MESS ok to run the following emulators? pros cons? re:hyperspin

[aldub516]

Hey all. So i had a quick question. I finally have a full hyperspin set up running. and now im just toying and adding a bunch of emulators since i have them and the files i need. Originally following simply austins great online tutorials, i had a few emulators running retroarch, but call me stupid, i found it very hard to change controls and just get some settings, so i started using mess..I now find that mess runs just about everything, but i wanted to know the cons. Heres the truth, i have things like intellivision, jaguar, coleco, etc more for "novelty" and historical coolness.. I think its cool just to be able to check out some fun old games and see what they were like, especially if you have kids. Of course systems like jaguar had funky game pads and such.. point is, i dont see anyone clocking hours on these console emulators, so as long as the 99% work fine, im good. My question is, are there any major problems for any of these emulators using mess, and should i use a different emulator for any of them? thus far they seem to all work fine.. Mess just seems to run so many emulators, it almost seems to easy

for instance, currently adding atari lynx. i can use mess which i have setup, but i also have "handy" emulator for lynx which i can set up.. what would make my decision here? thank you all.

mess runs the following on my system
atari 2600
atari 5200
atari 7800
atari jaguar
colecovision
intellivision
nes
snes
gameboys
sega,cd,32x,gamegear

[Nocturnaloner]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that MESS is fine for your purpose.   You may get some hardcore Atari 2600 or Apple II fan to jump up and say 'OMG, it doesn't emulate this game correctly!!' but your point is, your standards for emulation aren't as high as the fanatic.  Go for it.

[aldub516]

thank you sir.. to be honest, the tab menu is god.. And thus far im able to add everything i want with the same easy steps. As i said, im not gonna cry if atari 2600 game freezes or something.. I just think its cool to be able to browse the art and games for fun. I just like to educate myself. I guess "if it aint broke..." applies here.. mess runs lynx thus far, so im good.. Just didnt know if anyone might point out a particular emulator to use a specific system instead of mess. Thank you for the input

[Haze]

you probably don't want to run Jaguar or 32X using MAME (MESS)
both are very much preliminary.

[monkeybomb]

I recently switched to using mame for most of those systems and have been quite happy with the way everything runs.  I'm happier with SNES than I ever was with the other emulators.  I haven't been as lucky with regard to using the hyperspin artwork with mame rom names. Progetto snaps has snapshots for almost everything, but there's nothing out there like the hyperspin artwork repository and I can't really use it with this set-up.   Have you had any issues with box art and videos? 

[B2K24]

I recently switched to using mame for most of those systems and have been quite happy with the way everything runs.  I'm happier with SNES than I ever was with the other emulators.  I haven't been as lucky with regard to using the hyperspin artwork with mame rom names. Progetto snaps has snapshots for almost everything, but there's nothing out there like the hyperspin artwork repository and I can't really use it with this set-up.   Have you had any issues with box art and videos?

Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you. Even though MAME has it's faults with things like N64 and other minor things, it simply does too much correctly and I'm having an absolute blast having a complete set of software lists/ROMs/CHDs/ on my machine. With progress constantly being made (especially with HLSL and BGFX) it really provides an awesome gaming experience that can't be matched with stand-alone emulators even if they have some shader support. If you take a simple portable like Gameboy I haven't seen any other emu that can give such a nice look ---> http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2016/03/31/mame-0-172/

HyperSpin is nothing more to me now than a nice screensaver with pics/videos/themes I run on a machine from time to time when it's not really being used. I've taken all the emulators and Roms out of my entire setup because the loss in functionality and the fact it hasn't been updated in many years makes it not really worth using.

MAME has it's own Internal UI or a front-end like QMC2 is so much more efficient at allowing me to select exactly what I want to run when I wish to run it. I mean in the time it takes for HyperSpin to launch and do it's own Internal intro, I can already be in-game running Akumajou Dracula X using the PC Engine CD driver.

Even really nice looking eye candy isn't worth losing that kind of efficiency

 

[aldub516]

i dont really have a problem with hyperspins efficiency. It takes less than 2 seconds for it to boot and bring me to my main systems menu.. select system, select game.. as efficient as it gets for me. If im gonna spend the time and money to build it all, the software has to flash.... Now, what actual emulators to use was a different story lol