Reason why RetroArch crashes only from AttractMode?

[Asterra]

I've been as thorough as I can manage on this one.  If I launch a MAME game from the command line like so:

retroarch.exe -L \path\to\cores\mame_libretro.dll \MAME\roms\blkdrgon.zip

It works without a hitch.  However, if I do the same exact thing from within AttractMode, RetroArch crashes uneventfully and without anything in the log to suggest something went wrong (implying RetroArch is functioning like it does outside of AttractMode and not generating the error itself).  The odd thing is that I can use the same RA core (mame_libretro.dll) to run other platforms, such as ColecoVision.  Here is the command from my ColecoVision config:

args                 -L /RetroArch/cores/mame_libretro.dll "coleco -cart1 \"[romfilename]\" -rp /MAME/roms"

and here is the command from my MAME config:

args                 -L /RetroArch/cores/mame_libretro.dll "[romfilename]"

Copy-pasted.  As you can see, there's no reason why this should be happening.

Summary: MAME-arcade-via-RA works outside of AttractMode, MAME-colecovision-via-RA works inside AttractMode, but MAME-arcade-via-RA doesn't work inside AttractMode.

[Asterra]

I have tinkered with this a bit more.  I tried forcing AttractMode to run a bat file:

/Emulators/RetroArch/retroarch.exe -L /RetroArch/cores/mame_libretro.dll /MAME/roms/blkdrgonb.zip

This still caused a crash.  But the logs were indicating that RetroArch was being prevented from finding the file (unlike when attempted outside of AttractMode).  So I tried dumping the bat file directly into the /MAME/roms directory and changing it to:

/Emulators/RetroArch/retroarch.exe -L /RetroArch/cores/mame_libretro.dll blkdrgonb.zip

This time, while it did indeed crash again, it actually began loading MAME.  It crapped out when it was unable to find the individual rom files stored in the zip directory.  So, at the most fundamental I've been able to investigate, AttractMode is somehow preventing RetroArch from doing the tasks it needs to do in order to recognize the rom as valid -- uniquely, only for MAME arcade and not for MAME-originated platforms like ColecoVision.  I am baffled.

Has anyone gotten MAME working through RetroArch and AttractMode?  I strongly suspect not.  Another fellow did ask about this ( http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1703.0 ), but the permutations offered in the final post all give the same (crash) result.