I have pulled my hair out (okay not literally

) trying to figure out a way that I can set 4 gpio buttons to do some simple functions for retro pie. I what one to exit game, one to save state, one to load state, and one to reset game. I am using the adafruit 2.8" tft display for my project
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1601 and scince it is a pain to get the screen work I am using adafruits pigrrl img (which works with the screen).
https://learn.adafruit.com/pocket-pigrrl/software-1
I would like to use the four buttons that are attached to the screen for the functions I mentioned. I believe the gpio button numbers are 23, 22, 21/27, 18. I am using a rpi 1 b+ for this project. I would appreciate any help I can get. Thank you for your time,
MalMan35