Got a free OLD arcade box, everything works but joystick2 doesn't work in game...HELP

Hello all.

So long story short, i got a free hand me down arcade/emulator. Its got some age on it but still works very well.

My problem is that the general controls of player 1 and player 2 joysticks work fine when in MALA (version 1.04, I believe that MAME is 1.37 itself?!)

Joystick1 does all the controls and Joystick2 lets you switch between different console and its games.

Once i select a game, in 1 player games, everything functions fine, no issues. however, when i go to select a 2 player game (NBA Jam) i hit the player 2 start button and its selected as player 3. its the only game i've been able to get the joystick2 to work.

When playing a 1 player game, to exit the game, i was told to hold the player1 start + player2 start and it will go back to the MALA list of games.

I believe it must be a configuration issue but i am not having any luck finding what i need as i've looked up support pages and i plugged in a keyboard and tried hitting TAB in the game but does not bring up the list of options.

I checked the directX and system settings under game controls which shows nothing. I checked the joy sticks and buttons which are all wired up to an iPac board and from the board, connected via PS/2 to the keyboard port on the motherboard.

Like i said, everything works while setting the games just not IN GAME.

would someone be kind enough to direct me to which INI file i need to edit that would assign the Joystick2 to Player2? As mentioned, trying to hit TAB in game doesn't bring anything unless i need to be in command prompt?

THANK YOU!