Is there an ideal input mapping for arcade cabinet?

[Button Masher]

I would like to have a stream lined input mapping for my arcade cabinet that would allow me to navigate Bigbox, control games, quit back to front end and not have any cross emulator conflicts.

Is there any references, tutorials or recommended mappings for an arcade cabinet to play nice across emulators without the need for a keyboard?

My arcade sticks and buttons are mapped to the keyboard and am having issues with conflicts across different emulators. ie buttons work in mame but conflict in retroarch

 causing quits, pauses or reloads etc.

[JoeViking245]

2 hours ago, Button Masher said:

I would like to have a stream lined input mapping for my arcade cabinet that would allow me to navigate Bigbox, control games, quit back to front end and not have any cross emulator conflicts.

Is there any references, tutorials or recommended mappings for an arcade cabinet to play nice across emulators without the need for a keyboard?

My arcade sticks and buttons are mapped to the keyboard and am having issues with conflicts across different emulators. ie buttons work in mame but conflict in retroarch

 causing quits, pauses or reloads etc.

The keyboard mappings in BigBox are separate from the mappings in MAME are separate from the mappings in RetroArch are separate from the mappings [insert any other emulator here].  Note, the mappings are also separate between LaunchBox and BigBox.

That is, your cab, using keyboard input(s) will work in BigBox and most any emulator.  However, you need to set the bindings up separately for each emulator.  Fortunately, though RetroArch can emulate many systems, it's considered one "emulator" (but not technically an "Emulator" in itself [by name]). So that will save some time. 

[Button Masher]

@JoeViking245 Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. Do you have an arcade cabinet? If you do, how to you have your buttons mapped? 

I'm looking for advice on the best way to map the inputs that will minimize conflicts and give the best overall user experience.

[JoeViking245]

11 hours ago, Button Masher said:

@JoeViking245 Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. Do you have an arcade cabinet? If you do, how to you have your buttons mapped? 

I'm looking for advice on the best way to map the inputs that will minimize conflicts and give the best overall user experience.

I do have a cab, but set the controls up for the emulators I use several years ago.  For any newer emulators installed since then would be for 'newer' systems/consoles which work best with a controller. I use an Xbox 360 wireless controller for those.

You really shouldn't be having any input conflicts.  After a game is launched, LaunchBox/BigBox "takes a backseat" with its mapped inputs (keyboard and/or controller) except for, of course Pause and Exit [the game].  There are some 'specialty' inputs you may have mapped that will still be available as well, such as screen capture.  Aside from those, after launch, it's up to the emulator and how you have them mapped in there.

Typically, with the default mappings for a keyboard encoder in a cab, you shouldn't need to change anything in MAME [from its default mappings].  Which I think you already found is the case.   And actually, don't ever change the mappings for the encoder.  Change them in the application-specific mappings.

Generally, RetroArch's default mappings will give you a real good start.  But for some systems you may want to change things around.  Myself, I didn't have a lot of time on the NES system growing up. So playing that on my cab, to me, the A and B buttons seem backwards. So I changed those for that system.

 

18 hours ago, Button Masher said:

causing quits, pauses or reloads etc.

Regarding these RA (RetroArch) issues, it sounds like you've done some remapping in RA.  None of those 3 should be mapped to any of the [regular] player buttons/joys.  (or player button-combos).  

You need to break it down and figure out which button presses exactly (in RA) are causing those.  i.e. if Player-2 presses their Button-4, the game pauses.  Then find out if it's like that for all Systems you play in RA (i.e. it does in NES and SNES).  Or if it's just in one of the Systems it does that.

In this example, you then look in RA's default settings for what's assigned to "Pause".  If it set to "w" (aka P2 Button4), then you know the issue.

To find out what 'letters' are assigned to which buttons on your cab, open Notepad and start pressing the buttons. i.e. Press Player-2, Button-4 and a "w" should appear.

 

As for how to map the buttons in RA (general or System or game specific), there are many threads already covering that, I'm sure.  But you need to have a basis for what's-doing-what wrong before you can fix it.  Then once you've at least attempted to research how to setup or change this-that-or-the-other-thing, then ask.  Be sure to specific give details.