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.

Do not unpack the ZIP file that contains the system ROMs. Just drop it in the roms folder.

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. Remember that you must install the Guest Additions in Safe Mode in order to get DirectX functionality. You can check DirectX by executing dxdiag.

Now the TI-99/4A master title screen should show up fullscreen. You can now use the emulation. If you prefer to operate in a window, right-click on the menu selection in the MESS UI (which you just double-clicked to start it) and choose Properties for ti99_4x.c. There, select the tab Display, check Run in a window and uncheck Start out maximized. Now you will get a window in which the emulation starts. The window size should be selectable in the MESS UI somewhere, but I have not found it yet. You can use the mouse to adjust the window size.

Start with a cartridge

Cartridges are files like the system ROMs, but they carry the extension rpk. In order to insert a cartridge before starting,

If not already available, create a new folder cartridges (C:\prg\mess\cartridges). Copy the Editor/Assembler cartridge into this folder; it is normally named editor_assembler.rpk.

Now you can insert this cartridge into the cartridge slot. The TI emulation features a nice enhancement - it has a multi-cartridge slot, one of the kind that was planned but never built. You can plug in up to 4 cartridges at the same time and select via the console. In order to put the cartridge in slot 1, have a look at the MESS UI first. Just right from the system selection there is a column with three tabs (Picker, Device View, Software). Select the tab Device View. Click on the button (three dots) next to the uppermost Cartslot device, and a file manager window will open. You can now navigate to the cartridges folder and select the cartridge.

You can add this software path to the list of known directories in the pull-down menu Options->Directories so that you will immediately go to this folder the next time.

When you now double-click the ti99_4ae row, the system will start up with an inserted cartridge. Verify it by going past the master title screen.

Use floppy disks

Similar to cartridges, floppy disks are stored as one single file which contains the whole contents of the disk. These image files are, accordingly, 90K in size for a SSSD disk and 360K for a DSDD disk. Disk images are expected to have the suffix dsk.

You can insert a floppy disk right in the same way as you did with cartridges, but this time you select the uppermost Floppy Disk device.

Get into TI BASIC and type

CALL DIR(1)

If you get an error message like BAD NAME, you should make sure that the HFDC is selected as floppy controller. How to do this will be explained right now.

Insert or change a cartridge at runtime

You can, of course, replace the disks and cartridges at runtime, as you could do with the real console. This cannot be done from the MESS UI, but you need to use the OSD (on-screen display) menu within the emulation.

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.