> Hi new to this hope I have right section I have just downloaded MAME and its
> great one problem I want to know how to make my gamepad work with games can
> anyone help please i cant seem to get it working.. regards Wayne
>

You might want to try MAME32 instead (or a variant of MAME32 like MAME32FX or MAME Plus!), it's a GUI version of MAME that I figure newbies find easier to use:

MAME32

MAME32FX

MAME Plus!

Optimized MAME/MAME32 builds

As for your question, you can go here, there's a MAME newbie tutorial that will help you out - click the link for "MAME" on the left and select "Controllers & Keys" to find out more info about setting up/configuring gamepads and changing the default key assignments.

You can also check out the MAME FAQ here
and here