No luck getting any controllers to work with emulators.

This topic has 17 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by spanner.

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07/04/2013 at 16:19 #2356

olanin
Participant

No luck getting any controllers to work with emulators.

For the last week I spent about 4 hours each day trying to get retropie to work with NES with no luck.

I have had a lot of problems but the best I can get it to work is that I can use a gamepad controller to go through the menu, but when the emulator starts, the controller does not work. If I have a usb keyboard plugged in, most of the buttons work.

I was hoping someone could give me some straight forward instructions. I have been trying as many instructions as I could find on the net with no luck. Each try I have been re-imaging the SD card to ensure I didnt mess anything up (and trying different SD cards just incase). I have also tried a usb gamepad and the other emulators just to try to get anything to work with no luck.

I can’t list everything I tried, but basically when I start with a fresh image I use the gamepad to configure the first menu. I can now move to different emulators and select a rom, but nothing happens in the game. I have especially been following the instructions at http://supernintendopi.wordpress.com/ but just no luck.

07/04/2013 at 17:15 #2357

teeth03
Participant

Did you do this?

https://github.com/retropie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Is-there-another-way-to-set-up-the-gamepad-for-use,-e.g.,-withing-the-snes-emulator%3F

07/04/2013 at 17:17 #2358

teeth03
Participant

^ copy and paste the link

07/05/2013 at 02:14 #2363

olanin
Participant

I have been trying it with no luck. In that page, I dont have /RetroArch-Rpi, but I do have /RetroArch/tools so its probably the same thing. Heres exactly what I did;

cd RetroPie/emulators/RetroArch/tools

./retroarch-joyconfig -o ~/RetroPie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

Now it has me press the buttons to configure it.

I type in sudo reboot and it reboots

I can use the controller to move to emulators, and load a rom, but the controller does nothing when the rom starts. Also, if I have two controllers plugged in (I only set it up for one), when I press the second one a overlay pops up “joypad #1”, im guessing it knows its not set up for that one?

Did I get something wrong with the config procedure?

07/06/2013 at 19:52 #2381

murph74
Participant

There are 2 configs for the joysticks. One for EmulationStation (that’s the es_input.cfg that is created when you first launch RetroPie and it asks you to push up, down, left, right, etc on the white screen) to browse the emulators and the cfg for Retroarch, which is the file that the emulators themselves look to for in-game input parameters. Make sure your retroarch.cfg is properly filled out (go to the configs/all folder and type “nano retroarch.cfg”) with only the buttons you have on the controller– I had a bunch of problems with this as there were more inputs than I had actual buttons so I had to delete quite a few that were not on my controller (using Wii Classic Controller via Mayflash wireless adapter). Hope that helps!

07/07/2013 at 19:54 #2390

olanin
Participant

I think I see what you mean. The es_input.cfg is for the emulation station and when I go into, say, the NES emulator is uses the retroarch.cfg at configs/all — and does not use the retroarch.cfg under the /nes folder even though there is one?

I am still having no luck but Im not giving up yet. I seems that I just need to get the confg file set properly myself under /configs/all/retroarch.cfg I think?

Also, is there an easier way for me to run an emulator with the PI? Like installing the raspberry pi os and then just installing an emulator? My actual goal is to put one PI in an NES, another PI in an SNES, and another PI in and Sega. When I turn it on, it will go right to the emulator and thats all it will do. Im using the retrolink usb controllers. I have also tried chameleon pi with not much luck and kinda just focusing on the retroarcade as I have kinda got further with it.

07/18/2013 at 17:35 #2512

cornholio
Participant

i had similar problems maybe this could help:

instead of this:
cd RetroPie/emulators/RetroArch/tools
./retroarch-joyconfig >> ~/RetroPie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

try this:
cd RetroPie/emulators/RetroArch/tools
./retroarch-joyconfig >> ~/RetroPie/configs/all/cf1.cfg

it will create a textfile called cf1.cfg, open it and copy all the content (mark it, rightclick, copy).
now open the retroarch.cfg file in you /all folder and overwrite the similar lines that are already inside this file with your copied content from cf1.cfg.
(mark old content, rightclick, paste new content)

sounds not very elegant, but for me it works, seems like were doing something wrong, so the controllerconfig-program cant save directly in retroarch.cfg.

