RetroPie issues - the controller!

[S1500]

So I installed RetroPie a while back. I can copy ROMs straight into the system via a Samba Share. I can configure any controller I use, and navigate the menu systems through it.

 

However, once I pick a game on any platform, the controller doesn't respond whatsoever. If I have a keyboard plugged into it, I can play the game with the keyboard. Really want to use the controller though.

 

I've reconfigured the controller buttons through the menuing system(for retropie, not the individual emulator), but still no luck. Any way around this?

[+DrVenkman]

Each emulator has it's own way of dealing with whatever controller you're using. For what it's worth, I have an X-Arcade Tankstick and it hasn't been hard to configure at all for what I play (mostly MAME, 2600, 7800 and A8 computer stuff).

 

Most of this is covered pretty well in the Wiki.

 

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki

[S1500]

I'm working on it right now. I'm seeing an error when things start up that it can't find any controller. Frustrating. It should click over my control prefs in the frontend to each emulator, but no. Hmmm..

[+DrVenkman]

I'm working on it right now. I'm seeing an error when things start up that it can't find any controller. Frustrating. It should click over my control prefs in the frontend to each emulator, but no. Hmmm..

 

 

Question 1: what version of RetroPie are you using and have you fully updated it? (Updated your Pi with 'sudo apt-get update' and then 'sudo apt-get upgrade', followed by going into the RetroPie configuration screen from the EmulationStation menus and updating the emulator cores and then the RetroPie setup script?

 

Question 2: what kind of Tankstick are you using? The older one with a DB9 serial port and PS/2 keyboard dongle, or a newer one with all USB connections?

 

Question 3: are you using the Tankstick "jstick" driver that can be installed in the RetroPie setup screen? I am NOT using that driver. I am using the Tankstick as a simple keyboard/mouse controller combo and it seems to be working just fine (though I have to jigger the analog controller sensitivity for each Trackball game to get the feel right).

[S1500]

 

 

Question 1: what version of RetroPie are you using and have you fully updated it? (Updated your Pi with 'sudo apt-get update' and then 'sudo apt-get upgrade', followed by going into the RetroPie configuration screen from the EmulationStation menus and updating the emulator cores and then the RetroPie setup script?

 

Question 2: what kind of Tankstick are you using? The older one with a DB9 serial port and PS/2 keyboard dongle, or a newer one with all USB connections?

 

Question 3: are you using the Tankstick "jstick" driver that can be installed in the RetroPie setup screen? I am NOT using that driver. I am using the Tankstick as a simple keyboard/mouse controller combo and it seems to be working just fine (though I have to jigger the analog controller sensitivity for each Trackball game to get the feel right).

 

1. Good question. I did an update last night, but I need to double check. It downloaded & installed a ton of things. Mame used to break, but works again.

 

2. I'm not using any kind of Tank stick. I first started with an off-brand USB controller that's not unlike a dualshock(2 analogs, 4 shoulder buttons, d-pad,etc). WOrked great with EmulationStation, but it wouldn't work at all in the emulators. I now switched to an Xbox 360 controller, and that works a bit better. Still having issues getting the meta-buttons like start+select to exit the emulator.

 

3. Nope, no tank stick.

 

I'm making progress on it, but now when I exit emulation station to a shell prompt, the screen goes blank. It's like it's broadcasting the wrong resolution,etc to the TV. Ugh.

 

Did get an error a while back where it said it couldn't write to the controller settings, or something.

 

2 steps forward, 1 step back.

[+DrVenkman]

Ah, sorry. I have been responding to several different threads with similar issues and conflating them in my mind. Apologies.

 

The long and the short of it is, there are no easy "one size fits all" settings for RetroPie (or any emulation suite). There are just too many different systems being emulated, with any number of controller options and configurations. In addition, for some emulators like Stella, RetroPie provides two different versions - vanilla Stella and a "libretro" version, with completely different settings and options screens. And as for MAME, there are several versions of that too, two versions of AdvMAME (0.94 and 1.06) as well as MAME4ALL, etc. You're just going to have to work through each emulator system you want and set things up. It's laborious but it's usually not too bad if you work through the Wiki posts and check the RetroPie forums for controller setup posts.

 

As for the screen going blank coming out of EmulationStation, that could be a couple things - either a process isn't exiting properly and preventing you from getting a shell prompt, or your video options aren't quite right in your config.txt file. Have you checked it to make sure you're using the optimal resolution for your monitor? The file you want is /boot/config.txt. From the default home directory, you'll have to do a cd /boot Once you're there, do sudo pico config.txt and scroll through the video options to make sure things are setup the way they need to be. Check this page for more tips: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5851

[S1500]

Eventually I broke my config file, so I started all over again with a new version. It works mostly great.

 

1. The controller actually works. It even asked me for more button configs on my Mad Catz 360 controller

 

2. Intellivision ain't working. It just kicks me back to the menu

 

3. I can't get MAME to show up. Any clue on how to get any of the 3 versions of MAME to show? I installed Mame4all, but no luck.

 

4. No more screen blank

 

5. Configuration options straight from emulationstation are a bit better. There was next to nothing before.

[+DrVenkman]

I cannot help you with the Intellivision stuff - I don't play any games for that system, sorry!

 

As for #2, the issue is usually incorrect ROMS or a missing BIOS file. Roms for MAME4all need to go into ~/RetroPie/roms/mame-mame4all Audio samples for a number of games go into the Samples folder (located inside this directory). Make sure the roms you're using are all for MAME 0.37b5. A number of games will need the NeoGeo BIOS file to run. Your neogeo.zip file needs to go into the same folder as the rest of your roms.

 

Another thing - when you add roms to your directories, you typically need to exit and relaunch EmulationStation so it can populate the top menu with any new systems you've loaded roms for, and rebuild its caches, etc. For instance, I leave my RPi2 running all the time and usually use an SSH connection from another machine on the LAN to copy over files as needed. Then I just reboot the Pi and let everything reload.

[S1500]

I cannot help you with the Intellivision stuff - I don't play any games for that system, sorry!

 

As for #2, the issue is usually incorrect ROMS or a missing BIOS file. Roms for MAME4all need to go into ~/RetroPie/roms/mame-mame4all Audio samples for a number of games go into the Samples folder (located inside this directory). Make sure the roms you're using are all for MAME 0.37b5. A number of games will need the NeoGeo BIOS file to run. Your neogeo.zip file needs to go into the same folder as the rest of your roms.

 

 

 

I shall do that. I got a bit confused when there's three MAME distributions going on here. Next step is to install the relevant BIOS files for systems, such as the Neo Geo & Atari 5200. Baby steps.

[+DrVenkman]

 

I shall do that. I got a bit confused when there's three MAME distributions going on here. Next step is to install the relevant BIOS files for systems, such as the Neo Geo & Atari 5200. Baby steps.

 

 

Can't help with NeoGeo but as for the 5200, I have a few tips. The Atari 400/800/XL/XE emulation and Atari 5200 emulation is done with a Linux build of the granddaddy of all current A8 emulators, 'Atari800.' The first time you selection Atari 800 or Atari 5200 in EmulationStation, you'll probably get a warning that you need to use real OS ROMs for the emulator. Press F1 and you'll get to the configuration screen. From there you can navigate around and point the emulator to your OS files, your rom directories, select screen, sound and controller options, etc. It's clunky but it works.