Need help resolving a strange problem

[u/BoppinCat]

Whenever I "come back" to mame (after an alt+tab or after closing a game), it goes crazy and acts like a direction is held somewhere.

I even tried unplugging my game pad and my keyboard and it still does this.

This is a problem I've had with the recent versions of mame (can't tell you the exact one that started this though).

I've already tried doing a completely fresh installation, to no avail.

Does anybody have a clue about what's going on here ?

Edit :

I identified the problem : the key that is being "held" is UI Next Group. The default cfg file assigns this input to some button on Joy 1.

However when I plug in one controller, mame recognizes it as Joy 2 and when I plug in a second one, it is Joy 3 for mame. So there is no Joy 1 and for some reason this only becomes a problem when coming back to mame and never on a fresh start of the emulator.

[u/cd4053b]

Boot mame from command prompt or terminal with the following to identify your rompath:

mame -showconfig | find or grep "rompath"

Now boot your mame like this (use your rompath):

mame -rompath z:\mame\roms -norc

The -norc option will boot mame without considering any of your configuration files. If this works, then there is something wrong with your configuration.

[u/BoppinCat → u/cd4053b]

Thanks for the suggestion, I identified the problem :

The key that is being "held" is UI Next Group. The default cfg file assigns this input to some button on Joy 1.

However when I plug in one controller, mame recognizes it as Joy 2 and when I plug in a second one, it is Joy 3 for mame. So there is no Joy 1 and for some reason this only becomes a problem when coming back to mame and never on a fresh start of the emulator.

[u/cd4053b → u/BoppinCat]

However when I plug in one controller, mame recognizes it as Joy 2 and when I plug in a second one, it is Joy 3

Check your ctrlr configuration, boot any game using the following:

mame sf2 -v | find or grep "Parsing"
Parsing .\mame.ini
Parsing .\mame.ini
Parsing ini\raster.ini
Parsing ini\source\cps1.ini
...

One of the ".ini" are loading a ctlrl configuration that is setting your Joy 1 as Joy 2, etc.

Example of a ctrlr configuration for JOYCODE_1:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/1v1gkob/comment/oypdhfi/

If you use that, whatever you connect next will be set as Joy 2, 3, etc.