Multi Emulator Super System

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"MESS" redirects here. For other uses, see Mess (disambiguation).
Developer(s)Originally MESS Team, now MAME Team
Initial release1998; 26 years ago (1998)
Stable release
0.264 (March 27, 2024; 18 days ago (2024-03-27)[1]) [±] (as part of MAME)
Cross-platform
TypeEmulator
LicenseSince 2016: GPL-2.0-or-later[2]
Until 2016: Custom[3]
Website

Multi Emulator Super System (MESS) is an

calculators. The project strives for accuracy and portability and therefore is not always the fastest emulator for any one particular system. Its accuracy makes it also useful for homebrew game development.[4]

As of April 2015 MESS supported 994 unique systems with 2,106 total system variations.[5] However, not all of the systems in MESS are functional; some are marked as non-working or are in development. MESS was first released in 1998 and has been under constant development since.

MAME and MESS were once separate applications, but were later developed and released together from a single source repository.[6] MAMEDEV member David Haywood maintained and distributed UME (Universal Machine Emulator) which combined much of the functionality of MAME and MESS in a single application.[7] On May 27, 2015, MESS was formally integrated with MAME and became a part of MAME.[8]

License

See also: MAME § License

MESS was distributed under the MAME Licence, which allowed for the redistribution of binary files and source code, either modified or unmodified, but disallowed selling MESS or using it commercially.[9] The license is similar to other copyleft licenses in requiring that rights and obligations provided in the license must be remain intact when MESS or derivative works are distributed.

In addition to the MESS Licence, The MESS Team required that: "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."[10] The MAME license required source code be included with versions of MESS that are modified from the original source, while the MESS legal page states that when distributing binary files "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."

While MESS was available in both binary and source code forms, the restrictions on commercial exploitation cause it to fall outside of the

Open Source Definition
.

Challenges

Main article: ROM image

Generally the emulation only includes raw

copyrighted
software.

Obtaining the ROM data by oneself directly from the hardware being emulated can be extremely difficult, technical, expensive, and even destructive since it may require

memory dump
of the ROM to a data file.

Removal of a soldered chip is often far easier than reinstalling it, especially for extremely small

surface mount technology
chips, and the emulated device in question will be destroyed beyond recovery after the ROM has been removed for reading.

However, if one has a working system, it may be far easier to dump the ROM data to tape, disk, etc. and transfer the data file to one's target machine.

Uses

In 2013 the Internet Archive began to provide select games browser-playable via JSMESS (a JavaScript port of the MESS emulator), for instance, the Atari 2600 game E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Releases - mamedev/mame". Retrieved 8 March 2024 – via GitHub.
  2. ^ "MESS License [MESS]". mess.redump.net.
  3. ^ "MESS License: Custom". Archived from the original on 2016-03-24.
  4. ISBN 1-931836-31-0
    .
  5. ^ "Welcome to the MESS Wiki! [MESS]". mess.redump.net.
  6. ^ "Let the games begin". MAME development team. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  7. ^ "UME 0.148 (Universal Machine Emulator)". David Haywood. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  8. ^ "MAMEdev.org | Home of The MAME Project". www.mamedev.org.
  9. ^ "MESS Licence". The MESS Development Team. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  10. ^ "MESS Legal". The MESS Development Team. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 4 July 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. ^ Robertson, Adi (2013-10-25). "The Internet Archive puts Atari games and obsolete software directly in your browser". The Verge. Retrieved 2013-10-29.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Multi_Emulator_Super_System&oldid=1214871834"