MESS 0.116

[xulchris]

Have you tried just erasing your config files? I know it's annoying to have to set everything back, but it could help in this case.

 

I'm not sure what you are referring to here, but we do have some preliminary code in MESS to auto-detect input device. So hopefully soon MESS can behave like stella and automagically configure the correct input device for you for each game.

[NightSprinter]

Well, I know a ot of problems I had with emulation in general for MESS went away when I deleted the config files for each system.

 

Speaking of problems: the Colecovision driver was seriously broken in this release. The background is a sky-blue, and Donkey Kong freezes after selecting the number of players and difficulty level. The NES driver is still lacking an emulated PCM channel (whereas the PC10 games in MAME sound fine).

[xulchris]

Well, I know a ot of problems I had with emulation in general for MESS went away when I deleted the config files for each system.

 

Speaking of problems: the Colecovision driver was seriously broken in this release. The background is a sky-blue, and Donkey Kong freezes after selecting the number of players and difficulty level. The NES driver is still lacking an emulated PCM channel (whereas the PC10 games in MAME sound fine).

 

Yes sometimes the drivers change and you have to remove your config files.

 

Please use MESS Bugzilla to file bugs. I'd like to keep this thread specific to Atari drivers and namely the 2600 improvements. I'm not interested in any other driver except 2600 and Apple 2 so if there are bugs in other drivers please report them to bugzilla yourself. Thanks.

[Wilbert]

Tac Scan does not start a game - Just sits at logo...Unless I am missing something. Tried pressing all fire buttons and reset...Not a thing occurs

 

Switch to paddles, and use the player 4 paddle controls to play the game.

[xulchris]

In Warlords the "Green Lord's" defense appears as a graphical glitch spanning to the other side of the screen:

 

This bug is invalid upon further inspection on real hardware.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Regardless, if all works well in 0.117 then MESS will become my Atari 2600 emulator of choice...

I had some longer conversation with the MESS guys today. They are really hard working on making the emulation perfect. Even my 11 Invaders demo works now.

 

And since they are not using hacks to make the games work, but adjust the emulation core instead, MESS should become pretty usefull especially for developers trying some nasty, new tricks.

[Cybergoth]

That's way cool! Since MESS isn't based on SDL like Z26 or Stella, it even runs fine with my ancient Joypad

[Trebor]

I had some longer conversation with the MESS guys today. They are really hard working on making the emulation perfect. Even my 11 Invaders demo works now.

 

And since they are not using hacks to make the games work, but adjust the emulation core instead, MESS should become pretty usefull especially for developers trying some nasty, new tricks.

 

Any news on Pitfall II? That also needs to be emulated before I "leave" Stella...lol.

[xulchris]

Any news on Pitfall II? That also needs to be emulated before I "leave" Stella...lol.

 

I wouldn't expect Pitfall II support for 0.117. Wilbert mentioned today that he is really busy at work now and he barely had any time to look at a regression with Venture this evening.

 

I think he plans to implement light gun support (hopefully trak-ball/mouse controller support as well), fix up meltdown so its 100%, fix a bug with SuperCharger games and try to fix that sound bug which affects tons of games for 0.117.

 

Then for 0.118 I think he plans to implement Pitfall 2, and/or whatever else needs to be done like KidVid Voice Module support, Save Key support, palette fixes, or any new bugs that might come up.

[Nabuko78]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that the Atari emulation in M.E.S.S. is still a whole MESS... I didn't liked this version (0.116) , it crashes when you update the roms files directory (games, not bios) and 7800 emu got worst this time: alien brigade crashes like most of the ms. pac-man hacks, some other roms don't run properly, etc. 5200 is the same case as 7800. Can't even talk about 2600, it's pretty lame for me in MESS. And the ColecoVision has now an annoying 16th color that was never there because it used to be the 'transparent black' color (AAARGH!) not even hacking messlib.dll helps to remove it. And now 2600 PAL?

 

What the hell happened to M.E.S.S.? It used to be a good emulator at the very beginning when brought out atari 7800 emulation for first time. Now its buggy and crashes every time.

