MAME .85 is out and it brings a lot of cool new improvments, most noteably the conversion of cfg files and ctrlr ini files to a more flexible, xml-based format. What sucks about that is if you use ctrlr files extensively (If you don't then you should, as they are easier to manage than going through the mame menus.) then you'll have to re-write all of your ini files in the new format.
Think again..... As usual, I've got ya covered. This simple set and forget app converts any valid set of ctrlr files into the new cfg file format.
Check out the post at the website for more info.
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus/