fromlostdays Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but I recently learned that MAME absorbed MESS. Tonight I wanted to sit down and get MAME 171 running, and maybe also the latest RA MAME core which I also hear will emulate MESS systems. The problem: I can't find any documentation on how to set this up. So my questions Does the new MAME require a set of MESS Bios? If so where to put them? If not... what? (I tried putting them into the roms folder in the mame directory, doesn't see them there) Same question for the RA MAME core. Any other tweaks needed to get these working? Thanks! PS, my final question: What is the plural form of Bios? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 I quite honestly would skip dealing with MESS and just deal with RetroArch, for the 1 or 2 systems that you may want to try though: http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/MESS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 BIOS' BIOS's who knows the BIOS files would probably how I would use it in a plural form one BIOS file multiple BIOS files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromlostdays Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 I am with you on the skipping MESS part, but this MAME/MESS integration, I think, is worth looking into. There just doesn't seem to be any documentation on how to set it up. The same can be said about the newest MAME RA core which I understand should also support Mess systems now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 I had another go at this last night and it ended in me curling up in the fetal position rocking back and forth. Ok maybe not that bad but I had zero luck with it. The documentation for it is bad at best and what does exist is beyond confusing so for now i'm just abandoning the whole idea. I simply don't care enough about emulating those older computer systems though it would be nice to have the X68000 working under Retroarch with it's simple controller setup and fancy shmancy shaders (yes, shmancy is a word). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromlostdays Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 Thanks for trying, lordmonkus, and reaffirming that I'm not crazy. Seems like this would be big news. I have an old version of RA specifically for the MESS core, and tonight I'll see if it'll run the Sharp. If I recall, the limiting factor was always odd file extensions on the older/comp systems and the core itself being suprisingly not versatile in that regard, but I think my X68000 are bin. If it does, I'll try to figure out why. At any rate, I'll hit you up later with the results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Cool, though it's really not that big of a deal. The X68000 is cool and all but the reality is that what it did so well was that it did arcade ports to near perfection but with Mame that kinda negates the need for the X68000. The Castlevania on the X68k was good too but that game was re released on the Playstation as Castlevania Chronicles so unless there's some really weird obscure system exclusive gems on the system it's not really worth the hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spycat Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Mess is integrated into Mame since version 0.162. I'm a newcomer to Mess and just feeling my way about. I'm using Mame 0.171 and so far only added 2 Mess systems, because I couldn't find an emulator for one and the other didn't have game saving in it's emulator. How you add your Mess stuff isn't too important as long as Mame is aware of where things are. The Mame Configuration Settings (ini) file, Core Search Path Options, rompath needs to be edited to know about any new paths. When I decided to add Mess stuff I made a new folder inside the Mame roms folder and called it mess as I wanted to keep Mame and Mess stuff separate. In this mess folder I made subfolders for each system I wanted to add. These subfolders match the system shortnames. For the Funtech Super A'Can system I made a subfolder called supracan. For my Epoch Super Cassette Vision games I added a folder named scv. Most systems need a Mess bios file unique to each system, but not all systems need a bios file. Super Cassette Vision games need a bios file while Super A'Can games do not. The bios is named after the system's shortname. So the Super Cassette Vision bios is named scv.zip and it goes into the scv folder along with my SCV games. Once all done in Mame, setting things up in LaunchBox is straightforward. Say you decide to add a new LaunchBox Platform for say Super A'Can games to run with the Mess side of Mame. Open your Mame Edit Emulator window and add the associated platform with it's own parameters. Usually you'll use 2 parameters, the system shortname followed by the media type. For the Super A'Can the parameters are supracan -cart And then add your games pointing LaunchBox to the game zips. Mess doesn't seem to be too fussy and it will accept the game zip in the full or shortname (Mame style) version. It will also accept the unzipped game. I use the Mame style, renaming where I need to. I agree with Brad and Derek on Mess. Most systems can be handled very well using either RetroArch or standalone emulators. If neither of these options can help you with a system, then by all means see if Mess will do it. Bear in mind that while the Mess systems list is large, not all work and some work without full support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromlostdays Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 In this mess folder I made subfolders for each system I wanted to add. These subfolders match the system shortnames. Will MAME default to these locations? My problem was that inside the MAME 171 UI, there's an option to set Rompath, but not path to bios. So is folders named after the bios the default? Or do you have to