Start and Select Buttons help for first retropie attempt with retrogame

buntyfarmer

I have followed the guide by adafruit to install and use arcade joystick and buttons with retograme.

I have up/down/left/right/a/b/x/y all working ok.

Start and select don't work however. In the config file I have the following:

SELECT 6 # 'Select button'
START 16 # 'Start button'

I noticed in the list of commands does not include 'start' and 'select' (i looked at the kerTable. file referred to on adafruit tutorial) so maybe it should be SPACE and ENTER, I tried this but still does not work in emulationstation or when playing a game.

Any ideas?

I am just using arcade buttons and a joystick.

Just to check, does the part after the # matter? I thought this was just a reference in the code to the person reading it so they knew what that button/PIN did.

Thanks in advance.

mitu

Which application did you install, exactly ? Does it have a documentation page/project source ?

buntyfarmer

Hi,

I followed the instructions on here:

https://learn.adafruit.com/retro-gaming-with-raspberry-pi/adding-controls-software

So downloaded Retrogame by entering the following:

cd
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts/master/retrogame.sh >retrogame.sh
sudo bash retrogame.sh

I then edited the /boot/retrogame.cfg and got a/b/x/y and joystick to work.

The pins and buttons (and code in a way) are working as when some games are loading i can tap the buttons and the relevant letter for the button (a/b/x/y) is typed at the bottom of the screen and when I press buttons that I want to act as START and SELECT then they work as space and enter (e.g. they add a space or move onto next line).

I have tried SNES, Gameboy and Megadrive games.

Thanks

mitu

@buntyfarmer Did you configure your input in EmulationStation ? This will create modify the RetroArch configuration to add the necessary key bindings.
For keyboard controls, RetroArch uses Enter for Start and Shift for Select. You can check the current configuration by looking in the \\retropie\configs\all\retroarch.cfg file.

buntyfarmer

Aha no, I think i had already configured the controls on the first boot with a keyboard.

I entered rm /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg and it then let me reconfigure the input. Amazing thanks!

Can't seem to get the hotkeys to work but that's another challenge for another day!

buntyfarmer

@mitu So after configuring the input in Emulation Station the start and select buttons work in emulation station (e.g. bring up the menu and screensaver) however do not work in actual games (e.g. to pause and the hot keys do not work).

I have looked for the retroarch.cfg file and it is not there....

I looked where you suggested and also looked for it here: /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

I also tried jstest /dev/input/js0 (and js1, js2 etc) but it said there was no such file or location.

Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks in advance

mitu

@buntyfarmer said in Start and Select Buttons help for first retropie attempt with retrogame:

I looked where you suggested and also looked for it here: /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

It should be here - can you try and post the output of the file on pastebin.com ?

I also tried jstest /dev/input/js0 (and js1, js2 etc) but it said there was no such file or location.

That's because the RetroGame utility doesn't 'emulate' a gamepad, but a keyboard. The /dev/input/jsX devices are created only for joystick/gamepad devices.

buntyfarmer

Apologies, have got the file and opened it, only seemed to open in if i changed into the directory /opt/retropie/configs/all and then opened it.

For
input_player_1_start = "q"
input_player_1_select = "w"

mitu

@buntyfarmer Please post the whole file content on pastebin.com.
You can also get the file via file shares (from your PC/mac/etc.), at \\retropie\configs\all\retroarch, if you're just using SSH/the console to look it and cannot get the whole file's content.

buntyfarmer

I can see the whole file when open on the raspberry pi, but cannot upload it from there, just looking at how to view and upload the .cfg file via plugging the SD card into my mac.

mitu

Run from the command line

cat /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg | nc termbin.com 9999

and post the URL that appears. You need to have internet working on the PI for this to work.

buntyfarmer

thanks
https://termbin.com/ql0i

Just install extFS in case that doesn't work!

mitu

OK, so your keys are defined like this:

input_player1_a = "a"
input_player1_b = "b"
input_player1_y = "y"
input_player1_x = "x"
input_player1_start = "q"
input_player1_select = "w"
input_player1_l = "num1"
input_player1_r = "num2"
input_player1_left = "left"
input_player1_right = "right"
input_player1_up = "up"
input_player1_down = "down"
input_player1_l2 = "num3"
input_player1_r2 = "num4"
input_player1_l3 = "num5"
input_player1_r3 = "num6"

while your hotkey is set to R (which is also the shortcut for rewind).

input_enable_hotkey = "r"

Simply change your hotkey to w (the same as your Select key):

input_enable_hotkey = "w"

buntyfarmer

Thanks for the quick reply.

So just to clarify, this is for the arcade buttons that are wired into the GPIO pins?

Does this explain why the start and select buttons that i allocated in the controller configuration and that work in emulation station menu do not work in a game?

buntyfarmer

Got it sorted! Phew.

Had to go back into the retrogame.cfg file and tell it that pin 16 was 'w' and pin 26 was 'q'. I had them set as space and enter and even though i had done configuration in emulation station, they stayed as start and enter in the actual game.....