Get lost at initial switch on with IPAC2

jollster101

Hi all

Although no excuse firstly I want to call out that I am 71 and so technology isn't something I that I am an expert with but I saw a bartop arcade cabinet someone had made and thought I quite fancy a go at that. I am building a 2 player bartop with 6 buttons each, there is a player 1 button, a player 2 button and I have another button that is wired up that I think I need for coin. I wasn't going to use any other buttons as I believe the IPAC2 does some kind of shifting to allow for other functionality. I have a Pi V3, with an IPAC2 and version 3.8.1 of Retropie.

I have got to the point that I am ready to power on, boot retropie and start the initial config. I boot into retropie and get to the controller config screen. I press one of the buttons that is wired to my IPAC2 and it recognises it as a keyboard which is great. I then start to work my way through the various prompts (joystick up, down, left, right etc) and I think this is where my problem lies as I get a bit confused. The joystick bit is simple but when I get to Start, Select I am not 100% sure what to choose so I press a button until Not Defined shows up. I then try to do that then for every option. For the A button though I cannot choose Not Defined and it always chooses whatever I have pushed. B, X, Y, Left Bottom, Right Bottom etc etc etc all allow me to choose Not Defined so I do that until I have completed this bit and then I am into Retropie.

Problem I have then is I can move around but I don't seem to have any buttons that I can do anything with. I suspect that whatever I am doing is a basic mistake on my side but for the life of me I am not sure what it is or how to remedy it.

Any help for an old codger to achieve arcade nirvana would be welcomed.

Thanks

caver01

@jollster101
Great questions! You are close. When mapping buttons the first time in Emulation Station, for START using your arcade controls, you probably want to press your Player 1 button, and for Select, press your Coin button.

If you need to start over, you can delete the file ~/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg to make the input configuration screen re-appear on next run.

I am pretty sure I configured my six arcade buttons as A,B,X,Y and LeftShoulder, RightShoulder.

Finally, when you get to a button that you don't have, like some of the analog joysticks, just press and hold a button to skip.

rbaker

@jollster101 said in Get lost at initial switch on with IPAC2:

For the A button though I cannot choose Not Defined and it always chooses whatever I have pushed.

If you press and hold a button, you will get "Not Defined". A short press will define whatever you push.

B, X, Y, Left Bottom, Right Bottom etc etc etc all allow me to choose Not Defined

This is the reason that you have no button functionality because it appears that you have chosen not to define. Start and Select are quite important to get the correct functionality for a lot of emulators. @caver01 is correct in his above hint, I tried this on mine and it didn't quite work for me for some reason. I ended up mapping for Mame - 5 (Select) and 1 (Start) to them using these tips:

I followed them and it taught me everything about configuring:

- this applies to the Ipac too because I'm using one.

This is a good thread to read once you have watched the video:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/317/setting-up-a-ipac2

Then finally, I wrote this order to get my iPac working:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/1722/if-you-have-purchased-an-ipac2-and-want-to-save-time

Hope this helps! Good Luck.

jollster101

@caver01
Thanks for the reply. I will give that a go for the Start and Select buttons. It makes sense that if I do that I will at least get some kind of response when I get into main menus which is where I have been struggling up to now.

The info about what to delete to get the config screen to run again is also good to know.

Thanks.

jollster101

@rbaker

Great info to know @rbaker. I am going to have a read and a watch of the links you provided and all being well with the info from there and from @caver01 I will get to a point of being able to play.

Just so you are aware I am mainly looking at MAME to play so not sure if that makes much of a difference.

Thanks