manually set the path in the ini under this: "Core Search Path Options" I really appreciate the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 fromlostdays said In this mess folder I made subfolders for each system I wanted to add. These subfolders match the system shortnames. Will MAME default to these locations? My problem was that inside the MAME 171 UI, there's an option to set Rompath, but not path to bios. So is folders named after the bios the default? Or do you have to manually set the path in the ini under this: "Core Search Path Options" I really appreciate the input. The BIOS would go in the Rompath just like in MAME, at least this is what I remember reading. I tried getting MESS set up previously too and it just didn't seem worth the hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spycat Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Hi fromlostdays. The Mame ini file does not have or need a setting specifically for Mess bios files. The rompath setting is used for all. So when I use a rompath setting of roms;roms\mess\scv;roms\mess\supracan Mame-Mess will pick up my scv.zip bios in roms\mess\scv This is just how I am doing it as I probably will never use more than a few Mess systems, and only then as a last resort. If you plan on using Mess in a big way and want all the systems, then using my approach would result in an unwieldy rompath and best avoided. Instead if you need to have lots or all of the Mess bios files, you would be better off keeping them together in one location. By the way I think there are about 1800 of them. As far as I know to do it this way some conditions apply. The Mess bios files must all go in the Mame roms folder and nowhere else. Each bios must be zipped. They must be named the same as their system shortnames. As regards being zipped and correctly named, they should automatically come like that from whereever. And then your games can go whereever you would like I believe. It's all down to what you need and prefer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spycat Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Just an update on Mess bios files. With the integration of Mess into Mame, the Mess bios files are now included in the full Mame romset. So if you have the latest full Mame romset, then you will also have all the latest Mess bios files. On the other hand, if you just have a collection of Mame games individually sourced, then you will need to manually source any Mess bios files you need. Mess bios packs exist, but they are usually for old Mess builds and will predate the Mess integration. Most of a pack's bios files may be still valid, but some may be outdated. Look for an up to date source of Mame individual romsets and browse for the Mess bios files you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromlostdays Posted March 18, 2016 Author Share Posted March 18, 2016 This would explain it. I'm using a probably super old mess bios pack, and MAME 171 doesn't seem to want to have much to do with it. I'll work on getting a 171 set, which should prove a pain as I'm shitlisted on PD. I don't keep my MAME roms in my MAME directory, any confirmation that this isn't problematic for the bios files? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 I don't know for sure but I would assume that if you have the right files and they are kept in the directory that you have pointed MAME to then that shouldn't be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ransom Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 (edited) its a pain.. grab a mess bios pack and rebuild with Clrmamepro to your mame version.. then rebuild your roms to the "mame versions" I put all my bios into roms and system roms in subfolders in a different path. if you want to launch directly from MAME add the additional paths to your roms folder. Edited February 26, 2017 by Ransom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromlostdays Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 I appreciate all the responses! I actually did wind up figuring this out a few days ago. Step one was getting an updated version of mame and roms. But for rocketlauncher users, the step that's easy to miss is that you have to point rocketlauncher to your mame roms even if it's not a mame system. So I set my apple II rompath to both my apple II roms AND to my mame roms and joy. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ransom Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 yeah its weird, in hindsite, it wasnt that hard to configure MAME/MESS but there was no tutorials or decent documentation on working with Software List ROMS. Even something like putting -cart in the command line took me time to find/figure out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 We've had MESS tutorials for several months now. I ended up figuring it out. The problem was the documentation, but once I figured it out it wasn't much, if any, harder than RetroArch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Flint Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 (edited) If you edit the RetroArch.ini file in RocketLauncher\Modules\RetroArch you can specify the location for the MAME BIOS files. Add these two lines: [mame] BIOS_Roms_Folder=..\Emulators\RetroArch\system\mame\roms (or the path to your MAME/MESS BIOS files) Use the mame core in RetroArch This way you can keep all of the BIOS files in one location. You should be able to use RetroArch and the MAME core for all of the old systems like Bally Astrocade, Arcadia 2001, Entex, Channel F etc. Edited April 22, 2017 by Paul Flint 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Flint Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 If you want to use the MESS core, put them in a folder RetroArch\system\mess2014\roms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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