Cannot run MESS

[knightCrawler]

MESS makes an attempt to open but then it closes not sure what's going on but I need help since I want to use MESS on many systems.

[Lordmonkus]

Well since you didn't specify which system or systems you want to use Mess for here is a basic run down of what I have done to get it working.

Let me start off with I use a stand alone build of Mess, not a newer Mame build with Mess built in. I found it easier for folder structure and I like to keep it separate for organizational reasons.

First thing you will need is the appropriate bios files for the systems you want to emulate. Doing a Google search for "Mess bios" should give you a site with what you need. Place the bios file in the \Mess\roms\ folder.

Second is to add your rom folder location to rompath section in your mess.ini file. If you do not have a mess.ini file run the mess.exe with command parameter -cc
mess.exe -cc
This will generate an mess.ini file to configure it.

Third you will now add Mess to your list of emulators in Launchbox and add each platform you are going to use it for in the associated platforms tab. Next, for each platform you will need to setup the Default Command-Line Parameters.

Here is a page with all the different command parameters you will need for all the different systems
http://pastebin.com/18W3EbD0

And here is a screen shot of my Mess emulator associated platforms for reference and examples.

[SentaiBrad]

If you need more help, I've done two tutorials related to MESS on our channel. Click Tutorials at the top of the page.

[knightCrawler]

Thanks for your replies!!! the system I'm trying to run is the msx 2  blue msx runs very well but I does not seem compatible with command line parameters.

[DOS76]

try msx2 -cart

msx2 -cass

msx2 -flop

[SentaiBrad]

 

[SentaiBrad]

5 hours ago, DOS76 said:

try msx2 -cart

msx2 -cass

msx2 -flop

Also, the -cart, -cass, -flop commands are only ran depending on the file extension. If both MESS videos Iu have linked to materials that help you cross reference what you can do for systems I haven't covered yet. You search the system on the first resource (the website), then you take the BIOS name (like msx2), then find that listing on the second resource (the PasteBin Monkus posted that I made), and you can pick the commands based on your file extensions. MESS is tricky, but it's the only emulator that will emulate certain things.

[spycat]

Hi knightCrawler.

Regarding the issues with running MSX2 in MESS.
MESS151 supports the generic msx, msx2 and msx2p systems.
However, from about MESS155 onward and of course all the MAME builds with MESS integrated, this support has been dropped.
If you checkout the pastebin link posted above by lordmonkus for MESS174 you'll see that the msx, msx2 and msx2p systems are absent.
Apparently, with the MAME/MESS devs constantly looking for accuracy, this support of what is a specification or architecture used by many machines was abandoned in favour of support for the actual machines themselves.
So to emulate MSX1, MSX2, MSX2+ using a build of MESS later than 154 or MAME with MESS integrated you need to emulate a real MSX machine.
The problem is that there are so many of them. They were made by the likes of Sony, Yamaha, Toshiba, Canon, Mitsubishi, Panasonic and so on.
Which one is best - who knows.
Which one has the best game compatibility - again who knows.
MESS offers the following best match list.

Unknown system 'msx2'

"msx2" approximately matches the following supported machines (best match first):

ax350             AX-350 (MSX2)
ax370             AX-370 (MSX2)
canonv25          V-25 (MSX2)
canonv30          V-30 (MSX2)
canonv30f         V-30F (MSX2)
cpc300            IQ-2000 CPC-300 (Korea) (MSX2)
cpc300e           IQ-2000 CPC-300E (Korea) (MSX2)
cpc330k           CPC-330K KOBO (Korea) (MSX2)
cpc400            X-II CPC-400 (Korea) (MSX2)
cpc400s           X-II CPC-400S (Korea) (MSX2)
expert20          Expert 2.0 (Brazil) (MSX2)
expert3i          Expert 3 IDE (MSX2+)
expert3t          Expert 3 Turbo (MSX2+)
expertac          Expert AC88+ (MSX2+)
expertdx          Expert DDX+ (MSX2+)
fpc900            FPC-900 (MSX2)

Of course there are many more MSX/MSX2/MSX2+ machines available.
Some will have support for cartridge, cassette and floppy, while others will not have floppy support.
I tried out the Canon V-30 (MSX2) with MAME179 and it worked the same as the old generic msx2 using MESS151.
Out of 9 MSX2 games I tested, 8 ran and 1 failed (Aleste). This game apparently needs some sort of music file to be loaded into the cart2 slot.
By the way, bluesmx runs Aleste just fine.

As an example, to use the Canon V-30 (MSX2) machine with MAME179, the system is canonv30 and the bios needed is canonv30.zip.
In MAME's Associated Platforms tab for your MSX2 platform, the basic command line parameters are
canonv30 -cart1
or
canonv30 -flop1
or
canonv30 -cass
depending on the format of your games.

 

[SentaiBrad]

Actually when I did the MSX tutorial (a while ago now, wow time flies), I used BlueMSX in RetroArch. I can take a look in to the MESS components for this and maybe do an updated tutorial in the future though as well if you'd like, but in this case MESS is certainly not needed to MSX. I try to only choose MESS for a tutorial when it's the only choice, or some how easier (which is generally saying a lot).

 

[knightCrawler]

1. thanks for all your replies I will look into all suggestions & tutorial!

[SentaiBrad]

Of course, no problem! If you do have any questions please let us know.