Note that I’ve likely been using RetroPie as long as you have. Take anything I say with a huge helping of salt.

Good on you, getting your tankstick problem sorted out. When you configured it on the ES splashscreen, did you configure BOTH sides, or just the left side? I’m assuming you just configured the left side because it’s a two-step process. You need to configure the right side as well. You can do so by hitting your start button and using the ES menu (not the RetroPie menu) to configure inputs.

I have no idea if it makes any difference at all, but I ended up settling on configuring the buttons in the following order, according to my notes: 9 8 5 4 1 3 0 2 6 7. That’s probably not going to be all that much help to you unless you number your buttons the same way I do, so here’s my ~/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<inputList>
  <inputAction type="onfinish">
    <command>/opt/retropie/supplementary/emulationstation/scripts/inputconfiguration.sh</command>
  </inputAction>
  <inputConfig type="joystick" deviceName="Xarcade-to-Gamepad Device">
    <input name="pagedown" type="button" id="2" value="1"/>
    <input name="start" type="button" id="9" value="1"/>
    <input name="pageup" type="button" id="0" value="1"/>
    <input name="up" type="axis" id="1" value="-1"/>
    <input name="a" type="button" id="5" value="1"/>
    <input name="b" type="button" id="4" value="1"/>
    <input name="down" type="axis" id="1" value="1"/>
    <input name="right" type="axis" id="0" value="1"/>
    <input name="select" type="button" id="8" value="1"/>
    <input name="left" type="axis" id="0" value="-1"/>
  </inputConfig>
</inputList>

If that’s not helpful, let me know and I’ll describe it better. It’s relevant because I _think_ mame4all relies on you having configured your buttons properly, though there’s even odds that I’m mistaken here.

Anyway, okay great. So you have both sides of your tankstick configured in emulationstation. And you launch a mame4all game. Everything should be configured for you now. I didn’t have to do any more configuration to get my buttons working.

You CAN do more configuration. Hit the TAB key to bring up the mame4all config. But you shouldn’t have to be remapping your buttons here, because I have the same setup and I didn’t have to. That’s not quite true. I remapped the ‘coin’ button to my tankstick’s side button. I also plan on mapping the exit-mame4all button so I don’t have to hit ESC on the keyboard, I just haven’t found that setting yet. I may be looking in the wrong place.

Please do let me know how you get on with this. And keep in mind I’m very new to this, too, looks like I’m exactly one step ahead of you though.