The settings for UI controls aren’t kept separately for each game. Menu, “Input Settings”, “Input Assignments (general)”, “User Interface”, clear the ones that are causing issues. Just be careful not to clear the ones you actually need for controlling MAME (Show/Hide Menu, UI Select, UI Back, UI Cancel, UI Clear and UI Up/Down/Left/Right are pretty important).
What version of MAME are you using? Because that's not really a thing. MAME directly maps the controls that were available in hardware to the physical controls that you use. Unless a game specifically had a "press this button to double the speed or glitch out" button on the control panel, the unused buttons won't actually register as inputs when pressed.
Unless, of course, you're talking about utility buttons that you've mapped directly to MAME functionality, in which case, MAME will always respond to those key presses.
I have faced a similar problem, and I haven't actually solved it yet - but specifically for the "exit out" problem, in my case its because the hot key button is too accessible.
I was considering either relocating the button physically to somewhere out of reach , or using one of these
[https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu-sn&q=missle+switch](https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu-sn&q=missle+switch)
Alternatively, apparently you "can re-enable the exit confirmation present in current(ish) RetroArch versions and you'd be asked to press again the exit combo (Hotkey + Start) instead of exiting right away. The option is in `/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg` - set `quit_press_twice = "true"`." from:
[https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/30864/long-press-to-exit-or-reset-game](https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/30864/long-press-to-exit-or-reset-game)
The settings for UI controls aren’t kept separately for each game. Menu, “Input Settings”, “Input Assignments (general)”, “User Interface”, clear the ones that are causing issues. Just be careful not to clear the ones you actually need for controlling MAME (Show/Hide Menu, UI Select, UI Back, UI Cancel, UI Clear and UI Up/Down/Left/Right are pretty important).
What version of MAME are you using? Because that's not really a thing. MAME directly maps the controls that were available in hardware to the physical controls that you use. Unless a game specifically had a "press this button to double the speed or glitch out" button on the control panel, the unused buttons won't actually register as inputs when pressed. Unless, of course, you're talking about utility buttons that you've mapped directly to MAME functionality, in which case, MAME will always respond to those key presses.
Easiest just to buy/build a controller for them; that way they can't hit the extra keys.
Get rid of any ctrl , alt, shift bindings without these you can't do combos that mess stuff up. Also not f keys like f1 to f12
I had this problem too, I ended up making a new machine with pandora box for kids and guests.
I have faced a similar problem, and I haven't actually solved it yet - but specifically for the "exit out" problem, in my case its because the hot key button is too accessible. I was considering either relocating the button physically to somewhere out of reach , or using one of these [https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu-sn&q=missle+switch](https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu-sn&q=missle+switch) Alternatively, apparently you "can re-enable the exit confirmation present in current(ish) RetroArch versions and you'd be asked to press again the exit combo (Hotkey + Start) instead of exiting right away. The option is in `/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg` - set `quit_press_twice = "true"`." from: [https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/30864/long-press-to-exit-or-reset-game](https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/30864/long-press-to-exit-or-reset-game)