Looking for something to close retroarch using button combo

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

Hi there! I’ve been trying to setup retroarch for several days. So far, only mame is producing me headaches, but I’ll make it work somehow… I’m trying to create an easy emulation center for some friends that have no knowledge about setting apps or anything besides opening window’s write (or understanding english BTW)… so I need to make things EASY for them.

I’ve been trying to setup emulationstation with retroarch, and everything so far works fine (nes, snes, master system, genesis so far, mame… oh, well, maybe another day)

My problem is getting out of retroarch once they finish playing.

They’ll be using just gamepads, and as I don’t know how many buttons will they use or have, I need an easy way to exit retroarch when they finish playing a certain game.

I’ve noticed the menu combo (start+select) which works nicely, but it won’t exit retroarch, just open the menu, which they won’t know how to use.

is there any way to use retroarch so when you use a button combo you’ll exit retroarch so they can go back to emulationstation? any way to set select+start combo to quit retroarch instead of opening the menu, yet retain the use of select and start if they are not pressed at the same time? (like coin and 1p start for mame, or select and start for snes or…)

maybe something to quit instead of opening menu if you use cli to open the core/rom file or something?

I just can’t find a way :frowning:

#2

You can map a button to exit retroarch, and you can use the ‘hotkey enable’ button to make retroarch only listen for hotkeys when it’s held. This consumes a button, though, so if they only have, for example, an SNES clone pad, they’ll lose ‘select’ or ‘L’ or whatever you assign it to.

IMO, the better option is to just use the built-in menu combo(s) and then exit using the ‘quit retroarch’ option from the menu.

#3

You could also have AntiMicro or another keymapper running in the background with a key combo setup that presses Escape.

1 Like
#4

I also though about a keymapper like xpadder, but there’s no way to set the same buttons that they will use for start and select as I dont know which ones will they use. Maybe pressing buttons 1,2,3,4 though, if it can work out of the box with any gamepad they plug in… I didnt know about antimicro, but I’ll check it, thanks!

#5

Check out AutoHotkey. It’s very easy to use.

A simple joypad remap would look like this

#Persistent
Joy1 & Joy2:: Send {Escape}
return

Joy1 being button 1 and Joy2 is button 2. If you want to use p2 joy then it is

#Persistent
2Joy1 & 2Joy2:: Send {Escape}
return

More info here

#6

I use Xpadder, and then set it up so Select+Start does the exit command for emulators.

Or I’ll make it just do Alt+F4, like for PC games.