SDLMAME and OutRun controller problem

[jgdeschamps]

Hey guys, first post.
I'm Julio and I'm an avid Sega arcade games fan.
I used to run MAME for OSX and had lots of Sega ROMs that worked pretty well. I changed computers three years ago and never installed back MAME.
Until recently.
I'm using SDLMAME under Yosemite and it runs all games just fine, except for OutRun. The game starts up nice and runs pretty smooth, but it won't respond to any type of input (neither analogue nor digital) for the paddle and pedals.
I've already changed from 0 to 1 the joystick setting in the mame.ini file and the automap setting to joystick to no avail. Only the insert coin, start and gear up/down settings work. My keyboard and joystick are recognized as an input in MAME and I can assign them within the general inputs and this game inputs, but when I play the game... nada.
Any ideas? Maybe an obscure mame.ini setting that I should change? I've been able to make my keyboard and gamepad work just fine for Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Shinobi, etc. But OutRun is misbehaving.
I'll greatly appreciate any help you could offer.

[deadlegion]

Thread moved.

[jgdeschamps]

Thanks for moving the thread! Sorry for posting on the Sega forums.
As additional info, I already tried Hang On, and both analogue and digital controls work perfectly when mapped to my gamepad or my Mac's keyboard.
I've also noticed that if I use Pause while playing, once I return to the game I lose the gamepad connection to SDLMAME. It just stops working.
I'm using SDLMAME v.0.161.