So my first actual active project did not turn out to be anything like I thought it would be. Got a roommate who wanted to watch TV shows together, and was hauling an old, worn laptop to the living room to use as a media center, but the constant moving was damaging the laptop (broken hinge, screen connection problems). Had been reading about using a Pi 3 as both media center and retro gaming center, so when I could afford it a couple of days ago, I bought a Pi and a 64gb sd card. Threw the Nacho image on it, and poof, media player and retro gaming center.
The problem is, I have no idea how to control lots of it using only a game pad.
Played an arcade game, and had no way out of it. (At all, since I don't have a USB keyboard. One is on order and will be here Saturday.)
The gamepad I am using is probably a Sega Genesis clone. It has a direction pad, a start button, three main buttons, three smaller buttons, and one button on the back of the pad which I think is called a shoulder button?
Can I? And if so, how can I? Use the shoulder button in combination with the other six buttons, to simulate the TAB and ESC keys, for accessing MAME menus and exiting MAME back into Emulation Station?
Since I have no USB keyboard for now, and I am told it is very dangerous to turn your Pi off improperly, and I have no way out of it, my Pi is going to be playing the same arcade game for the next two days. I'd like to avoid this in the future. So how can I set up 'shift key' style controls in MAME?