectively got two keyboards plugged in. The default IPAC configuration is for MAME. The link details exactly everything you need to do to accomplish what you require. Please post the contents of your opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg to allow further support according to https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

How did you configure your buttons in the first place? Did you use auto configure when emulation station first booted up? Was the IPAC seen as TWO input devices or just ONE? If it was seen as just ONE then retropie is seeing it as a virtual joypad as opposed to a keyboard (Bad news - head over to to Ultimarc and change the firmware to remove this feature). Also, if you have a new IPAC, it might already be seen as TWO gamepads (1.36 Firmware - Game pad enabled firmware now appears as TWO gamepads) on first boot in which case happy days, just go ahead and press the buttons you want on each player when prompted to do so (on first boot). If you wish to remap the controls for different emulators then you can do so on per emulator and a per rom basis. As you can see, the IPAC is not straight forward plug and play unless you are wanting Arcade emulation. This guide is very good at taking you through the files step by step.

Is it via Retroach config somehow for each emulator?

Yes -
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroArch-Configuration/
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroArch/

retromikey

@rbaker Thanks rbaker that's really useful. I'll have a detailed look at those links you posted and I'll hopefully work it out. Thank you very much for your help.