Retroarch - keymapping arcade buttons?

[Gangor]

I'm having difficulty finding information on how to properly bind input controls to my arcade cabinet buttons which are assigned to keyboard keys. I understand I can access the retroarch menu from a game for a specific core to just remap a single core. My 4 player cabinet has players 1 & 2 having 6 buttons and players 3 & 4 having 4 buttons.  I'm not understanding how to map the retropad buttons to the keyboard keys that are assigned to each arcade button. Can anyone help me understand how to configure this please?

[Headrush69]

Have you mapped your keystrokes to the virtual Retropad? (I think it's in Retroarch -> Main menu (Not Quick Menu) -> Input -> Port 1 Controls -> Set All Controls)

You can do the same for player 2, player 3, player 4. Once set, make sure to save the current configuration. (Retroarch -> Main Menu -> Configuration File -> Save Configuration)

Then per core or per game you can use the Quick menu to remap the virtual retropad controls to how you want them laid out.

 

 

[neil9000]

MAME in Retroarch is a knightmare control wise, you have Retroarch and MAME fighting over control. I'd advise to just use actual MAME.

[Headrush69]

31 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

MAME in Retroarch is a knightmare control wise, you have Retroarch and MAME fighting over control. I'd advise to just use actual MAME.

Don't disagree, but thought he/she was asking about arcade buttons, not necessarily only arcade core. (He/she did mention cores)

For supported games, the FBNeo core also bypasses the MAME input system and uses Retroarch's handling which is much simpler for users that prefer that. (Having appropriate dip switch options in the Retroarch Quick menu might also be easier for some.)

I stick to MAME standalone for most arcade games, as the stable input IDs makes things much easier than dealing with a  virtual Retropad. I will admit that I recently changed to using Retroarch MAME core for some systems like Apple II which look amazing with the Duimon Shader and Bezel package. For Arcade titles I prefer the largest playing area possible though.

[Gangor]

Yes, I have the retropad mapped but it just doesn't seem to be providing the experience I was expecting and some controls do not work or do not seem to be where I place them, especially with games requiring 6 buttons. I was thinking after I posted last night to neil9000's comment that maybe I need to just use MAME for the arcade games and I can use retroarch for the other consoles. It's been a number of months since I've worked with the emulators as I wanted to finish the actual cabinet build but I seem to recall Retroarch had a higher rate of games working vs the MAME emulator, but I could be wrong.

[Headrush69]

6 hours ago, Gangor said:

I seem to recall Retroarch had a higher rate of games working vs the MAME emulator, but I could be wrong.

Do you mean other than arcade platforms using MAME vs dedicated Retroarch cores for those platforms? (Ex. Using MAME for NES, vs Mesen core in Retroarch)

[Gangor]

No, I was referring to MAME for Arcade only. I took @neil9000's suggestion and switched the Arcade games to MAME default and the little testing I've done so far has worked great. I was able to verify 4 player Trog worked and that was the first time I've been able to get players 3 and 4 working. I need to test 6 button games for 1 and 2 yet, but I feel it will likely work or only require a little adjustment.

I also saw the error "one or more roms/chds for this machine are incorrect. the machine may not run correctly." and I'm wondering if that is what I was recalling as the MAME issue. I found the solution for it here.