[xulchris]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that the Atari emulation in M.E.S.S. is still a whole MESS... I didn't liked this version (0.116) , it crashes when you update the roms files directory (games, not bios) and 7800 emu got worst this time: alien brigade crashes like most of the ms. pac-man hacks, some other roms don't run properly, etc. 5200 is the same case as 7800. Can't even talk about 2600, it's pretty lame for me in MESS. And the ColecoVision has now an annoying 16th color that was never there because it used to be the 'transparent black' color (AAARGH!) not even hacking messlib.dll helps to remove it. And now 2600 PAL?

 

What the hell happened to M.E.S.S.? It used to be a good emulator at the very beginning when brought out atari 7800 emulation for first time. Now its buggy and crashes every time.

 

What happened? I think the problem is nobody actually tests MESS, and those that do just complain instead of reporting bugs to bugzilla...

 

I have no idea about 7800, 5200 and ColecoVision. I *think* the 7800/5200 issues have been fixed.

 

What is wrong with 2600 driver? It's "lame"? Okay, I'll report that bug to Wilbert:

 

Wilbert: 2600 driver is "lame".

 

LOL

 

I sure hope we get some better testers out of the AtariAge community when 0.117 is released....

[Cybergoth]

Wilbert: 2600 driver is "lame".

 

I fully agree that bashing an emulator won't help anyone, but he probably meant "running slow"?

[Nabuko78]

I have no idea about 7800, 5200 and ColecoVision. I *think* the 7800/5200 issues have been fixed.

 

I sure hope we get some better testers out of the AtariAge community when 0.117 is released....

 

I *think* you never tested such systems on this MESS release right?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I *think* you never tested such systems on this MESS release right?

You *guess* wrong.

[Wilbert]

Any news on Pitfall II? That also needs to be emulated before I "leave" Stella...lol.

 

I wouldn't expect Pitfall II support for 0.117. Wilbert mentioned today that he is really busy at work now and he barely had any time to look at a regression with Venture this evening.

 

I think he plans to implement light gun support (hopefully trak-ball/mouse controller support as well), fix up meltdown so its 100%, fix a bug with SuperCharger games and try to fix that sound bug which affects tons of games for 0.117.

 

Then for 0.118 I think he plans to implement Pitfall 2, and/or whatever else needs to be done like KidVid Voice Module support, Save Key support, palette fixes, or any new bugs that might come up.

 

Sometimes an evening spent hacking a bit can bring up some interesting results...

[carmel_andrews]

I know that there's Atari 800 emulation working in mess, when is work going to restart on atari xl/xe emulation

[Wilbert]

I know that there's Atari 800 emulation working in mess, when is work going to restart on atari xl/xe emulation

 

When someone decides to pick it up. Mess is currently worked on by a small set of people who all have limited time and working on a driver takes time, a lot of time. Everyone also has his own list of things to do; for instance, mine is long enough to keep me busy well into 2009 and that is only working on a limited number of systems.

 

If you are a coder and willing to work on a driver, you are more than welcome to do so. Contacting developers can be done through the mess message board or through the #messdev channel on efnet.

 

If you cannot code but can test a lot of things (and can also verify behaviour on a real system) then please submit detailed bug reports. Detailed bug reports will be a nice starting point when someone does decide to work on a driver.

[telengard]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that the Atari emulation in M.E.S.S. is still a whole MESS... I didn't liked this version (0.116) , it crashes when you update the roms files directory (games, not bios) and 7800 emu got worst this time: alien brigade crashes like most of the ms. pac-man hacks, some other roms don't run properly, etc. 5200 is the same case as 7800. Can't even talk about 2600, it's pretty lame for me in MESS. And the ColecoVision has now an annoying 16th color that was never there because it used to be the 'transparent black' color (AAARGH!) not even hacking messlib.dll helps to remove it. And now 2600 PAL?

 

What the hell happened to M.E.S.S.? It used to be a good emulator at the very beginning when brought out atari 7800 emulation for first time. Now its buggy and crashes every time.

 

What happened? I think the problem is nobody actually tests MESS, and those that do just complain instead of reporting bugs to bugzilla...

 

I have no idea about 7800, 5200 and ColecoVision. I *think* the 7800/5200 issues have been fixed.

