I got maximus to work with a newer Mame version but it is all horrible.
Changed Path in config to "long", converted XML files , tied and did a lot of stuff.
Wasted a lot of time with it and still some things do not work correct.
Lost Maximus config some time and saw read error message, fixed it but adding new roms is allways a pain !
Yesterday I tried out the Lauchbox fronted and all I can tell is, it is just working as expected , fast, easy and clean !
Forget about maximus.