Controller and network setup
These are essential configuration options for most people.
Controller setup in Lakka is a bit fiddly as it imposes a time limit to assign each button and axis – frustrating while you try to work out which control is which. A QWERTY keyboard was supported properly on the odd occasion when we needed to use it. This meant that our remote control (which sends keyboard presses) could operate the system.
Recalbox also supports keyboard input but doesn’t have a setting for UK keyboards – not a huge deal in practice. Controller setup is less awkward than Lakka, and it also saves a small amount of time because you only have to move the control sticks up and left, and the setup routine guesses the rest.
The Batocera controller setup is also easy to use. Batocera supports the keyboard, although it’s not well configured for search (its most useful purpose) as pressing Return doesn’t begin the search and you must navigate to an on-screen Enter button. Wi-Fi setup is simple and has the added advantage that it supports WPS, a useful extra if putting together a portable setup.
By default, a QWERTY keyboard (or a remote) doesn’t do anything on the main RetroPie interface. This is ironic as some of the advanced configuration procedures are difficult or impossible without a real keyboard as they involve switching to a text mode interface or even using the command line.
RetroArch controller setup is easy to use and can support simultaneous custom keyboard and controller mappings. Both RetroPie hosted on a Linux system and RetroArch rely on the underlying Linux setup for their networking setup.