R36S Button Mapping: How to Remap Controls for Any Game
RetroArch's input remapping system lets you reassign any button on the R36S to any game function — globally, per system, or per individual game. This guide covers the full remapping workflow and solutions for common control issues.
Understanding the R36S Button Layout
The R36S uses a PlayStation-style button layout with some additions for retro gaming hotkeys:
| Physical Button | RetroArch Name | Default Function |
|---|---|---|
| Cross / South (bottom) | B / Retro B | Confirm / Jump in most games |
| Circle / East (right) | A / Retro A | Action / Run |
| Square / West (left) | Y / Retro Y | Secondary action |
| Triangle / North (top) | X / Retro X | Menu / Special action |
| L1 / L2 | L / L2 | Left shoulder buttons |
| R1 / R2 | R / R2 | Right shoulder buttons |
| SELECT | Select | RetroArch hotkey modifier |
| START | Start | Pause / Menu |
| Left analog stick | Left analog | Movement / directional input |
| Right analog stick | Right analog | Camera / secondary movement |
Pro Tip
RetroArch uses two naming systems: the physical button names (Cross, Circle, Square, Triangle) and the SNES-style names (B, A, Y, X). The mapping between them is: Cross=B, Circle=A, Square=Y, Triangle=X. This matches the SNES controller layout that most classic games expect.
Remapping Controls in RetroArch
RetroArch has two levels of input configuration: the base controller binding (which physical buttons do what in RetroArch menus) and per-game remapping (which game buttons map to which physical buttons during gameplay).
Remap, do not rebind
These two levels are not interchangeable, and mixing them up is the most common way to end up with a handheld you cannot navigate. Binding changes what a physical button means to RetroArch itself, menus included — so if you rebind the button you use to confirm, you can lose the ability to confirm your way back out. Remapping only changes what a button does inside a game, and menu control is untouched.
Everything on this page is remapping. Stay in Quick Menu → Controls and you are safe. Avoid Settings → Input → Port 1 Binds unless you specifically intend to change RetroArch's own controls and have a way to undo it.
Which Remap Wins: The Override Order
RetroArch stores remaps as .rmp files at several levels, and a more specific file always beats a broader one:
- Game remap — this exact ROM. Highest priority.
- Content-directory remap — every ROM in that folder.
- Core remap — every game run through that emulator core.
- Core input binds — the fallback when no remap file applies.
This ordering is worth knowing because it explains the single most confusing failure: you change a core remap, and one particular game ignores it. That game almost certainly has its own remap file saved from an earlier session, and it will keep winning until you delete it. Saving a new core remap does not overwrite a game remap — nothing overwrites a game remap except removing it.
Per-Game Input Remapping
This is the most common use case — changing controls for a specific game without affecting anything else.
- Launch the game you want to remap
- Open the RetroArch Quick Menu with your firmware’s menu combination (SELECT + Y on ROCKNIX, FN + X on ArkOS) — not the modifier plus START, which quits the game
- Navigate to Controls → Port 1 Controls
- You will see a list of game buttons on the left and the current physical button assignment on the right
- Use left/right on the D-pad to cycle through button options for each game action
- After making changes, go back to the Controls menu
- Select "Save Game Remap File" — this saves the mapping only for this specific game
Per-Core (System-Wide) Remapping
To apply a remapping to all games on a specific system (e.g., remap all SNES games the same way):
- Launch any game from that system
- Open Quick Menu → Controls → Port 1 Controls
- Make your changes
- Select "Save Core Remap File"
- This applies to all games using this emulator core
Important
Game remap files take priority over core remap files. If a game has its own remap saved, it will override the core-level remap. To reset a game to the core defaults, delete its game remap file from the config/remaps folder on the SD card.
Common Remapping Scenarios
Fixing Swapped A/B Buttons
This is the most frequently reported control complaint on any retro handheld, and it is not a bug in the game or the emulator — it is two industries having disagreed about where "confirm" belongs.
Nintendo and Sony placed their primary action button in different spots, and the names travelled with the position rather than the function. RetroArch resolves this by using SNES positional names internally: B is the bottom of the diamond, A is the right, Y is the left, X is the top. So when the R36S's printed label and RetroArch's idea of the same button disagree, everything downstream feels swapped even though nothing is broken.
The practical consequence: trust positions, not letters. When a remap screen asks about "B Button (down)", the parenthesis is the authoritative part. If a game feels wrong:
- Open Quick Menu → Controls → Port 1 Controls
- Find "B Button (down)" and change it from "B" to "A"
- Find "A Button (right)" and change it from "A" to "B"
- Save as a game remap file
Mapping N64 Controls
The N64 controller has a unique layout with C-buttons and a Z-trigger that don't exist on the R36S. The default mapping works for most N64 games but first-person games like GoldenEye benefit from a custom layout:
| N64 Function | Default R36S Map | FPS Game Map |
|---|---|---|
| C-Up | Right analog up | Right analog up (aim) |
| C-Down | Right analog down | Right analog down (aim) |
| C-Left | Right analog left | Right analog left (aim) |
| C-Right | Right analog right | Right analog right (aim) |
| Z-trigger | L2 | R1 (fire) |
| Analog stick | Left analog | Left analog (move) |
Swapping Analog Sticks for Specific Games
Some 3D games work better with the left and right analog sticks swapped (e.g., games expecting left stick for camera and right stick for movement). Under Quick Menu → Controls → Port 1 Controls, find the analog stick assignments and swap left/right analog to preference.
