Goonies R Good Enough on BlueMSX - How to start games?

[TimeWarpGamer]

Finally tracked this game down and it seems super cool--that I'm a big Goonies fan definitely helps. Anyway, I am playing it via BlueMSX in Retroarch for the Sony PS Vita, and everything appears fine (boots normally, etc.) except I cannot figure out how to actually start a game. The title screen says "press fire" but anytime I try a key (i.e. space, return, Alt-Left) it goes to a password screen and there doesn't seem to be a way to get out of it. I even tried a password cheat (i.e. NIKESHOES) to skip to level 1, but it won't accept them. Anyone familiar with this issue and want to offer some help?