I think you may be onto something. I used your standalone MAME config in RA for Enduro Racer. The buttons worked but i could not steer left or right. However, after i manually remapped the buttons using TAB, my RA MAME cfg for Enduro Racer looks like this.-
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I am thinking maybe the reason why my MAME configs looks so empty could because i do input assignments (in general) for standalone and not individual input assignments. Kind of makes sense when i compare the two cfg files.
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Mine was just a test and wasn’t meant to be a functioning remap. You can maybe look at your “default.cfg” and copy and paste the relevant values from there.
As to your original post… I never had to actually “save” anything. Making changes and exiting the menu was enough.
It seems that copying your “cfg/*.cfg” should have worked anyway. I’m still a bit confused.
Unfortunately nothing is working. Thank you for your assistance. Maybe in the future, this option will make it’s way onto the RA MAME core.
Thank you for all of your help Duimon. I will not bother you any further. My apologies for taking much of your time. Have a wonderful day.
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You should actually never see that screen in RA (Unless you need to for some reason?)
You must have the "mame_boot_to_osd = " set to “enabled” in your mame.opt.
These are my default mame.opt settings.
mame_alternate_renderer = "disabled"
mame_altres = "640x480"
mame_auto_save = "disabled"
mame_boot_from_cli = "disabled"
mame_boot_to_bios = "disabled"
mame_boot_to_osd = "disabled"
mame_buttons_profiles = "enabled"
mame_cheats_enable = "disabled"
mame_cpu_overclock = "default"
mame_lightgun_mode = "none"
mame_lightgun_offscreen_mode = "free"
mame_mame_4way_enable = "4way"
mame_mame_paths_enable = "disabled"
mame_media_type = "rom"
mame_mouse_enable = "enabled"
mame_read_config = "disabled"
mame_saves = "game"
mame_softlists_auto_media = "enabled"
mame_softlists_enable = "enabled"
mame_throttle = "disabled"
mame_write_config = "disabled"
The screen you are looking for is this one.
followed by this one.
General input should (AFAIK) be left at the default to work with the RA controls.
Something looks really wrong here. You should see a list of available systems. (Some will be greyed out.) There is no list in your shot.
I notice your MAME core version is 0.202. The current core is 0.251.
That screen is how i save inputs in the Standalone. I do see those screens in RA but my inputs only save using (Input Assignments (this system) none save using Input Assignments (general, which saves one config for all MAME games. I will give this a shot as this is a first i have heard of that- "mame_boot_to_osd = " set to “enabled” in your mame.opt.
Still no go. Do you have both Standalone MAME and RA MAME?, im curious, can you run GP Rider in both? Im curious to read your results. It’s another racer that all inputs will work in Standalone(Input Assignment(general) but only buttons work no directional inputs will work without using (Input Assignments(system) which is also the only way to save any inputs to any MAME games in RA.
I’m still concerned why you don’t see a list of available systems. You should at least see greyed out systems or systems like Jaaks that don’t require a bios.
Here is a shot of my MAME core OSD showing general settings and it appears that saving is enabled.
Notice my long list of available systems.
I don’t think your issue is due to any deficiency in the current core.
Is there any reason you don’t update your MAME core?
No apology is needed, this is what a community is for. 
The screenshot is not my MAME. I just wanted to show the save setting option that is missing from the RA MAME core.
What’s going on with this character in your ini file?
I prefer readconfig and writeconfig to be 1. If you want to set it once and not change it by mistake, I think it is better to set readconfig to 1 and writeconfig to 0.
However, unless there is a special case, I think it is better to set both to 1.
And is this about MAME Arcade?
The above story seems to be about MAME SL.
The latest RA MAME core does not require an ini file, once you launch an Arcade game, a cfg file is automatically created in the save folder and the controller mapping is automatically entered.
Isn’t RA MAME core too old?
Also, if you don’t want to update the RA MAME core, it may be worth copying the ui.ini from within MAME’s ini folder.
Also, what folder is RetroArch in? If it is installed in a place other than the default, it may be blocked by security software, so there is also a way to exclude it with security software.
If you turn off Software List support, and use command line switches on instead, write config will write the switches to an ini.
This will let you use a much shorter command line, using read config.
Even if you use a lua script in place of boot commands, leaving the write config on has no I’ll effect.
As I said above, I use system opt files with special settings, and a standard mame.opt.
For arcade games in general, there is no reason to use an ini file. That is why the default values are “disabled”.
yes.
So I’m guessing the core of RA MAME is old.
If not, I’d suspect last resort, System regional issues such as Windows language location.
Is this the GP Rider?
left paddle? left wheel? was set from the left stick to the right stick, shutdown once, and started up, but it worked with the right stick without displaying the menu once.
Yes, that is GP Rider. You see, you have to manually input the directional settings via Input assignments(this system) whereas in standalone MAME, you can do all settings(directional or otherwise via Input assignments(general) and they will save.
Does this mean that the input assignments (This System) can be saved properly in standalone MAME, but not in RA MAME core?
Try updating the core of RA MAME. At least MAME 0.254 games seem to work fine.
Current RA MAME core seems to be 0.251.
It’s basically 0.251 standard. So other 0.254 games may stop working. Back up your core and try the update.
Also, without ui.ini it is not possible to call the MAME main menu from RetroArch and assign inputs there as shown in the screenshot. It can be saved only in the sub menu after RetroArch + Arcade is started.
no…
Regardless of ui.ini, you can call MAME main menue from RetroArch and think that input assignment is impossible in principle. It’s possible if you try, but I think it’s going to be pretty complicated.
This shot from the RA MAME core is virtually identical to the menu you show in your standalone shot.
You get here by enabling “Boot to OSD” in the opt and running a game.
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I just made a random change to input, using “General Settings” and it saved in /saves/cfg/default.cfg
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SUCCESS!!! enabling “Boot to OSD” in the opt and running a game.- that was the trick. My mistake was doing that inside the file itself outside of RA but i did not notice that option within RA itself! Thank you to everyone that assisted me in this challenge!, i appreciate you all for taking the time to help me!
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That is very good news! 
I’m glad you stuck with it until you got it working!