I'm entering the wonderful world of speed running. I have been doing some test runs with livesplit, but am having a tough time trying to manually press buttons to move from one "lap" or split to another. Can anyone give me some pointers or suggestions on how to best manage this?

I'm planning on running the classics (Super Mario Bros, Zelda, Contra, Karate Kid, etc.)

Hey man welcome! My keyboard has the num pad on the right so my next lap button is on the 1 key so its easy to press while using a controller. Just gotta move your hands quickly. Also there is a way to make it automatic but I'm not really sure how to do that. Good luck on all your runs :D

Welcome! If you want to set up hot keys then right click, go to control, click global hotkeys ( it will have a check next to it). Then go to either settings or options and set the hotkeys. As far as games go I speed run Zelda games. As far as 2d Zeldas go I recommend Links awakening DX or A link to the past. As far as 3d Zeldas go I recommend either Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. Have fun and Welcome!