Yeah, in this case it's wired. I did some more playing with things and found out that unplugging the usb and plugging it back in crashes ES. If I do it slowly, its ok. I'm pretty sure all of this is somehow related to the kernel. Not sure what kernel reto pi uses or recalbox for that matter but I only recalbox does these things. I could maybe grab some dmesg logs on this.

A lot of the PC Engine collection is Japanese txt only.
I went thru my collection and whittled it down to about 300 usable / playable games, taking out the Jap and or European version if a US equivalent was available.

If you ever get a version of Pac-land that works (try using the controller to move right or jump.....) let me know!