A Caveat Specific to This Handheld's Sticks
Before you map anything important to an analog stick, be aware that the R36S's sticks are its weakest component. Drift — the stick reporting movement while untouched — is common enough that we have a whole guide to it.
Two consequences for mapping:
- Prefer the D-pad for 2D games. Games from the NES through the SNES and Genesis era were designed for digital input; routing them through a drifting analog stick invents a problem the original hardware never had. Most firmware maps the D-pad to the left stick as well, which is convenient until the stick starts drifting and your character walks on its own in a game that has no analog input at all.
- Diagnose before you remap. If a character creeps in one direction, the instinct is to go looking for a control setting. Check for drift first — a deadzone adjustment or a stick replacement fixes the cause, whereas remapping only moves the symptom to a different button.
Hotkey Configuration
RetroArch hotkeys are combinations held with a modifier key. Which key that is depends on your firmware. You can customize the combinations from Settings → Input → Hotkeys in the RetroArch menu (accessed when no game is running, or via Quick Menu → Close Content first).
Default Hotkeys on R36S
There is no single hotkey list for this handheld, and presenting one as though there were is how most guides go wrong. The combinations come from the firmware, and the two firmwares people actually run do not even agree on the modifier: ROCKNIX uses SELECT, the ArkOS builds use FN. So each firmware gets its own column below, quoted from its own documentation rather than merged into a single list.
Modifier + START does not open the menu — it quits the game
Worth stating plainly, because believing otherwise costs you progress. Both firmwares put quit on the modifier plus START: ROCKNIX documents it as a double press, the ArkOS fork simply as “Exit Game/Retroarch”. Either way it drops you back to the game list and anything unsaved is gone. The menu is a different combination entirely — see the table.
| Action | ROCKNIX | ArkOS (AeolusUX R3XS) |
|---|---|---|
| Open the RetroArch menu | SELECT + Y(NORTH) | FN + X, or L1+R1+Start+FN |
| Quit the game | SELECT + START, twice | FN + Start |
| Reset the game | SELECT + A(SOUTH) | FN + B |
| Pause emulation | not documented | FN + A |
| Save state | SELECT + R1 | FN + R1 |
| Load state | SELECT + L1 | FN + L1 |
| Fast-forward | SELECT + R2 | FN on its own |
| Take a screenshot | SELECT + B(EAST) | not documented |
| Show FPS | SELECT + X(WEST) | not documented |
| Brightness up / down | SELECT + Vol + / SELECT + Vol − | FN + D-pad Up / Down, or FN + Vol Up / Down |
| Rewind | not documented | not documented |
Do not read across the two columns by letter
The letters do not mean the same thing in each. ROCKNIX's page for this device maps them Xbox-style — X is the west button, Y is the north one — while RetroArch's own naming is SNES-style, where X is the top button; “X Button (Top)” is RetroArch's own label for it. So ROCKNIX's SELECT + Y and the ArkOS fork's FN + X may or may not be the same physical key, and this page is not going to pretend to know which. Read the column for the firmware you are actually running, and treat a bare “SELECT + X” from anywhere else as not identifying a key at all.
If FN does nothing on your R36S
That is expected on a stock unit, not a fault. The FN button needs a device-tree file the shipped images do not carry. AeolusUX publishes one in the R36S-DTB repository — described as the build “with Functional Function (FN) Button” — and using it means editing boot.ini on the boot partition. Until you do, the whole ArkOS column above is out of reach on your device.
On ROCKNIX there is one more thing worth knowing before you customise anything: it rewrites these bindings every time RetroArch starts. Its own note reads, “While the option is enabled, RetroArch hotkeys will be overwritten by the above defaults each time RetroArch is launched.” The switch is Settings → Controller & Bluetooth → AUTOCONFIGURE RETROARCH HOTKEYS, and until you turn it off your own remaps will not survive a relaunch.
Some bindings this page will not guess at. The save-state slot has no documented RetroArch hotkey on either firmware, volume is not a hotkey at all, and the ArkOS screenshot and rewind bindings are simply undocumented. Read those off Settings → Input → Hotkeys on your own device: it is the only list guaranteed to match the build in your hands.
ROCKNIX column from the ROCKNIX wiki device page for the R35S/R36S, quoted as written; it is live and maintained. ArkOS column from the “Retroarch Hotkey: FN Button” and “Global Hotkey: FN Key” sections of the ArkOS-R3XS wiki — the community fork the R36S actually runs. Upstream ArkOS uses SELECT for RetroArch instead, and its maintainer says plainly that he does not support the R36S. Both ArkOS repositories are archived read-only now, so treat that column as frozen. We deliberately do not cite the widely-copied handhelds.wiki hotkey table: it sits under “How to change RetroArch Hotkeys” and is captioned “My hotkey configuration” — one person's remap, not a documented default.
Key Takeaway
Use Quick Menu → Controls → Save Game Remap File to fix button issues in specific games without affecting the rest of your library. For system-wide changes (e.g., fixing SNES button feel for all SNES games), use Save Core Remap File instead. Both types of remaps are fully portable with your SD card saves.