Problems in first time setup with Atari 2600 controllers

[fortapocalypse]

I attempted a first time setup using:
Pi B+
RetroPie 4.1 (from retropie-4.1-rpi1_zero.img)

Unfortunately, when it was doing the controller setup, I had connected my two Legacy Engineering Classic Atari 2600-style USB joysticks (someone posted a video about them

). It recognized them as standard (SNES) controllers, and I couldn't get past setup, even with the keyboard attached. After pressing just about every key, I was able to escape by using the F4 key (iirc), and then entered the command "sudo reboot" to ensure a safe shutdown, because I learned my lesson before and corrupted the image on the memory card by powering off at an inappropriate time. After this, I setup the keyboard. I had a little trouble because there was a key it wouldn't recognize, and I kept forgetting which keys I mapped and couldn't undo, but that wasn't a big problem.

Back to the Atari 2600 controllers- in addition to that joystick specific, there are similar 2600 style joysticks on Amazon, and there is the 2600-daptor and the old Stelladaptor which let you attach to a 2600 joystick/Sears Telegames joystick/Atari Flashback 2(+ and later?) joystick/paddles/racing controller/etc. and similar adapters available elsewhere.

Maybe if a controller is unrecognized, you could have the user be able to map what they can and use the keyboard if needed. I'd think I could use a 2600-style joystick to navigate though.

In addition, I have another controller (with all of the buttons needed for mapping) that I plan to use, and it would be cool to be able to have the Legacy Engineering 2600 controllers and that controller attached and configured, with the ability to boot into the nice controller, but then if I chose the Atari 2600 emulator, it would use the Atari 2600 joysticks, via configuration in RetroPie? Would that have to be done at command-line in config?

As a final note: the Atari 2600 has both paddle and racing controllers (and others, but those would be good to start). I wouldn't expect these to work with the menu necessarily, but the should be able to be setup, and since they are analog, they wouldn't map simply to directions. Seeing a USB adapter as something that could be a joystick or could be paddles might be important, though- I'm not sure. Someone on AtariAge could probably help with testing that, if needed.

But, I was very impressed with the look and intuitiveness of the setup and the menu nonetheless. It looks excellent! Thank you to all that made this!

[fortapocalypse]

And there are the 2600-daptor and 2600-daptor 2. There's a thread with a link to modded RetroPie for a project to support it here, so possibly that work could be integrated into the main RetroPie for the RPi A/B/B+.