Problem configuring arcade machine

Billy

Hi all, hope any of ye can help me.
I built an arcade machine with the following:

Flat pack cabinet for 2 players
Raspberry pi 3B
Power supply 2.5A
IPAC 2 controller
Joysticks (8 positions)
6 buttons per player + start & select (8 buttons total)
I programmed the buttons as per Ultimarc default. Player 1 start is selected as hotkey. I created macros for Player1 + down = Pause, Player1 + right = Tab. Player1 + left = enter and player1 + select =escape (exit)
I play mostly mame or arcade games, nothing like sega, neo geo, Gameboy etc.
I had raspberry pi 4.2 but as I didn't use the arcade for a while when I turned it on the menu script had disappeared and I couldn't install emulators or do anything. The games were working fine.

So I flashed the 64gb micro SD card with the latest retropie 4.7 followed the instructions to set it up and connect to WiFi.
Setup the buttons for emulation station, up, down, left, right, SW1 = A, SW2 = B, SW3 = l, SW4 = X, SW5 = Y, SW6 = r. Hotkey = player 1 start
Then I went to the retroarch.cfg (in all folder) and edit the player 1 inputs to match my configuration and added player 2 inputs.

Added the roms to the arcade folder. But the controller's for some reason we're not working properly, Player 2 down (f) restarts the game, player 2 SW3 fast forwards.
I checked the retroarch to change any letters that could create a conflict but there was no F in the whole retroarch file or fast forward.
So I changed the retroarch in the /arcade folder to the settings I had as per player 1 and 2 (above the #include line). And the same thing happened...

I removed the roms from the arcade folder and moved them to the FBA folder, same thing. Also selected the emulator at the start to mame4all, lr-mame etc. Changed the retroarch file to remap with my controller's for each emulator and nothing
I connected the ipac2 to a the laptop with a text editor and all letters from the switches and joysticks are ok.
I'm using the default text editor with my Mac book Pro. I tried to edit the retroarch through FileZilla and then overwrite and the same thing happens.

Then I decided to try an arcade image from arcade punks, it powered up but the controller's mapping were all over the place. Tried the same thing as above with no luck, so returned to retropie 4.7.1 (there was an update since retropie 4.7 so I downloaded the latest available) and completed all the process again as described above.
I also tried to configure emulation station keys with a NES controller with same results

I'm getting very frustrated as the arcade was working fine before but since the update I can't get it working. Any help or ideas anyone?
Much appreciated.

mitu

Post the retroarch.cfg section(s) of the configuration that you added for the IPAC.

Billy

@mitu these are the settings in retroarch (all folder)

 # Keyboard input, Joypad and Joyaxis will all obey the "nul" bind, which disables the bind completely,
 # rather than relying on a default.
input_player1_a = "ctrl"
input_player1_b = "alt"
input_player1_y = "z"
input_player1_x = "shift"
input_player1_start = "1"
input_player1_select = "5"
input_player1_l = "space"
input_player1_r = "x"
input_player1_left = "left"
input_player1_right = "right"
input_player1_up = "up"
input_player1_down = "down"
 # input_player1_l2 =
 # input_player1_r2 =
 # input_player1_l3 =
 # input_player1_r3 =

input_player2_a = "a"
input_player2_b = "s"
input_player2_y = "q"
input_player2_x = "w"
input_player2_start = "2"
input_player2_select = "6"
input_player2_l = "i"
input_player2_r = "k"
input_player2_left = "d"
input_player2_right = "g"
input_player2_up = "r"
input_player2_down = "f"
 # input_player2_l2 =
 # input_player2_r2 =
 # input_player2_l3 =
 # input_player2_r3 =

Billy

@billy there's a "dash" missing from the lines about, the ones with larger font

mitu

@billy You can surround the config fragment with code tags (```) so it doesn't get re-formatted by the forum. I've re-formatted it now for you.

mitu

Try un-setting the reset/ff keys, even if they're not set in the configuration, RetroArch might set the default keys for the actions. Add

input_toggle_fast_forward = "null"
input_reset = "null"

Billy

@mitu thanks, I tried that yesterday with a # before instead of null. The problem is that forward is not in my retroarch

Billy

@mitu hi again. The fast forward is disabled so that part worked.
There are still a few issues.
When i press "down" on the player 2 joystick, the starting menu where you can change the emulator appears, it's like the game re-launches. "Press a button to configure" appears
If i'm playing a game and move player 1 joystick "state slot: 1" and "state slot 2" appear on the button left of the screen.

