MESS - Do you have to be a genius?

[Narcissus04]

So lately I've been trying to get the Atari 2600, C64 and Nes working with Mala.

Fair enough, I haven't piled a great deal of time into these emulators but I'm really not getting anywhere.

The C64 I'm using CCS64 I genuinely have no idea if it works because I never have enough time to wait for a game to load.

I tried using FCEUX for Nes but I can't get it to fullscreen or exit properly.

And for the 2600 I tried using Z26, which in a fashion works but it seems to randomly choose which buttons to work with when you start it (I may be remembering wrong here but I'm sure I only had one button on my atari).

Trying to install MESS has only left me feeling like a helpless child in some sort of confusing universe - I seem to be missing an ini file I never knew I should have?

So before I dive in trying to get the Dreamcast and Saturn going - anyone, any clues on any of this?

P.s. Still can't get Project Tempest to exit.

[Vigo]

I tried mucking with MESS once as well, it was too much effort since I didn't really need it.

For NES, I don't remember what needed to be adjusted to set escape to exit, I do remember it is mappable though. If I remember right, you had to open the config file in notepad and change the settings there. You can try Nestopia or VirtuaNES. They are both just as easy to set up as well.

For c64 use Vice. Fair warning though, setting up C64 properly is a ton of work, so I would recommend that you only do a handful of games that you really like. What I did (and this takes time) is create a snapshot file for each of your games. If you really enjoy c64, it's worth the effort though.

Pretty much what you have to do is load each game one at a time directly from Vice. Once the game is to the start point that you want to appear when you boot the game, go to the vice toolbar and create a snapshot file. If I remember right, they had a .vsf extention. You can save it in the same directory as your disk images.

Now in Mala, change the file type that it looks for. (I believe it defaults to look for .d64, .t64, .tap) Change that to look for .vsf instead. When you load up the 64, it should instantly take you right to the start of the game.

[Narcissus04]

For c64 use Vice. Fair warning though, setting up C64 properly is a ton of work, so I would recommend that you only do a handful of games that you really like. What I did (and this takes time) is create a snapshot file for each of your games. If you really enjoy c64, it's worth the effort though.

Pretty much what you have to do is load each game one at a time directly from Vice. Once the game is to the start point that you want to appear when you boot the game, go to the vice toolbar and create a snapshot file. If I remember right, they had a .vsf extention. You can save it in the same directory as your disk images.

Now in Mala, change the file type that it looks for. (I believe it defaults to look for .d64, .t64, .tap) Change that to look for .vsf instead. When you load up the 64, it should instantly take you right to the start of the game.

That is actually a fantastic idea - one which entirely escaped me, so I'll try that.

I was sort of hoping MESS might solve my Atari 2600 problem. Unless anyone knows where I can get the hacked z26.

[empardopo]

Take a look this link (in spanish)

[Narcissus04]

Thanks for the help, still struggling with WinVICE but I think I'll stick with it for C64.

I've FINALLY got MESS working thanks to that Spanish tutorial and the google translate tool, so thankyou so much for that - it's given me Nes and Atari 7800.

Anyone managed to get Neo Geo CD and Neo Geo Pocket working with MESS?

[FALSE]

Noob question.... 
Is there a reason to use mess instead of individual emulators for the systems you want to emulate?

[empardopo]

That's what I thought ... 
I also prefer to use a special emulator for each system.
Greetings!

[Narcissus04]

Tbh MESS is just about the last emulator I tried, because for ages I couldn't seem to download a straight executable and then I didn't understand because I didn't get the MESSui file for some other reason (all a mess).

MESS for me was a bit of a last resort for A) Emulators I couldn't get to work properly and B) Emulators I didn't want to spend a great deal of time configuring.

[Nightvoice]

Whether it's worth switching to MESS vs. using individual system emulators is a question of what you want out of it.  MESS offers you all (or most) of MAME's display and controller options, but some shortfalls I've found are:

1.  Atari 2600:  I had to use Stella to run Starmaster, but all other cartridges run on MESS.

2.  Commodore 64:  C64 WILL run in MESS, but it lacks the "flip list" feature that WinVICE has, a must when you're running games where you have to change floppies over and over.  Also, its speed is pretty slow in MESS (as of this writing).