Any hacks/ways to pause arcade/MAME/NeoGeo games?

MortalWombat

Hey all, tried searching this topic on here but didn't see anything; I already kinda suspect what the answer's gonna be but figured I'd ask anyway:

has anyone found ANY way to "pause" or freeze the action of any of the arcade/MAME/NeoGeo games?(although honestly I haven't even managed to get any NG games to work yet to test it, figure that's my next big project).

I remember that when you were playing one of these games on an emulator on a traditional full desktop/laptop computer, you could just click on the desktop/another program and the emulator/game would be moved to the background and essentially freeze. I just didn't know if anyone had found any similar option or configuration to do so while playing these kinda games on Retropie/a Pi in general (perhaps RecalBox or another emulator has that option, but I know these ain't the RecalBox forums...).

Guess this is just one of those features that a generation raised on console gaming takes for granted, just figured it was worth asking...

DreamcastKid

@mortalwombat

If i need to pause a game to answer the phone or whatever ... i just press my Hotkeys (Select+A) and that brings up the Retroarch Quick Menu which pauses the game ... and then to go back to the game, i select from the Quick Menu (by pressing A) . . Resume

mitu

If you're using a RetroArch based emulator (lr-mame2003, lr-fbneo, etc.) you can either use Hotkey + X to bring up the menu, as @DreamcastKid said, and this will pause the game or you can add a Pause hotkey is you have a spare button or want to replace one of the built-in hotkeys (https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Controller-Configuration/#hotkey). RetroPie already maps most of the buttons on the gamepad by default, but you can replace one of them if you'd like by editing the controller configuration file from \\retropie\configs\all\retroarch-joypads.

MortalWombat

@dreamcastkid thanks for the quick reply... hmm, I tried those same buttons, and it actually Reset the damn game(??).

I have a Logitech F310-- mainly cuz I saw a bunch of people on here praising it before-- and although the initial controller configuration worked for the most part, for whatever reason it didn't seem to give me the option of customizing the "Mode" button as my "Hotkey Enable." Had it doubling with my "Back" button (which I'd defined as Select... So pressing both exits the game).

As is, pressing the Start during an arcade game just brings up MAME's configuration menu (w/Input, Dip Switches, Bookkeeping Info, Game Information, Game History, Cheat etc) and a Config Menu, neither of which actually pause the game, which continues in the b.g. (in fact in trying to reconfigure my controller again, I now can't find a way to pull up this 2nd Config menu/.

So, any other combinations I might try?

For anyone familiar with the Logitech brand, does it sound like I got a faulty controller and should return it, since it's not letting me choose "Mode" as my HotKeys one?? (Pressing it just turns on a damn green light, which I'm not really sure the point is of having).

MortalWombat

@mitu & @DreamcastKid , hmm I think I found the menu you guys were referring to, not sure how you have your controllers configured (again, for better or for worse my "Select" button is doubling as my Hotkeys button, but by pressing that + Y (the Logitech F310 resembles a PlayStation controller, so the Y button is the top one), it does pull up the Quick Menu, which freezes the action... Really awesome feature, thank you both. :)

Still, I'm not sure how I can pull back up that 2nd, more extensive Config menu in MAME, and the bigger issue/question remains over why the Mode button isn't available as a programmable button... again, not sure if mine is just faulty and needs to be returned, or it's something unique to the Logitech series as a whole.

Any equivalent controllers you all might recommend?? Heh.

mitu

The mode button could be an internal gamepad switch, not producing any input for the connected system.

MortalWombat

@mitu "Internal gamepad switch?" Mitu, you are respectfully so intimidatingly knowledgeable about all these things-- case in point, I çouldn't even find 'Internal Gamepad Switch' on a Google search-- I can see how you became Moderator around here, boss. ;)

Regardless, if that's so/whatever it means-- not sure why they'd install a button that can't be configured-- it sounds like now I either need to find a good Logitech controller w/ 4 buttons to perform the functions of 3, or just switch to a different brand. Darn it, I'd started to like this one.

Been trying to limit myself to one post/question a day, and now if looks like I may be forced to ask if others have experienced this issue w/the Logitechs, or find recommendations for equivalents... well, at least the pause issue/question was resolved... :/

dankcushions

@mortalwombat said in Any hacks/ways to pause arcade/MAME/NeoGeo games?:

Still, I'm not sure how I can pull back up that 2nd, more extensive Config menu in MAME

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/lr-mame2003/#mame-menu

additionally, you can bring it up via a retroarch core option.

a playstation-type controller has enough buttons for full retropie function. you don't need an additional button/different controller.

MortalWombat

@dankcushions thank you for chiming in, I may have to seek out some other recommendations for alternate equivalent controllers though, just have no idea why I haven't been able to assign anything to this button, and if that's unique to ALL Logitech controllers, or if there's something wrong specifically w/this one and I may need to exchange it while I still can.

dankcushions

@mortalwombat i think i would be incline to agree with @mitu that it’s likely an internal button that doesn’t communicate with the OS. my point is that you don’t really need another button for retropie.

MAILEDxFIST

I'm using MAME 0.264 to pause the emulation you can press the F5 button.