How do I tell mame 137b to use my ctrlr file?

[SmokinGun]

Hello all,

I recently redid my mame cab and am setting up my controls.  I have a slikstik cab with 2 player joystick, Windows XP, Hyperspin FE, Mame version 137b.

I could go into mame and press tab and set each control for all games one by one, but I would like to use the ctrlr file for slikstik to avoid having to do this.  Normally to do this you open the mame.ini and edit the ctrlr section.  I found my mame.ini, opened it up and there is no ctrlr section.  I tried adding one, no good.  I read on here about people editing the core input options section in mame.ini but I don't have one of those either.  I have a ctrlr folder in the same folder as the mame.exe with my .cfg files.  How do I tell mame to use my ctrlr file?

Below is my current mame.ini. 

[exe info]
path=.\Mame\
rompath=.\Mame\roms\
userompath          = true
exe=mame.exe
romextension        = zip
parameters          =
searchsubfolders    = false
pcgame              = false
winstate            = HIDDEN
hyperlaunch=true

[filters]
parents_only=false
themes_only=false
wheels_only=false

[themes]
use_parent_vids=true
use_parent_themes=true
animate_out_default = false
reload_backgrounds  = false

[wheel]
alpha=0.15
small_alpha = 1
style               = normal
speed               = high
pin_center_width    = 500
horz_wheel_y        = 512
vert_wheel_position=right
y_rotation          = right
norm_large          = 360
norm_small          = 230
vert_large          = 400
vert_small          = 240
pin_large           = 500
pin_small           = 200
horz_large          = 240
horz_small          = 150
letter_wheel_x      = 800
letter_wheel_y      = 384
text_width          = 700
text_font=Style2
small_text_width    = 260
large_text_width    = 400
text_stroke_size=6
text_stroke_color=0x000000
text_color1=0x00BFFD
text_color2=0xFFFFFF
text_color3=0x00BFFD
color_ratio=139
shadow_distance     = 0
shadow_angle        = 45
shadow_color=0x000000
shadow_alpha=1
shadow_blur=0

[pointer]
animated=true
x                   = 975
y                   = 384

[video defaults]
path=.\MAME\Video\

[sounds]
game_sounds         = true
wheel_click         = true

[navigation]
game_jump=50
use_indexes=false
jump_timer=400
remove_info_wheel=false
remove_info_text=false
use_last_game=true
last_game=tmht2p
random_game=false

[Special Art A]
default=false
active=true
x=512
y=720
in=0.4
out=0.4
length=3
delay=0
type=normal
start=bottom

[Special Art B]
default=true
active=true
x=512
y=740
in=0.4
out=0.4
length=3
delay=0
type=fade
start=none

[Special Art C]
active=true
x=512
y=384
in=0
out=0
length=3
delay=10
type=fade
start=none

[Game Text]
game_text_active    = true
show_year           = true
show_manf           = true
show_description    = true
text_color1         = 0xffffff
text_color2         = 0x0099cc
stroke_color        = 0x000000
text_font           = Style1
text1_textsize      = 26
text1_strokesize    = 7
text1_x             = 32
text1_y             = 610
text2_textsize      = 36
text2_strokesize    = 8
text2_x             = 30
text2_y             = 640

[brian_hoffman]

Smoking gun,
 I am sorry but you are really confused. You are using Hyperspin as a FE. That is HS's MAME.ini used for the mame menu.
Mame.exe (the emulator) has its own INI and SHOULD be in the same directory your mame.exe is located in.
If it is not, simply open a command prompt. Navigate to your mame directory. Then type. "mame.exe -cc" without quotes.
This will generate a MAME.ini, it will have all the settings you need. Including the ability to specify a cntrl file.

Brian

[SmokinGun]

Brian,

Thanks for your help.  I created the mame.ini, pointed it to slikstik.cfg and my controls are set.  I had some issues with getting the trackball and spinner to work but I read about enabling the mouse in other posts on here and got it working.