07/17/2014 at 19:51 #16735

veganpete
Guest

Every guide I see refert to folders that aren’t there.. eg “cd /home/pi/RetroPie/RetroArch-Rpi/tools” – this directory doesn’t exist :( All that’s in the “/home/pi/RetroPie/” folder is a “bios” folder and a “roms” folder. How do you set up the controls for emulators on the latest version please?

07/17/2014 at 19:56 #16736

trimmtrabb
Participant

Location has changed with image 2.x Try this:

sudo chown pi /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg cd /opt/retropie/emulators/RetroArch/installdir/bin sudo ./retroarch-joyconfig -j 0 >> /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

07/18/2014 at 17:25 #17011

Bpv6ja
Guest

Having the same issue as veganpete. I’ve tried several guides with no luck. I also tried what was suggested by trimmtrabb but that didn’t with either. I was told that the directory doesn’t exist. Do I need to reimage?

07/18/2014 at 20:06 #17043

trimmtrabb
Participant

Which image are you using?

07/18/2014 at 21:07 #17051

Bpv6ja
Guest

I reimaged. I have everything working except for configuring my gamepad for use in the emulator. I have Emulation Station 2.1.

Your directions work. I can open the directory. Run the gamepad/joystick configuration and complete all the steps and once finished it drops me back to the terminal. So I use:

sudo reboot

but when I reboot into Emulation Station and try to play a game, the gamepad doesnt work. I opened the LXDE GUI and navigated to the .cfg file to find all the input values to be blank. Is there something I need to do to ensure this is saving? This is my only hang up and its driving me nuts.

07/21/2014 at 09:37 #17722

Leech
Guest

Having same problem with the missing directory structure. Using RetroPie version 2.2 which only brings BIOS and roms folders under RetroPie.

I have installed the image 2 times already and no luck.

I also tried the commands provided by Trimmtrabb, but it says ‘Couldn’t open joystick #0’

Any suggestions, how to proceed with this?

07/21/2014 at 12:29 #17764

trimmtrabb
Participant

[quote=17722]Having same problem with the missing directory structure. Using RetroPie version 2.2 which only brings BIOS and roms folders under RetroPie.

I have installed the image 2 times already and no luck.

I also tried the commands provided by Trimmtrabb, but it says ‘Couldn’t open joystick #0′

Any suggestions, how to proceed with this?
[/quote]

Try -j 1 instead of -j 0

07/21/2014 at 14:44 #17795

Leech
Guest

Did something but still not working. I think I can get the same setup with retropie_setup and 322 Register RetroArch controller. This is not working for me still.

I need to understand what file is responsible of the key mapping in games (for example C64 emulator and games FIST II)? I have all other stuff working except the PS3 controller in games. The game itself sees it since I can get into some configuration mode but the key mapping is not correct.

08/02/2014 at 06:44 #23067

pseudosudo
Guest

I am having similar issues to not seeing any other folders in the RetroPie directory besides roms and BIOS.

Is it possible I just need to run terminal as root and then I will see it in the /opt directory?

08/26/2014 at 13:51 #44837

David Thornton
Guest

i was having the same issue fixed it by putting it(the joystick instructions) in the specific emulator’s config file

/opt/retropie/configs/nes/retroarch.cfg
/opt/retropie/configs/snes/retroarch.cfg

Works great thanks for the tutorial!!!!

11/13/2014 at 10:41 #82685

spanner
Participant

When you setup the controller its a bit confusing..

What is B Button (down) and Y Button(left)

??

Once I have set it up not all the buttons work,if I have analog turned off and the controller don’t work.. so if I press say right on the dpad it tries to go left and pauses the game and if i press down it goes right…???

If I turn on the analog the dpad works fine but the analog acts like the dpad did then the analog was off..???

————————————————————————–

Here is a trick on how to copy your bios over to the Bios folder in the home folder..

1) Copy the bios you want to the roms folder via smb so say…make a folder in one of the emulators i made it in the segacd folder..

2) once you have copied all the bios to that folder go to your RPI and exit Emulator Station don’t shutdown or restart,quit it so you end up in the terminal..

3) Type startx to boot Raspbian(I am so glad they didn’t remove it like other mixes) Once booted go to your biso folder in the home folder,cut and paste the bios from the bios folder in the roms folder(that’s in the segacd folder if you put them in there) to the bios folder in the home folder and that’s it done logout and type exit at terminal to boot Emulator Station and now it will find the bios it needs for the emulators..:D
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