Problems with MaLa Ver 1.74

[Crazydiver]

I was recently given a friend Arcade unit to fix, after my kids stuffed it up, and the in game controls no longer respond how they should. I have since rebuilt the entire system, with the latest versions of MaLa and Mame. Reinstalled all the Rom files, and tried to set MaLa up the same as it was before. The control settings appear correct, and the controls work as they should, until I load up a game. So I am wondering if a have an incomplete control.ini file, or weather I even need a control.ini file. There was not one on the orginal setup.
I have spent a very long time on this problem, and I'm now stumped. What I don't understand is why the machine was working fine one day, and then stopped working the next. So the problem is that when any game is loaded, the controls do not all work as they should.
Can someone please help.

[GeoMan]

Try a previous version of Mame. I think that with the recent release the naming of the controls changed and that may be causing problems.

[TopJimmyCooks]

not a mala issue.  in Mame, did you hit tab and see what your controls were mapped to for all games, or change them? 

[Crazydiver]

OK, in MAME I have checked what the controls are mapped to, and it says keyboard for everything except mouse. None of this was ever changed in the initial setup. The machine just stopped working after my kids had been playing on it, and no doubt pushed all the buttons randomly many times. When I reinstalled everything, I also installed a control.ini file, that was not present in the original setup, as I am assuming that one is not required, as this is optional. I have never changed the settings in Mame for controller mapping, unless this is done by the control.ini file. I quess I could try removing the control.ini file, and see if that solves the problem. I don't think it is a version problem, as it I had the same problem with the original setup.

[Crazydiver]

Checked controller mapping in Mame, and made sure that the controls are doing what they are suppose to, and also check the controller setup in MaLa. It is the in-game controls that do not work as expected. I also removed the control.ini, but nothing has made any difference so far.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Checked controller mapping in Mame, and made sure that the controls are doing what they are suppose to,  . . .

So the controls work properly if you enter the game via command line, but not if you start the game through Mala?

[Crazydiver]

I haven't tried that. I'll let you know how I get on.

[Crazydiver]

Sorry, but I am not sure how to enter the game through a command line. What do I need to type in order to play a ROM file in dos. When I load up a game in MaLa, and the one I am trying to play at the moment is Ghosts and Goblins, the joystick works as expected, but when I push what is suppose to be the fire button, it pops up with Master volume (at the bottom of the screen). When this happens, moving the joystick from left to right, changes the volume. None of the other buttons do anything. Except for Player 1 button, which loads up the game initially. I have to confess that I have absolutely no idea how to fix this problem, otherwise I wouldn't be on this forum, so I do appreciate your imput.

[TopJimmyCooks]

you're getting out of my depth.  I try to help with basic Mala posts but I'm not any kind of qualified to do a lot of troubleshooting.  I rarely mess with command line Mame but basically assuming windows XP or later:

1.  make sure your rom path is referenced in your mame.ini (text file you can open with notepad)  If mame runs at all this is probably ok.
2.  go to start button, run and type in C:\Mame, then a space, then the 8 character rom name, hit enter. 
Should run the game you list.  substitute driveletter and path for your system for my C:\.

once the game is running, make sure the controls work or hit tab and select inputs (general) to change them.

Anyone jump in here anytime.  I'm not at my arcade rig to test this.  Crazy, you may want to solicit more general mame help.

[Crazydiver]

Thanks for that. I'll go and check all that and see how I get on.