Boomer friendly way to exit games using a n64 controller?

[draksus]

Pi 4B
PSU official pi psu
RP version 4.8
Premade sd from retropi website w/ the pi flasher
Errors: none, I need to know "how" to do something but I can get my device registered properly no issue. I installed everything, loaded up the roms, and favorited some games, everything worked well.

Controllers used -> this is what I need help with

I have one of those n64 8bitdo wireless controllers. I am technically savvy so I can use a xbox controller and can play n64 games with it. My dad wants to use the n64 style controller.

What I want to do: There is no way to turn the system off after being done playing a n64 game. I need something simple that I can explain what to do to close the game.

Ideally I would tell him to press L + c down (these buttons are unlikely to be pressed during normal gameplay) to open the menu to turn off the system OR the retroarch menu, then L + c down (or some other combo) to get to the shut down menu.

Alternatively is there something like a remote that I can just setup to make a clean turn on / shutdown?

I am trying to make this as boomer friendly as possible and am willing to buy additional hardware to make this as easy as possible. This is a gift for my dad, we used to play games together when I was growing up.

Our television is CEC compatible. It would be nice to have something like a "remote" to turn it on or off. I am not sure if the pi will get damaged for being on all the time. Any advise is greatly appreciated!

Edit, I am also willing to get a minipc if this is a hardware issue w/ the pi not really having on/off support. It just needs to be able to use the n64 controller only and have some mechanism to exit the game.

[mitu]

The obvious downside of a N64 controller is the lack of a Select button, which is usually set by RetroPie as a Hotkey enable input in order to enable certain RetroArch actions. However, RetroArch accepts a series of input combos for toggling the menu or quiting the emulator, which can be set in Settings -> Input -> Hotkeys -> Menu toggle/Quit. You can't customize them, but you can choose from the existing ones.

As for shutting down the system, the Start buttons is enough to open the EmulationStation menu and choose Shutdown from there.

If you want to go the route of a dedicated button for shutdown/reset, you can add a button to the RPI's GPIOs and program it to reset the current game (i.e. stop RetroArch) and/or shutdown the system on longer presses. A good starting script to integrate with a GPIO input button is https://github.com/crcerror/ES-generic-shutdown/.

[draksus]

@mitu

That worked pretty well.

Funny enough the n64 blutooth thing by 8bitdo turns off if you press start for 5 seconds, so I had to explain "medium long press" mechanics as none of those other combos are possibles w/ the n64 controller.

I cannot figure out how to have the start button to have ES menu to choose shutdown while still having it available in game.

ALL n64 games are pause toggle, there is no need to mash the pause button for any reason. (other than meme-speedrun pause buffering strats we have zero interest in)

Is there a way to have the pause button function in game AND be the hotkey? Its ok if a shortpress brings up ES menu, a medium press brings up RA menu.

Or am I misunderstanding the second part.

I appreciate your response

[mitu]

@draksus said in Boomer friendly way to exit games using a n64 controller?:

Is there a way to have the pause button function in game AND be the hotkey?

Probably yes.

Its ok if a shortpress brings up ES menu, a medium press brings up RA menu.

That's not how it works. Once a game is started, ES is no longer active and you can't open its menu(s) anymore, you'll have to exit the emulator before ES becomes active again.

If you're only interested in N64 (or maybe just in a couple of systems), you can run RetroArch directly - without EmulationStation acting as a front-end. See Lakka for a similar gaming distro that has just RetroArch running.