Controller Configuration

RetroPie supports many popular controllers out of the box. On first boot you will be prompted to configure a controller in EmulationStation. Once you finish configuring your controller, multiple configuration profiles will be automagically generated for most of the systems in RetroPie.

Some emulators will still require manual controller configuration which will be detailed on their respective system page here in the documentation.

You can also configure controls for individual systems and individual games. For more advanced controller configuration with libretro cores (any emulator that starts with lr) see the RetroArch-Configuration page.

/// note | Note Some controllers (primarily wireless or Bluetooth controllers) may require special drivers to be installed through the RetroPie Setup Script. They are detailed on their individual controller page. ///

Controller Configuration

On first boot this menu in EmulationStation will configure your controls for both Emulationstation and RetroArch Emulators:

[Upstream illustration: welcomescreen]

Hold down any button on your keyboard or gamepad and the name will appear at the bottom and then open up into a configuration menu:

[Upstream illustration: welcomescreengamepadname]

Follow the onscreen instructions to configure your gamepad- if you run out of buttons just hold down a button to skip each unused button. When you get to OK press the button you have configured as "A".

[Upstream illustration: welcomescreengamepadconfigure]

If you wish to configure more than one controller, you can do so from the start menu of emulationstation. For more details on manual controller configurations see this page Here.

See the following diagrams for reference:

Hotkey

The Hotkey button enables you to press it in combination with another button to access functions such as saving, loading, and exiting in emulators. It is suggested to use the Select button as the hotkey. The following chart shows the default hotkey combinations. For example, if you chose Select as your Hotkey, that means you hold down Select while pressing the other button to execute the command.

/// tip | Hotkey usage

• Hotkey buttons/keys combinations are specific to the Retroarch/libretro based emulators.
• The Hotkey enabled actions are enabled only for the 1st connected controller, the one that RetroArch considers to be P1 (player 1). Additional connected controllers (P2, P3, etc.) will not be able to trigger the combo actions. ///

For more information, see Hotkeys