Thanks for the tip Minwah. but that wasn't the problem... and I am not quite sure what WAS the problem. I am not 100% sure how MAMEWAH works, but when I changed the layout I was fine. But the thing is... when I unzipped the layouts (about a year ago) they ended up in the mamewah/layouts/layouts folder.
Since MAMEWAH worked, I never questioned the folder placement (aesthetics of the FE wasn't / isn't a priority so I never tinkered with it).
So, MAMEWAH was loading SOMETHING, I'm just not sure what. Whatever it was loading didn't accomodate the screenshots.
APf