Player 2 controls not working in MAME64

[TX_Chris]

I am a week into my MAME journey and almost have everything configured and running, but I am struggling with getting the system to respond to in-game usage of the P2 controls - buttons and joystick.  I am using hyperspin as a front end, but have disabled hyperlauncher and am just using the mame64 emulator.  I have manually configured each of the functions in the MAME64 configuration screens for both player 1 and 2.  However, when it's player 2's turn, the player 2 controls do not work but the P1 controls do work for P2.  It is behaving like the system thinks there is only one set of buttons and one joystick.  Any suggestions on where to start looking?

[BadMouth]

  However, when it's player 2's turn, the player 2 controls do not work but the P1 controls do work for P2.  It is behaving like the system thinks there is only one set of buttons and one joystick.  Any suggestions on where to start looking?

Most of the old games where the players took turns only had one joystick, so there's no reason to expect a second joystick to work for player 2.
You could use MAME's in game menu (TAB) to map both joysticks to player 1 controls so they both work all the time.

[TX_Chris]

Thank you - that may explain it.  I have only been trying traditionally 1 joystick games like dig-dug, frogger, and pac man.

[Malenko]

Thank you - that may explain it.  I have only been trying traditionally 1 joystick games like dig-dug, frogger, and pac man.

you can map the controls for those games to work on both controls, but me mindful if youre playing against a --missioncontrol--, they'de be able to control the other players guy out of turn. Best solution is to share the stick, no homo.