 

What is wrong with 2600 driver? It's "lame"? Okay, I'll report that bug to Wilbert:

 

Wilbert: 2600 driver is "lame".

 

LOL

 

I sure hope we get some better testers out of the AtariAge community when 0.117 is released....

 

Hehe, don't let these complainers discourage you. Any work done on MESS is a great thing IMO and yes things break sometimes and fall through the cracks. As I always say, if it ain't breaking, that means no one is working on it. I do find it strange that people make comments like that when programmers are working on this *for free* in their spare time. Hard to be critical of that.

 

There *are* good MESS testers out there. I added a lot of fixes/updates to the Odyssey 2 driver and some nice guy regressed a ton of programs and let me know what was now working and what still needed work, with lots of detail too.

 

Thanks for the work on the 2600 stuff.

 

~telengard

Edited July 10, 2007 by telengard

[+remowilliams]

Hehe, don't let these complainers discourage you. Any work done on MESS is a great thing IMO and yes things break sometimes and fall through the cracks. As I always say, if it ain't breaking, that means no one is working on it. I do find it strange that people make comments like that when programmers are working on this *for free* in their spare time. Hard to be critical of that.

Totally agree. The fact that people routinely take shitloads of flak for donating their time to work on a public project just astounds me.

 

Soooo many people endlessly bitch about the MAME/MESS devs for fixing, not fixing, changing, etc. anything about the code that its got to be difficult to even hear above the din the voices of those who are very grateful for all the hard work. Just try and say something nice about MAME/MESS and you'll usually be set upon by a gang with all manner of angry 'grievances' against the devs.

 

But rest assured, those who appreciate the work are still around - and still appreciate it.

[Nabuko78]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that the Atari emulation in M.E.S.S. is still a whole MESS... I didn't liked this version (0.116) , it crashes when you update the roms files directory (games, not bios) and 7800 emu got worst this time: alien brigade crashes like most of the ms. pac-man hacks, some other roms don't run properly, etc. 5200 is the same case as 7800. Can't even talk about 2600, it's pretty lame for me in MESS. And the ColecoVision has now an annoying 16th color that was never there because it used to be the 'transparent black' color (AAARGH!) not even hacking messlib.dll helps to remove it. And now 2600 PAL?

 

What the hell happened to M.E.S.S.? It used to be a good emulator at the very beginning when brought out atari 7800 emulation for first time. Now its buggy and crashes every time.

 

What happened? I think the problem is nobody actually tests MESS, and those that do just complain instead of reporting bugs to bugzilla...

 

I have no idea about 7800, 5200 and ColecoVision. I *think* the 7800/5200 issues have been fixed.

 

What is wrong with 2600 driver? It's "lame"? Okay, I'll report that bug to Wilbert:

 

Wilbert: 2600 driver is "lame".

 

LOL

 

I sure hope we get some better testers out of the AtariAge community when 0.117 is released....

 

Hehe, don't let these complainers discourage you. Any work done on MESS is a great thing IMO and yes things break sometimes and fall through the cracks. As I always say, if it ain't breaking, that means no one is working on it. I do find it strange that people make comments like that when programmers are working on this *for free* in their spare time. Hard to be critical of that.

 

There *are* good MESS testers out there. I added a lot of fixes/updates to the Odyssey 2 driver and some nice guy regressed a ton of programs and let me know what was now working and what still needed work, with lots of detail too.

 

Thanks for the work on the 2600 stuff.

 

~telengard

 

Well actually I'm not bitchin' around for what MESS has or hasn't. I recognize that MESS is an excellent emulator, I wish I don't have to download, test, and adopt or reject many emulators for specific systems. Right now I'm staying with MESS 0.114 because it has all the systems I need: Astrocade, Channel F, Colecovision, and maybe Sega Master System. For the Atari systems I prefer other emulators like Stella (2600) Kat5200 (5200) and ProSystem (7800) which has my unique color palette ^_^ also MESS has it since 0.111. If you all guys say that 2600 emulation in MESS is getting better and better, I believe you. Still, I'm not a good tester for the latest version. I don't consider myself as one.