Help setting up controls ZX Spectrum

[Robs]

Hello this is my first post here.
I have RetroPie setup and working on Pi5 with an 8Bitdo Ultimate 2.4G Wireless Controller and Arteck 2.4G Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo and it's working well for many consols but need some help setting up controls for ZX Spectrum games.
I have been reading https://retropie.org.uk/docs/ZX-Spectrum/ but not making much sense to me.

1. I want to be able to define some additional keys on the gamepad in addition to the kempston joystick function eg Atic Atac i want kempston plus a button to press "z" to pick up an object. I want this for only this ROM

2. Some games I want to use the keyboard. However some keys seem to fast forward the game or pause regardless of game. Where can I check those functions? Again I would like to define a normal keyboard for eg the hobbit

Appreciate any help or good guides you can refer me to.
Thanks
Rob

[mitu]

@Robs said in Help setting up controls ZX Spectrum:

I want to be able to define some additional keys on the gamepad in addition to the kempston joystick function eg Atic Atac i want kempston plus a button to press "z" to pick up an object. I want this for only this ROM

I don't think that would work without involving an external utility like xboxdrv to remap a button combo to emit a key. Something like https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Universal-Controller-Calibration-%26-Mapping-Using-xboxdrv/.

Some games I want to use the keyboard. However some keys seem to fast forward the game or pause regardless of game. Where can I check those functions? Again I would like to define a normal keyboard for eg the hobbit

Just press the Scroll Lock key to toggle RetroArch into Game Focus mode where the keyboard is exclusively used by the emulated system, any RetroArch key bindings are ignored (incl. hotkey combos). Press Scroll Lock again to be able to regain control over RetroArch and exit. See here for a brief mention on Game Focus in RetroArch guides.