New MA/Mame setup and having a bit of trouble

[beldave]

Hey folks - thank you for any help you can offer.

First time setup of Maximus and Mame and I've read through a lot of trouble shooting guides trying to figure this out.

When I try to load any rom in MA, I get a black screen and it hangs on that.  I've already switched the to the long form in the MA preferences and no dice.  The roms all work in Mame itself, just not MA.

Using MA 2.10 and Mame version 1.70 (which I believe includes the fix to the XML issue of machine vs game)

Running it on Windows 7.

Any advice?  Thanks!!!

EDIT:  Apparently Mame version 1.70 does still use the word machine in the gamelist file rather than game.  Currently changing it now to see if this resolves the issues.

SECOND EDIT:  It was indeed the machine/game issue with Mame v1.70.  However now, the journey begins in searching forums to figure out why the X-Arcade Tankstick controls are only half working.  Buttons are mapped correctly, but inside of a game, half of them do not work.