Multi Button Mapping

When overriding gamepad settings inside a core it is possible to define button combinations (e.g. A+B) if you have enough physical buttons.

To allow for this, MiSTer will ask if you want to setup "alternate mappings" after defining a gamepad.

Alternate mappings are active in parallel and allow two kinds of abilities: map two physical button to the same core button (e.g. alternate button for Start), or map one physical button to two-button combo in the core (e.g. map physical X to thr core's A+B).

Bind core button to two physical buttons

The simplest is to map an extra physical button. Only this additional button needs to be defined in the alternate map, as follows:

map	d-pad	A	B
main	define	Btn 1	Btn 2
alt	skip	skip	Btn 3

The result of using this setup ia that you will have physical buttons 2 and 3 mapped to the core button B.

This also works with gamepad directions. For example, for games that use Up as a jump button, it is possible to map a physical third button to jump.

Bind physical button to core button combo

A more advanced setup is to use both mappings in parallel to make one physical button push two core buttons at the same time.

See the table below:

map	d-pad	A	B
main	define	Btn 1	Btn 3
alt	skip	Btn 3	Btn 2

The result of this is that Button 1 will be A, Button 2 will be B, and Button 3 will be A+B.

This is particularly useful for the Neogeo core where some fighting games use A+B and C+D as "strong hit".

(note: unfortunately NeoGeo games are not consistent with each other - so it is not possible to set one mapping for all games)

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Example: NeoGeo Breakers / Breakers' Revenge

Assume a six button arcade controller (for Street Fighter 2) with 3 punch buttons on top and 3 kick buttons below.

We will map the buttons so that Breakers / Breakers' revenge has the same kind of layout.

This particular game uses the following attack buttons:

• A: Weak Punch
• B: Weak Kick
• C: Strong Punch
• D: Strong Kick

In addition, most characters have an extra "command" move mapped to:

• Weak Punch + Strong Punch
• Weak Kick + Strong Kick

To match the Street Fighter 2 layout, we can assign this across six buttons:

-	Weak	Strong	Weak+Strong
Punch	A	C	A + C
Kick	B	D	B + D

Which translates to the following buttons:

-	Weak	Strong	Weak+Strong
Punch	Btn 1	Btn 2	Btn 3
Kick	Btn 4	Btn 5	Btn 6

To obtain this, input the following assignment during main and alternate mapping:

map	d-pad	A	B	C	D
main	define	Btn 1	Btn 4	Btn 3	Btn 6
alt	skip	Btn 3	Btn 6	Btn 2	Btn 5

(in alternate mapping, d-pad and all other buttons can be skipped)

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Example: NeoGeo King of Fighters / Fatal Fury Special

Both of these game use the same attack layout as Breakers but their button combination differs:

-	Weak	Strong	Combo
Punch	A	C	A + B
Kick	B	D	C + D

To map this, we need to switch things around a little bit:

map	d-pad	A	B	C	D
main	define	Btn 1	Btn 3	Btn 2	Btn 6
alt	skip	Btn 3	Btn 4	Btn 6	Btn 5

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Example: NeoGeo Samurai Shodown

This game has yet another layout, changing the order of base attacks:

-	Weak	Medium	Strong
Slash	A	B	A + B
Kick	C	D	C + D

We can map this as follows:

map	d-pad	A	B	C	D
main	define	Btn 1	Btn 3	Btn 4	Btn 6
alt	skip	Btn 3	Btn 2	Btn 6	Btn 5

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Counter Example: The Last Blade 1 and 2

Very similar to the above but a different button combo:

-	Weak	Medium	Special
Slash	A	B	B + C
Kick	C	D	C + D

In this case, it is not possible to map C three times so we must choose whether to map B+C or C+D.

Option 1: Mapping B+C to button 3:

map	d-pad	A	B	C	D
main	define	Btn 1	Btn 2	Btn 3	Btn 5
alt	skip	skip	Btn 3	Btn 4	skip

(Btn 6 remains unassigned)

Option 2: Mapping C+D to button 6:

map	d-pad	A	B	C	D
main	define	Btn 1	Btn 2	Btn 6	Btn 5
alt	skip	skip	skip	Btn 4	Btn 6

(Btn 3 remains unassigned)