multiple gamepad support

[hansolo]

I have set up retro pi using an ipac gamepad for classic arcade games. Everything is working great. What I am wonder in is it it possible to have multiple game pads supported simultaneously. i have been tinkering with getting the xbox 360 controller to work along with the ipac. Ideally the Ipac would be used for most everything, but some games just work better with the 360, in those cases i would just like to grab the 360 controller and start playing in liu of the ipac.

any assistance is most welcome.

thanks

[mediamogul]

My IPAC is hooked up to to a dedicated arcade cabinet that is not running RetroPie, but it is my understanding that an IPAC just adds itself as either a keyboard or controller based on whatever firmware it's running. In either case, you should be able to simply plugin and map a second controller without any issue other than assigning it to be player one in RetroArch. The controls that are manually configured outside of RetroArch will keep you busy if you plan to switch back & forth, but everything inside of RA should be pretty cut & dry.

[hansolo]

Thanks greatly for the response. you are correct the ipac is recognized as the keyboard, and i have gotten the xbox controller to be recognized as well. my issue is being able to assign both as player one simultaneously, so i dont have to do any fancy switch of controllers.

thanks again for the input.

cheers.

[mediamogul]

Assuming you are using one of the RetroArch MAME cores, I believe there is at least two different ways to handle this. First, set try setting your controller for player one in Emulation Station and then go into the RetroPie settings menu and look for the option to setup keyboard controls for RetroArch. I had a particular problem where these two sets of controls were conflicting with each other and I had rearrange them in this same manner.

The second option is to bring up the options menu within MAME itself using the "tab" key. Navigate to the global "player one" controls and press the "enter" key. It will then await input from either a controller or a keyboard (In your case, an IPAC). What you'll want to do is map each control option twice. Once for your IPAC and once for your gamepad. Out of these two options, only the first will adhere to the other emulators found in RetroArch. The second option will only affect MAME.

[shaunster]

@hansolo Just wondering if you found a solution to your problem? Basically I want to have multiple controllers plugged in as player 1 so if I don't like the controller I'm using I can just grab another one as I'm playing a game. Thanks.