MESS
MESS is a free emulator that can emulate a variety of systems. The current release (0.1) supports the NES, Sega Genesis/Megadrive, TRS-80, Colour Genie, and Colecovision. It is written in C and the source code is available for download. Ready-made binaries are available for a variety of systems. v0.2b4, a public beta version, is also available. This version also supports the Apple ][ Series, Atari800, Atari5200, Bally Astrocade, Kaypro 2x, PDP-1, Sega Master System/Game Gear, and Vectrex.
Recent Updates
31/8/98 - Solaris 0.2b4 is now available!
Download
Binaries
Filename Platform Version macos02b4.sit.hqx MacOS 0.2b4 dosb02b4.zip DOS 0.2b4 solar02b4.tgz Solaris 0.2b4 dos01.zip DOS 0.1 ampup01.lha Amiga PowerUP 0.1 arm01.zip ARM 0.1 macos01.sit.hqx MacOS 0.1 solar01.tgz Solaris 0.1 Mac Users - The MacOS version of MESS requires a copy of InputSprocket, which can be downloaded from http://www.unsupported.com/.
Source Code
Filename Platform Version macsrc02b4.sit.hqx Mac Overrides 0.2b4 src2b4.zip DOS Overrides 0.2b4 unix02b4.tgz Unix Source 0.1 src2b4.zip Core Source 0.2b4 src01.zip Core Source 0.1 unix01.tgz Unix Source 0.1 macsrc01.sit.hqx MacOS Overrides 0.1 amsrc01.lha Amiga Overrides 0.1
Screenshots
These screenshots are all taken from MESS 0.2b1. Updated screenshots from 0.2b4 will be available shortly.
Legal
- Purpose - MESS is strictly a no profit project. Its main purpose is to be a reference to the inner workings of the emulated systems. This is done for educational purposes and to preserve many historical games from the oblivion they would sink into when the hardware they run on will stop working. Of course to preserve the games you must also be able to actually play them; you can see that as a nice side effect. It is not our intention to infringe any copyrights or patents pending on the original games. All of the source code is either our own or freely available. To work, the emulator requires ROMs from the original systems, which must be provided by the user. No portion of the code of the original ROMs is included in the executable.
- Cost - MESS is free. The source code is free. Selling it is not allowed.
- ROM Images - You are not allowed to distribute MESS and ROM images on the same physical medium. You ARE allowed to make them available for download on the same web site, but only if you warn users about the copyright status of the ROMs and the legal issues involved. You are NOT allowed to make MESS available for download together with one giant big file containing all of the supported ROMs, or any files containing more than one ROM set each. You are not allowed to distribute MESS in any form if you sell, advertise or publicize illegal CD-ROMs or other media containing ROM images. Note that the restriction applies even if you don't directly make money out of that. The restriction of course does not apply if the CD-ROMs are published by the ROMs copyrights owners.
- Distribution Integrity - MESS must be distributed only in the original archives. You are not allowed to distribute a modified version, nor to remove and/or add files to the archive. Adding one text file to advertise your web site is tolerated only if your site contributes original material to the emulation scene.
- Source Code Distribution - If you distribute the binary, you should also distribute the source code. If you can't do that, you must provide a pointer to a place where the source can be obtained.
- Reuse of Source Code - This chapter might not apply to specific portions of MESS (e.g. CPU emulators) which bear different copyright notices. The source code cannot be used in a commercial product without a written authorization of the authors. Use in non commercial products is allowed and indeed encouraged; however if you use portions of the MESS source code in your program, you must make the full source code freely available as well. Derivative works are allowed (provided source code is available), but discouraged: MESS is a project continuously evolving, and you should, in your best interest, submit your contributions to the development team, so that they are integrated in the main distribution. Usage of the _information_ contained in the source code is free for any use. However, given the amount of time and energy it took to collect this information, we would appreciate if you made the additional information you might have freely available as well.
Contacting the Authors
Please note that the authors of MESS all receive a huge volume of e-mail, so please do not be offended if you don't receive a reply to your message. That said, your message will not be replied to if your question is covered in the manual or in the Legal section above. Any requests for ROM files for MESS will be forwarded to the Software Publishers Association. You have been warned.Finally, please note that a number of people lately have sent e-mails asking when the next release of MESS will be available. Please don't! It will be available as soon as it is ready. Thank you.
Person Responsibility Brad Oliver MESS Co-ordinator; NES; MacOS Binary bradman@primenet.com Richard Bannister MacOS Binary & WWW Page titan@indigo.ie Mike Balfour Coleco & Apple ][ Drivers mab22@po.cwru.edu Gareth Long Genesis Driver & ARM Binary gatch@elecslns.demon.co.uk Hans De Goede Unix Version j.w.r.degoede@et.tudelft.nl Jeff Mitchell Unix Version & Support skeezix@skeleton.org Juergen Buchmueller TRS-80, Colour Genie, & Atari800/5200 Drivers. Pullmoll@t-online.de
Links
The Official MAME Emulator Page
Retrocade Home Page
© 1998 The MESS Team
![Apple ][](MESSGFX/APPLE2.GIF)
