MESS emulates the following computers
For both system, MESS supports emulation with two floppy drives (1541), “floppydisk1” (flop1) and “floppydisk2” (flop2), for disk images in .d64 format.
Also notice that a “quickload” (quik) feature is available for .p00 and .prg files.
These systems require full keyboard emulation to work correctly. At startup, full keyboard emulation mode is enabled by default. Whilst in full keyboard emulation mode, some key associated functionality may be disabled (like the ESC key for EXIT). The keyboard emulation mode is toggled using the “Scroll Lock” key (by default).
Remember also the following functions:
Original Keyboard: QWERTY 77 keys, including standard C64 keyboard + 8 function keys, TAB, Escape, ALT, CAPS Lock, no scroll, help
RUN CAPS NO
STOP ESC ALT LOCK SCROLL F1 F3 F5 F7 F9 F11 F13 HELP
CLR INST
<- 1! 2" 3# 4$ 5% 6& 7' 8( 9) 0 + - £ HOME DEL
TAB Q W E R T Y U I O P @ * UP RESTORE
SHIFT
CTRL LOCK A S D F G H J K L :[ ;] = RETURN
C= SHIFT Z X C V B N M ,< .> /? SHIFT UP
SPACEBAR LEFT DOWN RIGHT
Notes: C= is a key with the Commodore logo, “UP” is an arrow pointing up.
Combining C= and CTRL with number keys, you can change the font color. Below you find the complete list of available colors
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C= | orange | brown | light red | gray 1 | gray 2 | light green | light blue | gray 3 |
| CTRL | black | white | red | cyan | purple | green | blue | yellow |
Emulated trhough Paddle 5 x-axis, Paddle 6 y-axis.
MESS currently simulates only loading from drive 10 and 11 in the C65 emulation. These drives correspond to the devices “floppydisk1” (flop1) and “floppydisk2” (flop2) emulated by MESS. To run a .d64 image you have to launch
mess c65 -flop1 "C:\pathtogame\gamename.d64"
Once you're at the BASIC prompt you have various options:
LOAD"$",10 LIST
LOAD"filename",10
LOAD"filename",10,1
LOAD"*",10
Once the program is loaded, a “READY” message will be prompted and you can run your program by simply typing
RUN
or the appropriate SYS call. If you launched the game on -flop2, you will need to use drive 11 in place of drive 10 in the commands above.
Note that several programs rely on more features not currently emulated (such as loading other file types, writing…) Some games also rely on starting programs in the floppy drive's processor (and therefore CPU level emulation of the 1541 is needed).
A quickloader is available via command line and it supports program image files with extensions .prg and .p00. The quickloader loads the program into memory and sets the program end pointer. It shall work with most programs. To use the “quickload” (quik) device in MESS: launch
mess c65 -quik "C:\pathtogame\gamename.prg"
and simply type the command
RUN
to start the program.
Gameport A supports paddles 1 & 2, joystick 1, mouse (both the 1350 and 1351), lightpen (implementation not finished). Gameport B supports paddles 3 & 4, joystick 2, mouse (both the 1350 and 1351).
Some games requires the user to plug the Joystick controller in the second Joystick port. In MESS this can be done, either remapping the P2 Joystick inputs, or simply pressing F1 (in partial emulation mode) to swap the Joystick ports and use your P1 Joystick as if it was connected to the second port.
Different versions of the C65 ROMs are supported. You can switch between them, changing the -bios parameter. At command line, for c65 only,
"-bios 0" or "-bios 910111" = V0.9.910111 "-bios 1" or "-bios 910523" = V0.9.910523 "-bios 2" or "-bios 910626" = V0.9.910626 "-bios 3" or "-bios 910828" = V0.9.910828 "-bios 4" or "-bios 911001" = V0.9.911001
Different RAM configurations are possible for these systems in MESS. You can switch between them, changing the -ramsize parameter. At command line, you simply have to add -ramsize ram_value, where ram_value can assume one of the following values
128k (default) 640k - 128k + 512k 4224k - 128k + 4m
Another case of vaporware! In the end of 1990, Commodore decided to create a successor for the famous C64. They worked on a prototype called C64 DX then C65.
The C65 had new great features: a very special version of the 7510 with lot of new opcodes, great graphic modes (better than the Atari ST or the Amiga!) and a great new processor: the DMA / Blitter. This chip can be programmed with a list of instructions to copy or set blocks of memory.
The machine was meant to be fully compatible with the C64, but it wasn't. A special key was added on the keyboard to switch between the two modes (C64 / C65).
The development of this machine was stopped (apparently because of problems with the VIC III controller and because of the cost of this computer), and because of the success of the Amiga (Notice that the C65 case looks like the Amiga one!).
Commodore produced about 50 C65's, the first ones display C64DX at boot, the latest display C65.
(info from old-computers.com)