THIS WAS THE HARDEST PART OF GETTING EVERYTHING RUNNING AND I SPENT 3+ DAYS WORKING THE ISSUE

This is for Tempest and Missile Command. Centipede picked up

Score 1 for Gemini.. ChatGPT just fell apart.

The system sees every USB device (Keyboard, PS3 controller, Xinmotec, Trackball) and gives it a “Mouse Index” number.

• Command: cat /proc/bus/input/devices
• Discovery: You found the Cypress Semiconductor (the trackball) and saw Handlers=mouse0.
• Result: This told us your magic number is Index 0.

The Emulator Core (MAME) has to be told that it is allowed to use a mouse at all.

  Location: /userdata/system/configs/retroarch/config/MAME/missile.opt

  Key Setting: mame_mouse_enable = "enabled"

  Result: This turned on the "ears" of the emulator so it could hear mouse signals.

Because the menu wasn't saving, we manually created a “Game Override” file. This tells RetroArch exactly which hardware to plug into the “Player 1” slot.

  Creation: You created a new text file at: /userdata/system/configs/retroarch/config/MAME/missile.cfg

  The Code: You added these two critical lines:

      input_player1_mouse_index = "0" (Points to the Trackball)

      input_libretro_device_p1 = "3" (Tells MAME to treat Player 1 as a "Mouse" device)

Tempest uses a spinner, but in MAME, a spinner is just the X-axis (left/right) of a mouse. To fix Tempest without doing all that work again:

  Navigate to the same folder: /userdata/system/configs/retroarch/config/MAME/

  Copy missile.cfg and Paste it as tempest.cfg.

  Copy missile.opt and Paste it as tempest.opt.

  Launch Tempest. It will now use the same "Index 0" logic.

Summary Table for Future Reference