Ha.. if it only the solution was that simple.. and it was.
Joysticks are on by default in 0.180 so I never turned it on, but when I went to check, I saw the multi-keyboard option, I said why not.
To anyone encountering this problem:
Open mame64.exe
>Configure Machine
>Advanced Options
>turn on "Multi-Keyboard" under "Input Options"
>save in previous menu