RetroArch Controller Remap Setup Tips & Tricks

[@TheColdest247]

After watching your video, I got up the confidence to map controls for nes and snes! Please keep making videos like this, and keep up the good work..

[@otggaming3180]

That's awesome, thanks for sharing and for the vote of confidence. Really appreciate it!

[@freakrule21]

Wow. Thank you for the help with mapping buttons! Just what was needed!

[@carlosrengifo4993]

Great video, thanks for sharing!

[@otggaming3180]

No problem. Glad you found it helpful and thanks for the comment :)

[@zigzag1100]

new to this your videos help me a lot ,thx

[@Seanybiker]

Good man. No idea how to get to quick menu but at least I know how to change the layout. Thanks.

[@otggaming3180]

My pleasure and thanks for leaving a comment! Yeah, the quick menu is one of those things that's confusing when learning RetroArch. It's what you see when your in-game and you open the RetroArch menu. It basically contains all the major options that pertain to the currently running game like Resume, Close, Core Options, Shaders, Cheats, Overlays, etc.

[@Seanybiker]

@@otggaming3180 I got the quick menu sorted cheers. I changed around button layout in a game but it's after changing the button layout for all of RetroArch now which isn't anything major just a bit annoying until I get used to it. I joined retroachievments so it's really cool now being able to get achievements on games I played as a teenager. It's a fecking amazing setup. 👍👍👍👍

[@otggaming3180]

​Retroachievements are awesome! Some of them are extremely difficult, but it really ups the replay value on many classics. Glad you got things sorted and are enjoying your setup - happy gaming :)

[@brianr9529]

Brilliant video

[@otggaming3180]

Thank you very much! This video was fun to make. Lots of ways to tinker with the controls.

[@brianr9529]

@@otggaming3180 no problem, love the content.

[@Truesk8er1]

Appreciate this, kept setting the buttons but didnt know i had to clear the core remap setting and save it there. Now my A and B buttons are reversed every time i load my games. Thanks!

[@otggaming3180]

Glad to help :) Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment as well 👍

[@ruschm]

Thank you so much for helping with mapping the controller, that was driving me nuts!

[@otggaming3180]

Glad it helped you out and thanks for leaving a comment! Happy gaming :)

[@GTA_500]

I really like the map each game individually for Sega Genesis. I don't even mess with n64 games because of how crazy the button situation is.

[@MrJFuchu]

Great video.. Made me understand better on how retroarch works when I comes to mapping buttons.. I have an Odin Pro with a Super Dock and purchased 2 8bitdo pro 2 wired USB controllers. Is there a way to configure retroarch so I can play multi-player retro games using 2 controllers. It seems to go crazy when I try to setup the 2nd controller on port 2.

[@thesanerone]

Awesome video thanks! Always struggled with the stock configurations in retroarch.

[@otggaming3180]

You bet! Yeah it takes a bit to get them down, but once you understand the concepts there's a ton you can do. Thanks for the comment 👍

[@CornyPuddle]

Your getting a like. A sub. And a thank you 🤝

[@otggaming3180]

And in return a big THANKS to you for the support :)

[@scorpio6819]

Another great video , thx 😊

[@otggaming3180]

Glad to hear that. Thank you very much :)

[@pulsarstar]

Thank you so much for this great video! I messed my retroarch settings up. How do I go back to default? I read: delete ''.config.'' file. But can not locate it on Batocera. Any ideas?

[@nusratshaheen4913]

Great video , but how do you reset the buttons once you have messed up everything and cannot no longer select anything as no buttom configured.

[@priestesslucy3299]

I have a question I really hope you can answer. How do you use a remap file to map two buttons to the same overlay button? I'm trying to map the run button to left and right for Mario and every time I try, retroarc just assigns it to one or the other.

[@otggaming3180]

I'm not sure this can be achieved within RetroArch. Maybe through a third party keymapper like Joy2Key? You might try asking over at the RetroArch subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/

[@priestesslucy3299]

@@otggaming3180 joy2key works on android overlay? Anyways, I posted over there, Thankyuu for the recommendation 😘

[@otggaming3180]

@@priestesslucy3299 Apologies, I totally missed the overlay part. Unfortunately, I use the Android version of RetroArch very little, so I would really be of little help there. I do think you'll find some good answers over at the subreddit though 😊

[@TM-eg9iu]

Thanks for the info! Question - when you change the Mame default, are you also changing the keys on the Ipac too to match?

