@mkoff
In 8.1, it is no longer possible to play regular doom and quake at all.
I believe you are referring to Recalbox 8.0.1, not 8.1, right?
Another user recently posted how to play these games with a modern joystick, in version 8.0.1, so you can play these games in that version... :
https://forum.recalbox.com/topic/26787/howto-quake-tyrquake-and-doom-prboom-with-modern-controls-dual-stick
Do the workarounds to this problem that were suggested in version 7 no longer work?
https://forum.recalbox.com/topic/23412/ports-quake-trouble-in-recalbox-7
I know you already have an open issue on gitlab, and you've updated it today, I recommend you wait for a response on the issue:
https://gitlab.com/recalbox/recalbox/-/issues/1545
But you can tell me how to disable the restoration of files in the ports folder?
No, it is not possible to prevent this automatic restore, there is no such option. A workaround, but not recommended, is to change the files directly in the //recalbox/share_init/roms
folder, many users do this, but changing the wrong files will cause the system to crash, and you will need to reinstall manually. In addition, changes to this system folder are reset after an update.
If you are aware of the risks and want to do this, there are other topics you can use as an example: