Mates, sirs, and cobbas:
Here is my walk-through on how to get Sock Master's "Donkey Kong Remixed" running in the MESS emulator. MESS is the companion to MAME and focuses on console and home computer emulation. However, MAME and MESS are now combined into the same program, starting with version 0.162.
Step 1: Visit the
MAME Dev website and download the most recent version of MAME (which includes MESS). If you don't know whether to get the 32- or 64-bit binaries, get the 32-bit (first link).
Step 2: Install MESS by running the EXE file you just downloaded. You'll be asked to extract the program into a folder...put it somewhere easy to remember/access. Once it's installed you should see this in your MESS folder:
Step 3: Acquire CoCo3 and DK Remix ROMs. The Remix ROMs are available at the author's site:
http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html Scroll to the bottom and download the ZIP file. Unzip it and place the
DKRemix.dsk in your
roms folder. You're on your own for the CoCo3 ROMs, but make sure you get a zip file that contains 3 files:
coco3.rom,
disk.rom, and
disk11.rom. Let me know if you have any problems.
Once you have that, put it in your roms folder and make a copy of it called
coco3h.zip. When all is said and done, your roms folder should look like this:
Step 4: Command-line fun! Open up the command-line on your computer (you might have a shortcut for this, or you can run "cmd" from the Run bar). You will need to navigate to wherever your MESS folder is.
The process should look something like this:
Step 5: Run MESS! To get MESS to load up the CoCo3 emulator and simultaneously "load" the DK Remix file, use the following command. If you're using the 32-bit MESS version, use
mame.exe instead of
mame64.exe. Sock Master has suggested using
coco3h instead of
coco3 for better framerate.
mame64.exe coco3h -flop1 "C:\MESS FOLDER LOCATION\roms\DKRemix.dsk" -ui_active -w -noafs -fs 0 -nofilter
ALTERNATIVE TO STEP 4 and STEP 5: I have attached a batch file to this post that you can just download and double-click to get this running. HOWEVER, you will HAVE to edit the batch file and replace the location of the
DKRemix.dsk file with wherever it is on YOUR system. You can find this by right-clicking the
DKRemix.dsk file, selecting
Properties, and then looking for the line that says
Location.
If everything works correctly, you should see this screen when the emulator loads:
Step 6: Adjust the settings in the MESS menus. You will want to adjust the
Inputs, the
Analog settings, and probably the
Keyboard emulation. The MESS emulator will use your mouse, so in order to regain control of it you will need to exit the emulator or Alt+Tab to change the focus.
Press Tab to get in the menus:
For
Inputs, change the Right Button and Stick to whatever you want. I think the first Right Button 1 is what is used, but I change both to be safe. X Analog Dec is left directional. X Analog Inc is right directional, Y Analog Dec is up directional, Y Analog Inc is down directional.
You will then need to adjust the
Analog sensitivity. Otherwise the game will be laggy and unplayable. I cranked both up to 255 (max):
You HAVE to do a command in the next step. So, now, change the
Keyboard Mode to
Natural. You don't actually have to have to change this, so if you skip this step you need to know that the CoCo3 keyboard does not map to a regular keyboard in the same way. You will need to type @ to get " and type ; to get :
Step 7: Load the game! The command to actually run the game is
LOADM "0:DKREMIX.BIN" : EXECand looks like this:
Type that in, press Enter, and you're off.
Step 8: Wait, then make a save state. It takes a LOOOONG time for the game to load. So, I suggest hitting
F10 to speed it up. Once you get to the title screen, consider making a save state so you can skip the loading process. If you see this screen, everything is correct and you're ready to play:
Change the menu options to your heart's desire (RGB Display Mode will give the classic DK colors). The one button you mapped earlier is also the credit and start button. You will need to reload the entire game (or save state) if you want to change the game settings.
Alright...good luck, post your questions/problems/whatever and I'll try to help out!
