Good Tutorial On Button Mapping?

[Muzikarcade]

Hi everyone!
I recently rebuilt my Lunchbox collection after about three years of being away from it. I have a RecRooms Game cabinet with an emulation plus controller deck on it. The deck has a 2-player, 6-button layout, a trackball, a separate 4-way stick, and duel button controls for arcade games like Pac-Man.

Below is a link to the actual deck so you can take a look:
https://recroommasters.com/product/2-player-plus-arcade-controller/

I’m looking for some assistance with mapping the buttons to the emulators within Lunchbox (tetrarch), as well as those consoles that run on separate emulators, Dolphin, Xbox etc. I want to avoid using separate external controllers where possible and use the built-in buttons for the arcade games category. However, since the deck has only 6 buttons, I’m concerned that it may be limited to games above the Sega Genesis. Some more recent consoles and PC games require more button and bumper functionality.

I would greatly appreciate any help you can provide.
Thanks
MA

Edited Monday at 01:42 PM by Muzikarcade

[Gygoracdes]

Nice gadget ...  but over $500, almost $600!

I'd rather stick with my simple PS2 controller.

[JoeViking245]

31 minutes ago, Gygoracdes said:

Nice gadget ...  but over $500, almost $600!

I'd rather stick with my simple PS2 controller.

Not very helpful. But point taken.  

Granted, it does take away from the joy of having a cab, certain emulated systems just "need" to be played with a controller.

[Gygoracdes]

3 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Not very helpful. But point taken.  

Granted, it does take away from the joy of having a cab, certain emulated systems just "need" to be played with a controller.

Nobody here on the forum has this thing... I'm guessing ?

What exactly needs to be added to this post to make it helpful, since nobody has it?

Lol 

 

[JoeViking245]

3 hours ago, Gygoracdes said:

Nobody here on the forum has this thing... I'm guessing ?

What the actual control panel is, is only necessary to know if can be set to keyboard, x-input and/or d-input mode.  Well, the number of players and buttons helps too.  Beyond that, the panel name, brand or cost is insignificant.

 

3 hours ago, Gygoracdes said:

What exactly needs to be added to this post to make it helpful

If someone were to have a cab that has 2 players, each having a joy and 6-buttons, and have successfully set it up to use with RetroArch (various platforms), Dolphin, Xemu and the sort, sharing which mode they used, and the mappings made is what would make it helpful.

[stigzler]

On 12/16/2025 at 6:32 PM, JoeViking245 said:

Not very helpful. But point taken.  

Granted, it does take away from the joy of having a cab, certain emulated systems just "need" to be played with a controller.

I'm thinking @Gygoracdes fell a cropper of the launcbox forum invisible ink trick. There's something in the theming/css setup that renders text badly in dark mode (it doesn't turn some text white, but can't remember which it struggles with - certainly if you insert a code block). 

Here's how this post appeared to me originally:

And after the 'invisible ink reveal trick':

As for the OP - hard to know where to start without knowing more about this unit - does it output keys like Ultimarc IPacs etc? You need to prove more info - what you are trying to achieve (avoid being too generic) and what actually happens would be a good start. 

[JoeViking245]

On 12/15/2025 at 6:40 AM, Muzikarcade said:

I’m looking for some assistance with mapping the buttons to the emulators within Lunchbox (tetrarch), as well as those consoles that run on separate emulators, Dolphin, Xbox etc.

Your panel can do keyboard, x-input and d-input mode.  The encoder I have only has keyboard mode.  I presume you'd use KB mode for MAME (but it can use x-input mode).  It would be easiest to stick with just 1 mode for all emulators.  Keyboard seem fairly universal.

That said, your panel most likely has a command line that can be sent (e.g. when starting a specific emulator) that can change modes on-the-fly.  Or probably even a button-combo to change it.

Still thinking keyboard mode, your panel is most likely setup (universally) as:

• Player 1 - button 1 = Ctrl
• P1-B2 = Alt
• P1-B3 = Space
• P1-B4 = Left Shift
• P1-B5 = Z
• P1-B6 = X

• P2-B1 = A
• P2-B2 = S
• P2-B3 = Q
• P2-B4 = W
• P2-B5 = I
• P2-B6 = K
• Up/Down/Left/Right = R/F/D/G

 

For RetroArch, I believe most consoles it emulates should automatically get setup.  (Again, thinking keyboard mode)

For others that typically use a controller, it can be done on a panel.  But it's a little less intuitive.  And you need to plan out what works for you.

Using Dolphin (Wii) as an example, for Mario Kart Wii, I set mine up like:

• Button 1 (on the cab) = A (on the Wiimote)
• Button 2 = B
• Button 3 = Z
• Button 4 = Tilt Up (gotta wheelie them bikes )
• Button 5 = C

But I set that up a long time ago and have since got an Xbox 360 wireless controller.  It seems to be the most universal for most all systems.  You don't have to set it per game (but you can). However ["a long time ago"] that's what I did. But for just a couple of games.

 

The long and short of it is, you need to do it per emulator (RA aside).  And assign them in a layout that's comfortable to you.