MAME

MESS (Multiple Emulator Super System) is a multi-system emulator which emulates more than 400 computer systems, many of them from the good old days of the Home Computers. Among them are also a number of TI platforms:

• TI-99/2 (24K and 32K ROM version)
• TI-99/4, 50 Hz and 60 Hz
• TI-99/4A, 50 Hz and 60 Hz
• TI-99/4QI, 50 Hz and 60 Hz
• TI-99/8
• Geneve 9640

A number of peripherals are also emulated, ranging from various disk controllers (up to HFDC), to serial interfaces, USB interface, IDE interface, HSGPL, and also SGCPU.

The emulator is freely downloadable from mamedev.org as a pre-built binary for Windows systems, and as a source zip archive for all platforms.

You can download and work on the MAME source codes, since all MAME components have been relicenced under an open-source licence (BSD or GPL). If you want to contribute, you should get in contact with the maintainers, though. A good location for that is the MESS message board.

I would be happy to see more people from the TI community helping to improve the TI emulation in MESS.

Installing and setup

• Building MAME from source
• Installing on Windows systems
• Installing on Linux systems
• Getting the ROMs
• Setting up the HSGPL for MAME
• Setting up the Horizon Ramdisk

Using

• The Official MESS User's Manual
• General MESS features
• Features of the TI and Geneve emulation in MESS
• Working with the TI/Geneve emulation
• Tools
• Cartridges
• Media handling
  • Using your TI/Geneve hard drive in MESS
  • Formatting disks
  • Setting up a blank hard disk
  • Upgrading CHD version
  • Using the IDE HD controller
• Built-in debugger
• TIImageTool - a GUI-based image manager

Questions and Troubleshooting

• Some help for MESS Troubleshooting.
• Frequently Asked Questions related to the TI/Geneve emulation in MESS.
• Change MESS menu mode key from Scroll Lock to another key
• Hassle with the MESS keyboard modes
• Important changes to consider when updating MESS

Details

• Basics: Emulation and Simulation
• Get a look under the hood of MESS NEW
• The cartridge system of MESS
• Programmer's Guide to MESS
• MAME version history with features, fixes, and regressions list
• MESS issues
• RS232 emulation
• MESS Work in progress
• MAME Internals
• Floppy sound emulation