Installing MESS

From experience I know that the installation of MESS may become somewhat tricky, but eventually you should get a perfectly running system if you keep all issues in mind. I will provide a step-by-step description to guide you during the installation procedure for MESS. The version used here is 0.142.

Installing the Windows version

Download

On the MESS download page you will find the most recent version of MESS, and also earlier versions which may be of interest if there is something wrong with the new version or if you have any other reason to use an earlier version.

However, please understand that you cannot expect appropriate support for earlier versions. Newer versions come up just because some errors have been corrected, and if you encounter some problems, what else should you expect but be advised to use the latest version? This may mean that some features are different, some menus look different, or - in the worst case - something stopped working. In that case we would really appreciate if you notify us so that we can find out how to correct the issue.

In the table "Current Windows Release" you will find three download options:

• The current version as a 32-bit i586 build.
• The current version as a 32-bit i686 build.
• The source code of the current version.

Unless you are using really old hardware, you should use the i686 build.

Concerning the MESS sources you should read the comments below. You should use the source (, Luke) also if you want to build a 64-bit version.

Unpack the file

Downloading delivers a ZIP file which you should save to your file system. MESS currently does not use an installer, so you simply unpack the file where you want it to be. Assume that you want everything to be installed in C:\prg\mess, you should create this path in the Explorer, then navigate to the folder where the downloads are stored. Double-click the ZIP file, mark all files and copy them, and then open the C:\prg\mess filder in Explorer, where you paste the copied files into.

Install the ROMs

In the C:\prg\mess folder you should find a file like mess.exe or messpp.exe. Up to now, MESS will not be able to execute any emulation, since the required ROMs are missing. The next step is to install the ROMs, and the default path is the roms subdirectory (i.e. C:\prg\mess\roms). If this folder is missing, create it with Explorer.

Now where do you get the ROMs from? The problem is that almost all ROMs have not been released into public domain and are therefore subject to licensing. Due to the giant number of emulated systems, MESS simply cannot afford to license the ROMs.

The required ROMs for the TI emulations are

File name	Contents	Required files	Optional files
ti99_4.zip	TI-99/4 console	bwg.bin, disk.bin, hfdc.bin, rs232.bin, spchrom.bin, u500.bin, u501.bin, u502.bin, u610.bin, u611.bin
ti99_4a.zip	TI-99/4A console	994agrom.bin, 994arom.bin, bwg.bin, disk.bin, hfdc.bin, pcode_g0.bin, pcode_r0.bin, pcode_r1.bin, rs232.bin, spchrom.bin
ti99_4ae.zip	TI-99/4A console (Europe)	(same as ti99_4a)
ti99_4ev.zip	TI-99/4A console (Europe, EVPC)	994agr38.bin, evpcdsr.bin (requires ti99_4ae.zip or its files)
ti99_4p.zip	SGCPU system (SNUG)	bwg.bin, disk.bin, evpcdsr.bin, hfdc.bin, rs232.bin, sgcpu_lb.bin, sgcpu_hb.bin, spchrom.bin
ti99_8.zip	TI-99/8 prototype console	Files
geneve.zip	Geneve system	bwg.bin, disk.bin, genbt098.bin, genbt100.bin, gnmbt100.bin, hfdc.bin, rs232.bin, spchrom.bin

All ROM packages have a specific set of ROM contents, organized as files. Interestingly, MESS is tolerant about the file names inside the ZIP files; the only important key is the hash code.

Consequently, I will not provide links for downloading these files. Find out by yourself how to get them. The safest way (from a legal standpoint) is to dump the contents from the real equipment if you own such a system.

Let's assume you have found the ti99_4ae.zip file somewhere; next, you drop this file into the roms folder that you previously created.

Start the emulation

Double-click the messui.exe (i586) or messuipp.exe (i686) file. The MESS UI starts up, looking similar as in this screenshot. Scroll down the list of systems until you reach the TI systems. Note that the Geneve is listed far above, at G, of course.

The MESS system selection

Double-click the row starting with TI-99/4A Home Computer (Europe).

Note to the VirtualBox users. MESS requires DirectX, so you need to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions, or MESS will abort with an error message.

Installing the Linux version

Download

As said above, on the MESS download page you will find the most recent version of MESS. However, for Linux there is no pre-built version here. You have to build the version on your system.

One notice here: The MESS download page only contains the source code for the MESS-specific parts. This will not suffice to build the system. You have to download the MAME base of the same version number, unpack it in your filesystem, and unpack the MESS sources directly over them. See the MAME download page for downloading MAME.