# Hotkeys

Hotkeys are controller or keyboard shortcuts, that are used to perform several operations while in-game, such as saving game progress (savestate), pausing the game or rewinding,  the more frequent usage will be to quit games/emulators by pressing **HOTKEY** + **START**

The Retrobat team has defaulted keyboard and controller hotkeys for multiple emulators, the default hotkey buttons for Gamepad are the following:

{% hint style="info" %}
To trigger a hotkey action, you need to press and hold the "Hotkey enable" button, then press the second button that corresponds to the action to perform.
{% endhint %}

<table><thead><tr><th width="212.5833740234375">Hotkeys (Gamepad)</th><th width="153">Keyboard key</th><th width="372.683349609375">Action</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Hotkey + <img src="/files/MjhQKxoApDWojCWfSAgs" alt=""></td><td>CTRL+F12</td><td><a href="/pages/N9GDMooKVxnh97WXgBAC">Game Control Center</a></td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + <img src="/files/oQmMDvGLPCQJiXNlol7Z" alt=""></td><td>F1</td><td>Emulator Menu (or Pause if emulator has no menu)</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + <img src="/files/2UVJEd12DYAXiSTPT9RE" alt=""></td><td>F4</td><td>Load State</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + <img src="/files/1td6mLHIwCWm0tVVSuD5" alt=""></td><td>F2</td><td>Save State</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + START</td><td>Esc</td><td>Quit emulator/game</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + L1</td><td>F11</td><td>Eject Disc</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + R1</td><td></td><td>AI Translation Service</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + L2</td><td>F9</td><td>Select Disc Index -</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + R2</td><td>F10</td><td>Select Disc Index +</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + D-PAD UP</td><td>F7</td><td>Select Save Slot Index +</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + D-PAD DOWN</td><td>F6</td><td>Select Save Slot Index -</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + D-PAD LEFT</td><td>Backspace</td><td>Rewind</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + D-PAD RIGHT</td><td>Hold: F<br>Toggle: Space</td><td>Fast Forward (can be changed from Hold to Toggle)</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + R3 (right stick)</td><td>F8</td><td>Screenshot</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>F</td><td>Toggle fullscreen</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>K</td><td>Frame Advance</td></tr><tr><td>Hotkey + L3</td><td>P</td><td>Pause (if emulator has a menu and Hotkey +<img src="/files/ohUtUfKodoogvxVOHWyL" alt=""> is used for it) </td></tr></tbody></table>

The following list of emulators are currently aligned on this shortcut model, with some variations based on emulator capabilities:

<details>

<summary>Emulators with aligned hotkeys</summary>

* RetroArch
* Ares (uses PadToKey)
* BigPEmu
* Bizhawk (uses padToKey)
* Cgenius (only save/load state) (uses Pad2Key)
* Citron
* Demul
* DesMume (uses Pad2Key)
* Dhewm3
* Dolphin
* Duckstation
* Eden
* Flycast
* Hatari
* Jgenesis (uses Pad2Key)
* MAME
* Mednafen
* MelonDS (uses Pad2Key)
* Mesen
* Mupen64(RMG)
* OpenMSX
* PCSX2
* PPSSPP
* Project64 (uses Pad2Key)
* Raine (uses Pad2Key)
* Snes9X (uses Pad2Key)
* Sudachi
* Suyu
* Yuzu

</details>

## Customizing hotkeys

RetroBat offers the ability to modify the default hotkeys assignment for several emulators, both for keyboard and gamepad.

Modifications need to be performed inside a file located in the `\system\resources\inputmapping` folder of your RetroBat installation:

* **kb\_hotkeys.yml** : to modify standard assignment for keyboard
* **controller\_hotkeys.yml** : to modify standard assignment for controller hotkeys

{% hint style="info" %}
It is also possible to modify hotkeys only for one emulator, this can be achieved by prefixing the file with the emulator name, for example "`pcsx2_controller_hotkeys.yml`".
{% endhint %}

The following list of emulators allow modification of hotkeys:

<details>

<summary>Emulators with assignable hotkeys</summary>

* RetroArch
* Ares
* BigPEmu
* Bizhawk
* DesMUME
* Dolphin
* Duckstation
* Flycast
* JGenesis
* Mednafen
* MelonDS
* Mesen
* PCSX2
* PPSSPP
* Project64
* Raine
* Snes9X

</details>

{% hint style="warning" %}
The file uses the RetroArch naming for hotkeys, even for other emulators.
{% endhint %}

### Remap controller hotkeys <a href="#remap-controller-hotkeys" id="remap-controller-hotkeys"></a>

Copy the file **controller\_hotkeys.yml** to the `\user\inputmapping\` folder of your RetroBat installation.

Open the file with your preferred text editor:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/pRfdS4ShSPvmKUPZfocl" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

The file is a yml-formatted file, **by default all values are commented**.

The first thing to do is to uncomment the actual section where the buttons are defined, as well as the container section, this is done by removing the # character on all lines after the `#default:` line, including the latter:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/OGjMG7JTBEvVERz4w1Q7" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

In this example, we will replace the **fast-forward** and **rewind** hotkeys with R1 and L1 buttons, and move the **disk\_eject** and **ai\_service** to the d-pad:

to do this, just assign the **rewind** feature to pageup (L1) and the **hold\_fast\_forward** to pagedown (R1), and then assign the **disk\_eject\_toggle** and **ai\_service** to their respective d-pad buttons (left & right):

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/84W7oaFh9k675BpLT3nt" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

Now save the file in the `\user\inputmapping` folder of your RetroBat installation:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/0CRIFu5n4XYW0FFn1Eu0" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

In addition, it is also possible to perform a specific hotkey mapping for a specific core (in case emulators have multiple cores: Ares, Bizhawk, RetroArch...), in this example, the mapping is different between the flycast core, by using toggle instead of hold for fast forward:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/5AdDQ2OaK1CMg102MyRZ" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

### Remap keyboard hotkeys <a href="#remap-keyboard-hotkeys" id="remap-keyboard-hotkeys"></a>

Copy the file **kb\_hotkeys.yml** to the `\user\inputmapping\` folder of your RetroBat installation.

Open the file with your preferred text editor:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/LYMp6jOEjKhotgJTmFRB" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

The file is a yml-formatted file, **by default all values are commented**.

The first thing to do is to uncomment the actual section where the buttons are defined, as well as the container section, this is done by removing the # character on all lines after the `#default:` line, including the latter:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/MHT6rX6sFDn65Xpkv6Ku" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

Now save the file:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/bSmQNebovISs5ClBPwyX" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

In addition, it is also possible to perform a specific hotkey mapping for a specific core (in case emulators have multiple cores: Ares, Bizhawk, RetroArch...), in this example, the mapping is different between the flycast core, by using toggle instead of hold for fast forward:

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/wK7Rpko18SMB4hS6pOlh" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>


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