Thanks for the reply. I checked out nes.xml, and interestingly there is no entry for Super Tecmo Bowl, which is the game I am trying to run.
I can easily get the game to run via command line with mam64, so I know it works, but it isn't in the XML file.
I honestly don't understand how MA goes about pulling the ROM information in. If I did, that would be a big help. Generally , whatever ROM I put in the ROM folder within the MAME directory structure just show up, but unfortunately, with the NES game, it does not. I have tried leaving it as a .zip file, and as a .nes file (and adding .nes to extensions to be scanned in MA).
I'm a bit stumped on this one.