[@philipmcgowan8330]

Have you got a guide to map diagonal controls for Qbert?

[@otggaming3180]

I don't have one personally, but this thread might help you figure it out: www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/comments/zliqt7/qbert_diagonals/

[@BigPairOdice]

Is there a way to remap the 4 buttons (B, A, Y, X) to the right analog stick on the SF30 Pro or PS4 controllers? I would like to transfer the fire control from the buttons to the right analog stick to make the controls in Robotron match the dual stick arcade controls. Thank you!

[@otggaming3180]

To achieve what your after, I believe what you would want to do is (with Robotron running in RetroArch): 1) Enter the RetroArch Quick Menu and navigate to Controls>Port 1 Controls 2) Scroll to the bottom and and assign: X to Right Analog Y - B to Right Analog Y + Y to Right Analog X - A to Right Analog X + 3) Back out to the Controls menu and then go into Manage Remap Files and then save a Game Remap file. This will cause the control configuration to load every time you load Robotron.

[@relzisawesome]

Hello, I'm having difficulties changing the "Jump" option when playing Mario. Mario can only jump using the L2. Also, when playing Contra, you can only jump using L2 and fire using Select button. Is there a way to change this? Thank you

[@pecollard]

Hello. I have been trying to map an Atari joystick for atari games but I can’t get the fire button to work. It either acts as start or select. I am just not getting it. Any help would be very much appreciated. I have the joystick connected using a retronic design adapter Directionals working great. Thanks

[@otggaming3180]

Some controllers just don't play well with RetroArch unfortunately. When I can't get a particular one to work, I use an app called joy2key which allows assigning of keyboard keys to a joystick or keyboard. Then I configure RetroArch to use those same keyboard keys. You'll be able to use your controller and joy2key will translate the controller inputs to the keyboard inputs.

[@angryretrogamer7313]

Thank you very much for this video. So much appreciated. I watch all videos like this that i can find because i still cant get my 6button sega genesis controller to work properly in retroarch. I have super console x. Every video about configuring this type of controller all use a slightly different model than i have and the one button that controller has that mine doesn't is the button needed to get it working properly. This button is the left bumper. My retro bit sg controller only has one bumper the "mode" button. This controller will work great except the start button won't start a game and i cannot bring up the retroarch menu. Maybe you could do a video on this particular controller? Either way i really enjoy your videos and will be watching for more. Thanks

[@otggaming3180]

My pleasure! Thanks for the comment :) I don't have any experience with the controller you mentioned, but I do know that if you're using the PicoDrive emulator for Sega Genesis that there is a Core Option that allows you to specify whether you want to emulate the 3 button or 6 button Genesis controller. I don't know if that is at all helpful to your situation, but wanted to share since it's the only thing that came to mind.

[@anbash]

Hello how can I scroll through my save states using the menu button and d pad? I use to be able to but now I have to manually open the menu and select the save slot instead of just pushing up or down on the d pad and quick loading....

[@nichttuntun3364]

That´s awesome. Thank you. I still can´t config all controls on the Qanta Q4 controller. Every buttom and left and right of the joystick is working, but joystick up and down is just not configurable. Do you have a hint for me?

[@otggaming3180]

There are some workarounds to getting controllers to work in RetroArch. One is to use an app called joy2key. It allows you to assign keyboard keys to your joystick or controller. You then configure RetroArch to use those same keyboard keys. It's not the most elegant solution, but when you can't get a controller to work in RetroArch it can get the job done.

[@nichttuntun3364]

@@otggaming3180 Thank you very much for your help. Meanwhile I managed to get the QanBa to work. I realized that, having a new computer since some months, I never installed drivers for the fightstick. There are no specific drivers for it. But I now installed the latest X-Box controller driver and since than I could define the joystick movements. I read that in a thread, tried and it worked out. 😊 I had it on Playstation/PC settings and now I'm using the X-Box switch setting on the hardware. Stuttery motions in games can be fixed with pressing the Turbo buttons until everything runs smoothly. It is great fun now.

[@otggaming3180]

@@nichttuntun3364 Right on, I'm glad you got it working! That's interesting about the Xbox controller driver and good to know for future reference. Thanks for sharing it!

