Is there not an easy way to change controls on a per driver basis?
"Easy"? Depends what's easy for you. To me, ctrlr is very easy.
- 1) Copy cfg/defualt.cfg to ctrlr folder (if you want your ctrlr default to be different from mame's default, set up the cfg with the normal tab, input general).
- 2) Rename it whatever you want.
- 3) Open file in text editor.
- 4) Copy everything from <system name="default"> to </system>.
- 5) Paste AFTER the last </system>.
- 6) Change name="default" to name="XYZ", where XYZ is the driver name (AKA "neogeo"). (It could also be the gamename or parentname, but all <system> drivers should be after the default, all parentnames should be after all drivers, and all gamenames should be after there parent name, if any.)*
- 7) Make changes.*
- 7a) (optional) It's a good idea to delete the lines that are not different from the default ones so changes to to the default in the ctrlr file also take effect.
- 8 ) Save.
- set mame/mame32 ctrlr to whatever you named the file in step 2)
*If these two steps are not easy enough, replace steps 4-7 with: start a neogeo game, set tab input (this game), exit, open the game's cfg file in same text editor, copy the system stuff, paste in the default ctrlr cfg file you already have opened in step 3) AFTER the default system, rename the sytem name to neogeo (name=neogeo), (optional) delete the none <input></input> stuff in the neogeo <system>, goto step 8 ).
Also, good examples come with mame; check out ctrlr/hotrodse.cfg. Heck you could probably just edit the hotrodse.cfg file.
See, easy.

BTW, easyemu's page is pretty good; just don't confuse the first third of the page (the new ctrlr cfg way) with the last two thirds (the old ctrlr ini way), and don't read it drunk/wasted/sleepy with the default small font ([ctrl +] in firefox/mozilla; view,font size in IE).