Originally Posted by byuu
Thanks for the constant updates, a lot of fun to read. I should hopefully be more helpful once you get toward the final CPU timing bugs.

Quote
EDIT: btw, this is another proof that few people actually use MESS for SNES: nobody noticed those games were broken since last summer... well, hopefully things will get better in future

Good luck with that one. I suspect that even once Microsoft kills 32-bit backwards-compatibility in Windows ~12, people will just start running ZSNES inside of DOSBox.

No release in three years, not portable, 100+ open bugs, some over ten years old, a UI that makes the Atari ST blush, sound effects are always distorted, and the latest build doesn't even play SA-1 games or have netplay. Yet it has 70% of the user base.

I stopped worrying about it a few years ago, I'd suggest you do the same or it will kill you inside. If that's what people want, more power to them.

Nothing to do with system requirements, either. SNESGT is blindingly fast yet better in every way. I assume it's all about familiarity.

It's because people remember Zsnes from the 'good old days' when they first found a Snes emulator that ran the games they liked.. so they recommend it to their friends without looking for anything new, etc. etc.

Some people still use NeoRageX for the same reasons today even if MAME is a much closer experience to the real thing, and likewise a lot of perfectly good alternate emulators get ignored just because they're not MAME.

The problem is MESS has the reverse reputation, it's been such a god-damn awful emulator for most of the things (which people care about) it emulates for so long that hardly anybody is likely to remember it in a positive light, and therefore hardly anybody is going to recommend it, even if things have improved a bit now. (although performance and compatibility can still be dire, as it is for 32x)

I don't consider this the fault of the MESS developers, as I've found myself, the Console 'scene' tends to be very secretive, with more people concerned about making their software the best, and as a result not being helpful to others. It's always been less about team work, less about being open, and more about competition, and wasted efforts in rediscovering things people have already found out before. Again, I think this has improved a lot over the last few years, but there are still a number of examples of it.

The only way you're going to get a more significant userbase for the SNES driver is if MAME/MESS do merge completely, and I can't see that happening as long as Aaron is calling things at least, and even then interest in MAME and emulation in general is dipping, with many people quite content with the version they have, and seeing no reason to upgrade even when real improvements are made. Low / No user base does make testing things hard, the odd bug or useful new test case I do get for the Genesis stuff are things I would have never found myself without other people actually playing the games properly and I'm sure if more people used it I'd get more test cases.

The fixed lists for some of the slightly more obscure systems might make MESS more attractive to some (I'd end up very tempted to give some vectrex games a play), and you might find people start using the SNES driver that way, but a lot of people will probably be put off by the poor performance and hit & miss compatibility anyway, although having it documented will help as people will have a better expectation of what should work.

Also, as far as MESS is concerned, the graphic filters and 'tweaks' other emulators offer which aren't really suitable for MESS will always be a big draw, even if MESS does become a decent reference model like MAME.

Basically, yeah, there isn't much you can do about it.. people might come, but finding a way to get them to stick will be hard.