Emulation 101: Classic Gaming on the PC    - Keita Iida Introduction Atari 2600 Atari 5200 / 8-Bit Computers Colecovision GCE Vectrex Arcade Multi Platform Conclusion Emulation Links

- MULTIPLE PLATFORM EMULATORS - The most exciting development of late has been the introduction of MESS. What is MESS? It stands for Multi Emulator Super System, and it's based entirely on the MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator sources, created by Nicola Salmoria. It is MESS's goal to emulate and document as many computer and console systems as possible. In other words, MESS seeks to do on the home front what MAME, Sparcade and Retrocade have done for arcade emulation. It's still in beta stage, but what's there is very promising thus far. When all is said and done, we should be able to expect a program that, when loaded-up, should be able to play games for just about every major (and even some minor) game machine and computer! Naysayers, however, point out that the consolidation of systems on emulators inconveniently bloats the programs and makes them slower. Only time will tell whether MESS will be a jack of all trades, master of none, or if it will eventually become the only program we need for classic home video and computer gaming.