Others probably already knew this, but I just realized that Archive.org has the exact same MAME/MESS archives stored for posterity that OpenEmu currently runs: 0.149. And in that collection, they've got all the BIOS files needed for the other OpenEmu emulators... plus some really significant game collections. You'll have to convert CHDs back to ISO format for some, but that's not too difficult.

So if you've got a spare TB or ten sitting around,
https://archive.org/details/messmame
http://www.mess.org/howto/convert_chd_basilisk
https://github.com/OpenEmu/OpenEmu/wiki/...ng-From-Source-Guide
-- that last is useful to build the "experimental" build that includes more platforms in OpenEmu.

Thanks for this guide!

In short, does OpenEmu support MESS now? I'm downloading the BIOS files from Archive.org, and I'd love it if using MESS became simple to use. Am I still hoping for too much?

- Alex

funny, cuz I've been searching everywhere for .149 ONLY roms AND how in the world do I get Neo Geo games working...both I found by myself yesterday, but it was a big file, so I went down the list to get the ones I wanted. Remember in MacMame , you put a cheat.dat file in the extras folder? Can you cheat in Mame on OpenEmu like you could in MacMame?

That's another question I want answered, is Mess supported too?

_Em, do you need to convert CHDs to ISO to work in current OpenEMU version?

I can't test on the released versions, but I'm running a recently compiled version from git and using CHDs work fine.

HelixNRG wrote:


Just tested: MESS ROMs will load and display properly in the interface, but they don't run

Headrush69 wrote:


I haven't tested recently, but the way it appeared to be working is that you load the ROMs into the interface, and then drop the CHDs into the Arcade folder (instead of the OpenEmu interface).

However, some of the CHDs (such as the PSX set) need to be converted to bin/cue to use with the other cores.

_Em wrote:

Yes, the CHD files for MAME I added manually, OpenEMU only recognizes the ROM set itself.

I didn't realize you were talking CHDs for non-MAME emus.
Is that to use with MESS?

As far as I can tell, MESS doesn't actually work yet. I haven't looked into what compile flags need to change to enable it;; I think that the MAME/MESS framework could probably be simplified a bit, although you'd just end up with MAME and MESS running inside the OpenEmu GUI, but with their own built-in GUI underneath.

I was converting CHDs to non-compressed formats and running them under other OpenEmu emulators; I just found it useful that archive.org has a nice collection, even if it's in CHD format (which OpenEmu doesn't currently support).

Maybe someone will add CHD support to OpenEmu, which would make things a bit easier

Anything MESS is messy these days. I'm no computer whiz..I like it nice & easy. Openemu is nice & easy, everything is there & you don't have to think. Downloaded something called Retroarch today, looks more complex than OpenEmu.