Stuck in attract mode, want emulation station

[tozer21]

Raspberry pi 3b
Power Supply used: 5v 2500ma
RetroPie Version Used (eg 3.6, 3.8.1, 4.1 - do not write latest): not sure and because of the problem I can't check
Built From: (Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website, Berryboot, or on top of existing OS etc.. - please provide the filename of any image used)
USB Devices connected:. Bought from retroarcade
Controller used: primary generic SNES and Logitech k400 keyboard
Error messages received:

So Im a relative newbie. Was using retropie with emulation station. Freaking loved it. It was set up perfectly and had 19000 or so ROMs working . was trying to configure a new controller. Read that to do so I need to go into attract mode ( which I now know is not correct).

In emulation station went to the retropie setup and hit attract mode. I tried to exit out. It briefly flashed an error about video loading before shutting down so I couldn't write it down.

It now automatically boots into attract mode. In "ports" it offers desktop and Kodi. Kodi loads ok.
Desktop freezes up. I exit attract mode and it shits the pi down without the power going off completely.

As far as I can tell, I can't get emulation station to boot again and am permanently stuck with attract mode, which I do not like.

I've searched far and wide. Others have asked elsewhere, but provided no info for you guys to go on. Hope I provided enough.

Basically I want to know 1 of 2 things.

1: how to get it into the terminal/command prompt so I can set it to load emulation station automatically upon boot?

2: how do I switch directly back to emulation station?

[mitu]

We don't support 3rd party images - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first, point 5.

[tozer21]

@mitu sorry wasn't sure what that meant.

Thanks anyway.

Going to do a full flash and reinstall from the official image