Help: Mame32 control setup with a custom CP

[Gatt]

Hi all,

Could use a hand in understanding what I need to do to make things work out right.

I'm building a custom control panel that will be a slightly modified SlikStik Co2 unit.

What it will have is Happ 49-ways in place of the normal 8-ways on GP-wiz49's,  the top firing joysticks found on the normal Co2 unit,  and a flightstick in place of the dedicated 4-way joystick.  Everything but the 49-ways are going on an I-pac4

My question is,  Is there a way to set this up globaly so that all of the joysticks work properly,  or do I need to redefine inputs on the games I wish to use the extra hardware?

I.e.  Can I set things up globaly so that when I launch Crazy Climber,  Robotron,  or Smash TV the secondary joysticks work immediately,  and then if I launch say Afterburner the Flightstick works immediately?

Or do I need to redefine the inputs when I launch the games and program in the controls I wish to use for the unusual games?

I did try searching,  and the impression I'm getting is my extra hardware will need configured as Player 1,  Player 2,  and Player 3 for the extra 3 joysticks in the Ipac and then game specifically defined.

Any help is appriciated as this is my first attempt at building my own CP.

(Yes,  I realize I'm going to have a "Frakenpanel".  I figured I'd do this for my first attempt and then when I'm more comfortable do a modular one)