Mapping Joypad Buttons in MAME

[twin paradox]

A little backstory: (Skip to the next paragraph to get to the actual problem)

I am currently working on my third "arcade". I built a full sized coin-op a couple years back using hyperspin as the frontend and was able to successfully control everything using a an x-arcade tank stick no problem. Last year I took my hyperspin folder from my coin-op and copied it to my laptop so that I could have a portable arcade setup. After a decent amount experimentation, I was able to set it up so that everything could be controlled using a pair of SNES controllers through a USB adapter. Now, I am trying to do it a third time on an old desktop that I was given. I am once again using the same setup as my portable gaming setup except now I am using 4 official n64 controllers running through mayflash adapters.

The Problem:

I have everything setup so that I can navigate through hyperspin and launch/exit all of my emulators using just the contollers except for MAME. I cannot seem to get MAME to allow me to map my joypad buttons. MAME recognizes that there are joysticks connected but when I try to set my controls via the tab menu it doesn't read any of my joystick buttons. I have already tried the following:

-I checked to make sure windows recognizes my controllers
-I enabled joysticks in MAME
-I tried using joytokey (even though I knew it wouldn't work) to get mame to recognize the joystick as a keyboard

I am fresh out of ideas and have spent waaaaaay too much time on such a seemingly simple problem. I wold really appreciate it if someone could give me some guidance on this. Oh and I am using MAME version .122U1. I know it's old but I have a stable rom set and I really don't want to go through all that mess again. Thanks!