Are You Having Trouble Running Atari 7800 under MESS?

[Trebor]

First, make sure you have the correct BIOS. AtariAge currently contains an older/outdated one. Attached is the correct BIOS file.

 

a7800.zip

 

It contains two files:

 

7800.u7 - CRC: 5D13730C

c300558-001a.u7 - CRC: A0E10EDF

 

The attached BIOS file should remain zipped inside the roms folder that you have installed MESS:

 

C:\MESS\ROMS\a7800.zip

 

The above is the correct setup (path).

 

If you are using the command-line version and not utilizing MESSUI, to launch a game the following syntex is correct (inclusive of the quotes):

 

C:> MESS a7800 -cart "C:\ROMS\Atari 7800\Dig Dug (1987) (Atari).zip"

 

The above will launch MESS specifying the NTSC Atari 7800 system, loading a cartridge where the path of the ROM is located under 'C:\ROMS\Atari 7800', and the image name is 'Dig Dug (1987) (Atari).zip'.

 

Of course if your rom is not zipped, just replace as:

 

C:> MESS a7800 -cart "C:\ROMS\Atari 7800\Dig Dug (1987) (Atari).a78"

 

And *.bin files will not work. You need *.a78 files.

 

 

P.S. If you are 'stuck' at the system info window the first time you launch MESS running the Atari 7800, just press the left and right arrow keys.

 

If you are looking to first tweak some settings, then at the command line type the following:

 

C:\MESS>mess -cc

 

It will create a 'mess.ini' file where you have mess installed. Open the mess.ini file in Notepad. There are a slew of options you can configure.

 

For configurable options while MESS is running, just hit the 'Tab' key. Use the 'arrow' keys along with 'Enter' key to drill deeper, or the 'Esc' key to back out of a menu option.

 

Pressing 'Esc' with no menu option(s) on the screen will exit the emulator.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Trebor

[Tkat5200]

Ok I got it to work but I can't load any roms...how do I do that in MESS?

I have the MESS with the GUI v0.161

[Trebor]

Version 0.160 through 0.163 has a timing bug impacting the Atari 7800 driver.

 

The current gold standard is version 0.159. See this post for four easy setup steps, including all the original retail ROMs in place, and easy to get up and running.

[Tkat5200]

The link on that post for the download is bad...i'll try to find it online today.

I got the ROMS in and had the PAL version of the 7800 working but I can't load any games at all. its making me insane LOL

[Trebor]

Coincidentally, you're going to probably want to check this out.

It will get you up and running with the latest and greatest in 7800 emulation.