Hi, I just tested it here, and seems to work. Please try this:
1: Load game: Cabal
2: press F5, then map buttons for p1 up/down/left/right button 1,2,3, then click "save preset"
3: For FBA .42 and lower: close the preset window with escape, then press F5 again to re-open it. This puts the new preset "in the list" for the second pulldown.
4: on the first pulldown, chose Player 1, on the second, choose "preset" (at the bottom), click "make default"
now all games which have not had their inputs previously configured will use the new settings. For old input settings, go into the config/games folder and delete all of the .ini files, so the next time you load these games, they will also use the new button settings.
bye for now,
- dink