> No, I understand that. The question is, why does MAME not recognize -joystick_map for > keyboard controls?
Because the problems it's intended to fix (primarily analog stick deadzones and 4-way vs 8-way) don't exist on keyboards. E.g. if you want to banish diagonals for 4-way games you can pick 4 keys far enough apart from each other that it's not a thing. It's called joystick_map for a good, descriptive reason
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