[@nichttuntun3364]

@@otggaming3180 You´re welcome. :)

[@ronhjr1969]

Great Video..can you do a video on setting a spinner as the mouse controller on my arcade deck, when i already have a trackball as well? I just cant get retro arch to save the settings on a game that uses a spinner like arkanoid.

[@Melvorgazh]

Hi, do you have a video on remapping keyboards on an Android version? I am having issues with remapping it. It only proposed corresponding buttons to a PS3 SixAxSix controller 😐 Cheers

[@otggaming3180]

Greetings! I don't have much experience with the Android version, so won't be much help. Maybe check out the RetroArch subreddit, as there are a ton of helpful folks there: www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/

[@japexican007]

hello i'm trying to play sonic adventure 2 on the rg35xx but when mapping controls i cannot get the game to register the left and right movement, originally this uses analog sticks but the rg35xx only has a dpad, do you have a tutorial for this?

[@otggaming3180]

I haven't tried Dreamcast on the RG35XX yet, but that sounds cool! I'm not sure what the fix would be, but you might check in over at the RG35XX subreddit, there's a lot of helpful folks and content over there: www.reddit.com/r/RG35XX/

[@agentgroovington9700]

Just found your vid. Last night a friend was playing Missile command. He kept going into the Retroarch menu. Is there a way to hide or change the button to something thats not used often. Spent months trying to figure this out.

[@otggaming3180]

Try going to Settings>Input>Hotkeys in the RetroArch menu and changing the "Menu Toggle" key to something different. I think that should help you achieve what you're after :)

[@agentgroovington9700]

@@otggaming3180 thanks for confirming the process. Looks like Retroarch is not saving changes. Looks like the next step is to delete the Retroarch.cfg file. Hopefully this will fix the issue.

[@otggaming3180]

@@agentgroovington9700 No problem 👍If that doesn't work, you could also try adding the change manually to the retroarch.cfg. I touch on how to do that briefly in another one of my videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYvEdmevj8ppd6M

[@phatbass37]

My A button on rog ally keeps pausing my game. Any solution?

[@rafael16759]

can you change the type of controller you want? its always the xbox layout i want a 6 button sega one

[@joemercado7391]

How do you fix the delay on the controller when you press jump he doesn't jump quick there's a one second delay

[@otggaming3180]

Input lag is a pretty extensive subject and there's many ways that it can be addressed in RetroArch. This page gives an overview of all the things that can be checked within RetroArch to reduce input lag: www.retroarch.com/?page=latency

[@Dronetothetop]

How do you assign a specific shader option for each game? For example, when you load up a game, the shader you set for that game automatically loads too. Any ideas?

[@erviedelosreyes223]

HI have you solveed the issue of r2 and l2 not working?

[@johnscott5226]

will this work with retroarch on a modded console that the frontend is compatible with?

[@Kig_Ama]

how can i execute special moves in street fighter 2 by just only pressing one button in retroarch?

[@coreyalexander9059]

Hello. I'm running into an issue with multi-player games like NBA Jam, where only 1 control configuration is working (in my case, Port 3 controls work, but 1, 2, and 4 do not. Is there a way to configure the controls for Port 1 and/or Port 2, which would allow for head-to-head gameplay vs. the player controlling Port 3? In my input settings menu, Ports 1, 2, and 4 have the controls set to "Auto", and they match the Port 3 configuration, but only Port 3 works. Playing a 1-Player game vs. the computer is nice, but playing head-to-head against someone else would be ideal. Thanks in advance...

[@adumongtophet]

Hi, I'm using retroarch on android with PS4 controller. The problem is when I press SHARE button while I am playing PS1 games, it shows menu instead of SELECT function. How can I fix this problem? Thank you very much.

[@dirkdex]

Damn, I screwed up one of my handheld games when I changed the video driver to GDI and saved it to override for that game. Even removing the game and re-installing didn't help. Now every time I press F1, the menu is garbled and I can't set it back to vulkan, or any other driver that allows me to see the retroarch menu regularly. Thanks if anyone can PLEASE help :)

[@otggaming3180]

If you saved the setting as an override, you could just delete the override config file. Game override files are stored in the main RetroArch directory under the subdirectory "config/{Core Name}. The files will be named either {Game Name}.cfg or {Core Name}.cfg or {ROM Directory}.cfg After you delete the correct override config file, it should just load your main RetroArch config file as normal.

