Inky Posted October 21, 2001 Share Posted October 21, 2001 Why doesn't MESS emulate the 2600 when there are many more emulators out there for the 26 that work just fine? The only reason I ask is because I want to use the cheat feature in MESS to finally get to the end of Double Dragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari-Jess Posted October 21, 2001 Share Posted October 21, 2001 i think its cause it doesn't need a Rom file for it to run...i could be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanBoris Posted October 21, 2001 Share Posted October 21, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Atari-Jess: i think its cause it doesn't need a Rom file for it to run...i could be wrong. No, the 2600 does require a ROM to run. The reason there is no 2600 support in MESS is that the 2600 is a VERY hard system to emulate properly. Yes, there is source code for 2600 emulators available, but you can't just plug these into MESS, it take a lot of work to adapt the emulation to the way MESS does things. Someone did start work on a 2600 driver for MESS (I helped them out with this) but I don't think it is very far along. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari-Jess Posted October 21, 2001 Share Posted October 21, 2001 If the 2600 needs a rom why isn't there a 7800 emulator with the rom file built in too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 There is 2600 support in MESS. Or at least, there is in my version. I compiled it from the source, so I might have enabled it by hand (That is, it might be disabled by default). I've been running it all this time without a ROM file (There was no ROM in the Atari 2600 anyways)... but the emulation is very incomplete. In fact, there aren't any keys bound to the Reset and Select switches, so nothing is at all playable. This is an older version of MESS that I'm using though... they may have changed things by now. You're better off using Stella or Z26 anyways... MESS never has very complete emulation in most of it's systems. However, it is the only source of emulation for some of the more obscure systems... --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Ze_ro: There is 2600 support in MESS. Or at least, there is in my version. I compiled it from the source, so I might have enabled it by hand (That is, it might be disabled by default). I've been running it all this time without a ROM file (There was no ROM in the Atari 2600 anyways)... but the emulation is very incomplete. In fact, there aren't any keys bound to the Reset and Select switches, so nothing is at all playable. When you load a 2600 binary, does it actually run? I know you can't start the game, but I'm curious if the emulation at least looks like it's working to some degree. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanBoris Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Atari-Jess: If the 2600 needs a rom why isn't there a 7800 emulator with the rom file built in too? I think there might be some confusion here. The 2600 doesn't have a BIOS ROM like other systems do, but it does require a cartridge ROM image to run. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari-Jess Posted October 22, 2001 Share Posted October 22, 2001 THATS WHAT I MEAN!!! im saying i think the 2600 might not be in mess cause it doesn't need a BIOS rom to run! (but you said its cause of the way it is) but thats what i ment anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAZ Posted September 13, 2002 Share Posted September 13, 2002 I just ran Pacman WITHOUT a bios rom on Atari 2600 for MESS. It looked like garbage, BUT...it looked like Pacman to me. The controls were inoperable. It is hard to describe how bad it was-but it was Atari 2600 pacman. So that's the answer to the bios question. You only need the software rom, not the bios rom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAZ Posted September 13, 2002 Share Posted September 13, 2002 I just tried Pitfall! also, hilarious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Night Phantom Posted September 14, 2002 Share Posted September 14, 2002 It looked like garbage, BUT...it looked like Pacman to me. That’s 2600 Pac-Man for ya. It is hard to describe how bad it was-but it was Atari 2600 pacman. No argument! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap5750 Posted September 16, 2002 Share Posted September 16, 2002 Here's some info from the mess gui. Cap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted September 16, 2002 Share Posted September 16, 2002 If the 2600 needs a rom why isn't there a 7800 emulator with the rom file built in too? I think there might be some confusion here. The 2600 doesn't have a BIOS ROM like other systems do, but it does require a cartridge ROM image to run. I think what he's asking is, since we can emulate the 7800, doesn't that imply that 2600 emulation is there? Since the 7800 can do 2600 games? Similarly, since the Gameboy Advance can play Gameboy Color games, does that mean that any GBA emulator has the automatic ability to play GBC games? Personally, I think the answer is no. I'm not sure of the 7800's internal hardware, but I'd guess that it uses special chips to emulate the 2600 (that is, it probably has a TIA chip in it). I'd imagine that the 7800 support in MESS doesn't bother emulating this, and only actually emulates enough for 7800 games to run (This chip wouldn't be used by any of them) By the way, emulating the Atari is a little tricky, and it doesn't work in the same way as most other video game systems works. It's not that it's specifically harder to emulate than the ColecoVision or what have you, it's just different... and sticking it into MESS is probably a challenge in itself. Just use z26 or Stella instead. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanBoris Posted September 16, 2002 Share Posted September 16, 2002 Personally, I think the answer is no. I'm not sure of the 7800's internal hardware, but I'd guess that it uses special chips to emulate the 2600 (that is, it probably has a TIA chip in it). I'd imagine that the 7800 support in MESS doesn't bother emulating this, and only actually emulates enough for 7800 games to run (This chip wouldn't be used by any of them) --Zero This is correct. The 7800 is essentially two machines in the same box. The mess driver emulators the 7800 portion but not the 2600 portion. So the 7800 driver will not run 2600 games. Putting the 2600 into MESS is even more tricky then writing a standalone 2600 emulator. The structure of MESS makes all the tricky video timing very hard to do. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted September 16, 2002 Share Posted September 16, 2002 Why doesn't MESS emulate the 2600 when there are many more emulators out there for the 26 that work just fine? The only reason I ask is because I want to use the cheat feature in MESS to finally get to the end of Double Dragon Why don't you just use PCAE and the savestate feature to beat Double Dragon? Sure it's not as easy as using a cheat feature but heck.. it works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted September 16, 2002 Author Share Posted September 16, 2002 Why doesn't MESS emulate the 2600 when there are many more emulators out there for the 26 that work just fine? The only reason I ask is because I want to use the cheat feature in MESS to finally get to the end of Double Dragon Why don't you just use PCAE and the savestate feature to beat Double Dragon? Sure it's not as easy as using a cheat feature but heck.. it works! I'm actually gonna try Cheat-O-Matic and see what happens... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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