EUREKA!!!
So I got to thinking, and I’ve ALWAYS turned on the options in Options>Saving to put my saves and savestates in my content directory! So I isolated those two lines, and put a core override for MAME like so:
savestates_in_content_dir = "false"
savefiles_in_content_dir = "false"
Then put my existing MAME config in the save dir and BOOM!!! IT’S ALIVE!!!
lightning strikes and thunder crashes MWAHAHAHAHA!!!
Ok, but seriously though, that completely fixed the issue. So, for some reason, the Neo Geo CD setup via mame get’s confused about where it’s supposed to read/write the cfg files to if ‘save to content dir’ options are enabled.
I NEVER would have figured that out without your guys help. Like, it never would have occured to me the cfg files were being handled as saves.
Now I need to actually sit down and curate this set of games. I’m missing a bunch of random ones lol
Again though, thanks guys.