[@wardogkilla]

Anyone knows how to map the snes the jump button is annoying when u press it it keeps jumping automatically???

[@TheManCaveYTChannel]

What if you don’t have the “mapped port” option?

[@otggaming3180]

Not sure about that one. Maybe check to see if you're on a newer build of RetroArch? The latest version is 1.15.0

[@leokeo6871]

I tried setting up three retrobit sega genesis controllers on retroarch on andriod and they all seem to control the other players attacks or movements. For example if i play moonwalker on mame, p1 can move in any direction but p2 controls p1s attacks. Now when theres three players its a guessing game

[@otggaming3180]

Oh man that must make things really interesting. I'm just not as well-versed for RetroArch on Android, so I'm not sure where to start troubleshooting other than just making sure that each controller is set to the appropriate player port in the Quick Menu>Controls area.

[@michaeldonaghy4703]

I accidentally set Time Crisis as remap file across the swanstation core. Its ruined mapping on all games. Any idea how to load remap files, it used to have individual remap for each game load automatically, now my choices are time crisis and thats it

[@-Jamie]

Please can you help i have the latest version of retro bat every time i try to change controller setting it goes back to normal because there is no remap core option I can't save it it's like I'm missing the option

[@overkast6841]

Can someone help? I am using old school controllers and figuring out how to get the configs right to match original has been a real issue. Then when I finally get one right, I make sure I save it as a core remap. I come back the next day and it's wrong again, even if the buttons say the same as when I left it, they aren't working and I have to start all over. Can someone help before I give up on hours of work?

[@agentgroovington9700]

Try using the 2player roms. For example the tmnt rom is the 4 player cab. Using the tmnt2p rom lets you select any character.

[@otggaming3180]

Also a good suggestion. Thanks for sharing!

[@perfumeshroom]

what for me theres no "port 1 controls" below turbo fire theres just hotkeys, not port 1 controls

[@Diegus-]

6:08 that's pretty weird to me. I believe it's better to play one life each. The few times I play multiplayer are always online and via parsec which is better imo. I don't have friends either 😆

[@otggaming3180]

I use Parsec too on occasion. Excellent program!

[@gtdodgeviper]

I dont have a controller settings on main menu

[@PCGAMINGISDOGSHIT]

On my Retroarch there's no map porting

[@otggaming3180]

What version of RetroArch are you on?

[@scorpio6819]

Have a question 🤔 I have 4 player controller panel with zero delay usb , the problem is the controller order keeps changing , I want to have p1 2,3,4 always be on the same port , is that possible thx in advance

[@otggaming3180]

I know this is an issue with RetroArch that I've heard others mention, but I've never implemented a workaround myself. So unfortunately I can't give a definitive answer. There is a program called devreorder that can apparently overcome the issue but I've never used it personally: github.com/briankendall/devreorder/ According to these reddit posts it seems to be capable of providing a fix: www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/comments/8wj03s/usb_device_id_change_on_reboot_breaking/ www.reddit.com/r/RetroArch/comments/f3njd9/autochange_user_device_index_on_core_start/

[@scorpio6819]

Thanks so much for the detailed information, I'll give it a try 😀

[@otggaming3180]

@@scorpio6819 No problem :)

[@gabrielbravo2212]

Playing sega games I wish my sega controller would just automatically work if I play SNES games I wish my super Nintendo controller would just automatically work if I played PlayStation games I wish my PS1controller just automatically worked. Why is there not a setting to have multiple controllers as player one and two. I don’t understand How to Connect controllers to the correct gaming system. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that Does not want to use the same controller for all the systems. I want to use the OG controllers and really have a good time. It would be a great video

[@memoryman15]

7:00 Wait why not just use the right stick on the first controller? You want using it for anything else anyway... Why the second controller?

[@memoryman15]

Oh, does a game cabinet use a second controller for the other stick? I suppose that makes sense.

[@Gamerman-lu9bs]

Worthless I asked for how to remap Nintendo 3DS controls and got this instead

[@SavageBro.]

What are you on about?

[@justinstrong9595]

What does this comment even mean

[@SavageBro.]

@@justinstrong9595he’s talking absolute bs

[@justinstrong9595]

@SavageBro. uh no?? That's literally how you set up controller mapping, how low iq are you??

[@AxiomofDiscord]

I wish there was a way to make a per controller profile. But I don't think Retroarch has this ability like some standalones.