I will check tonight (in ~8 hours) to be sure they are mapped. the controller has them physically so i thought i had them mapped.   Thanks again Acris!

update - i tried setting global.videomode=default   this didnt work. I also realized that i went though the other link from the read me a while ago, but the problem is that I get 0 modes when I use tvservice -m DMT and tvservice -m CEA to redescribe - i start a game through emulationstation it goes to the black screen with the Recalbox logo at the bottom. then it just back to emulationstation.  the other games that work on snes for example, will show the same black splash screen then load the game.   <span style="font-family: Inconsolata, Consolas, Monaco, 'Lucida Console', monospace; font-size: 1em; color: #737c85; line-height: 26px; background-color: #f9f9f9;"> </span>

Thank you Acris!   I also found the readme file in n64 rom directory which addresses this issue too::   -------------------------------------------------------- ## RECALBOX - SYSTEM N64 ## Put your nintendo 64 roms in this directory. Rom files must have a ".n64/.v64/.z64" extension. You can download n64 roms on xxxxxxxx If you have problems about black screen with return to Emulationstation, please read wiki below : https://github.com/recalbox/recalbox-os/wiki/N64-%3A-return-to-ES-(EN) --------------------------------------------------------

I have this same problem with the Raspberry Pi official 7" screen connected via the dsi cable. as soon as the game is selected it goes back to the black recalbox screen