Also, i changed the hotkey to "false" as i couldn't exit the games but stil doesn't work. I changed it to "true" and also to "1" as it was my original hotkey, but nothing happens wen i press player1+select...

Any ideas? i'm tempted to through it out the window as it's been 3 weeks of total frustration.

Thanks

mitu

@billy Looks like you don't have a hotkey enabled and some of the actions are triggered directly by the button/joystick presses. Can you post the whole retroarch.cfg on pastebin.com ?

Billy

@mitu thanks for the help.
Here is the full retroarch.cfg from the all folder
https://pastebin.com/QQGf2uaa

mitu

The hotkey is not set - near the end of the file:

input_enable_hotkey = "null"

Set it to the control you'd like and re-try, simple button presses should not trigger any hotkey actions.

Billy

@mitu i tried that, it was set to "num1" or "1" and it didn't work either, so i disabled it in case it was creating a conflict.

Also I'm still getting the "state slot:1" and "state slot: 2" when i play with player 1.

When i press down on Player 2 it keeps re-launching...

mitu

Did you - at any point during configuration - the Save Cofiguration menu from RetroArch ? This would generate a new .cfg in the system folder, overriding any values you set in the all/retroarch.cfg file.
Is this with the RetroPie image or with a 3rd party image ?

Billy

@mitu when i open the retroarch.cfg file from the all folder configs, it's open via Text editor from the mac. Once i close it it is saved automatically. When i access again there's only one retroarch file and that contains the changes made

I'm using the 4.7.1 image from retropie.org.uk
I tried one from arcade punks but the controllers where all over the place, so reflashed the SD card with the 4.7.1 version.

mitu

@billy said in Problem configuring arcade machine:

When i access again there's only one retroarch file and that contains the changes made

No, I was referring to saving the configuration from within RetroArch, while playing a game.

Let's say you started a game from the arcade folder; there's an additional \\retropie\configs\arcade\retroarch.cfg, that includes the options from all/retroarch.cfg and it's used to configure the arcade games.
If you used Save Configuration in RetroArch, after starting an arcade game, that arcade/retroarch.cfg would be written from scratch as a new file, so anything you'd be configuring in al/retroarch.cfg would not apply.

Can you check to see if the system of the game you're starting doesn't have an overly large retroarch.cfg, thus ignoring all the changes you add in all/retroarch.cfg ?

Billy

@mitu thanks for the reply.
Yes, i checked the retroarch.cfg in /arcade, also in /fba and /lr-mame and the retroarch file only contains the couple of lines and the # include at the end, but nothing on remapping.
I tried to remap them myself with the same as the /ll retroarch but didn't work either.
So i don't really know what i'm doing wrong as i checked so many tutorials and tons of forums in retropie.org

mitu

I have copied your configuration on my installation and tested a bit.

The 'Save' messages are because Left/Right are set 'next/prev state slot' in the configuration file:

input_state_slot_increase = "right"
input_state_slot_decrease = "left"

If you comment those, then the messages will not be triggered.

Your 'exit' key is defined wrong (I was wondering why I wasn't able to exit):

input_exit_emulator = "esc"

should be

input_exit_emulator = "escape"

I couldn't reproduce the other issues - reset and FF with P2 controls. They could be caused by some keyboard combo set from the IPAC - I don't get them on a keyboard.

If you want to see what are the default RetroArch's hotkeys- this page lists them.

EDIT:

Just realized that F is also 'Fullscreen toggle', so you might want to add an extra line, so the P2 down (F) doesn't act up.

input_toggle_fullscreen = "null"

Billy

@mitu that's brilliant. Thank you so much for that. I'll modify those lines and try it tomorrow!

I'll let you know how i get on.

Cheers!

Billy

@mitu I'm petty sure i changed "escape" to "esc" myself because i couldn't exit the game.

Will those work for fba too? i read that MAME roms work best with fba emulator...

I'll try tomorrow both of them

Thanks again

mitu

@billy said in Problem configuring arcade machine:

Will those work for fba too? i read that MAME roms work best with fba emulator...

They should work with lr-fbneo also (there's no more fba in RetroPie), but arcade ROMs work best with the matching ROMset emulator - see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/.