Ok, new approach. I've got everything looking good in Windows 8.1. However, when I launch the game from Attract Mode, the keyboard does not respond once in the emulator. The keyboard is still on (the caps lock and num lock lights turn on). It's just that MAME is not responding to input. Can't go into MAME setup with tab, can't exit with escape... nothing.
When I launch a game from MAME.exe or Arcade64 it works, but when I launch from AM, no keyboard response.