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Effective this release (0.146), all regressions in any official source release of MESS should be verified and reported to MAMETesters. This has come about due to the old bug tracking system, BugZilla, being lost in a server crash and wipe. Since MAME has many of the same core parts and interfaces, it made sense to modify MANTIS (current MT bug reporting software for MAME) to also allow handling for MESS bugs.

Please refer to the site for a full rundown on what is or is not a valid bug to report. You can get this information on site by selection "Help" from the top menu bar.

Some basic rules for submissions:
1) When signing up for a MAMETesters account, you are not instantly a TESTER, but a VIEWER. Moderators and Administrators will, when they are able, research your signup data to make sure you check out. If given the "all clear", your status will change to TESTER shortly thereafter and can report your bug(s) to the database. This is a one time delay to stop spammers and bots and is required.

2) MESS/SDLMESS command-line builds are the only means to verify ANY bug before reporting. Using MESSUI or any other intergrated MAME/MESS combo builds such as (UME) are not valid for testing and should not be used in proving your posted bug exists.

3) Report bugs only if you have proof of regression or breakage from one official release to another. If you happen to build or download a SVN or GIT version that lies in between official releases and notice breakage, you must bring it up to the MESS Forum for discussion and fixing before the next official release.

4) Take your time and fill out all required/applicable fields. Use the tutorial and [?] links to help determine what is valid input. Be concise on what the bug is, how you duplicate it (procedures) and if you know when it last worked as expected.

MAMETesters: http://mametesters.org
MESS Forum: http://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=1

Feel free to use this thread to ask questions related to usage of the MANTIS Bug Reporting System - not the bugs themselves, please.

To further clarify conditions of actually reporting a bug to be logged, I'll list links to some documents. A bit to read through, yes, but needed if you plan to be post an accepted bug or become a serious bug tester. The less work needed for administration of bugs leads to a much better system which is why there are restrictions in place.

Rules and Guidelines regarding site operation and bug reporting.
Legend - What do all the colors, fields, categories and other terms mean?
Tutorial - A Step-by-Step guide to help you through your bug reports.

In particular, it is important to note that there are many bugs which are known to the developers. These bugs may or may not be listed in the source code. Rather than needlessly racking up bugs which may never be looked at or addressed, they decide when a system or console they are working on has emulation complete enough to reasonably expect error free usage. Until such time, systems which are not expected to work without issue are "flagged" for various reasons, depending on the core issue. These reasons are clearly shown to you when you first start the emulation as a normal, YELLOW or RED screen which you must type "OK" to.

These warnings are to be heeded and effect whether or not bugs are reportable at MAMETesters. Below is a list of such flags which you must pay attention to and the exceptions that apply:

# "THIS GAME DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY" - Do not submit ANY bugs except heavy regression.
# "THE SOUND EMULATION IS NOT 100% ACCURATE" - Do not submit sound bugs except heavy regression.
# "THE VIDEO EMULATION IS NOT 100% ACCURATE" - Do not submit video bugs except heavy regression.
# "THIS GAME LACKS SOUND" - Do not submit sound bugs.

Heavy regression is defined as a major to complete loss of function from previously noted standard behavior. The only time these flags can be ignored is if the game itself crashes or hangs your emulator before you are able to type "OK" to the warning screen.

Hopefully this text will help people understand the reasoning why there are so many rules and restrictions related to bug reporting. We look forward to your helpful reports!