docs/windows/instbios.htm
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| 9 | 9 | </head> |
| 10 | 10 | <body> |
| 11 | 11 | <h1>Installing BIOS Files and Software Images</h1> |
| 12 | | <p>First, it is important to make a distinction between the two types of files needed to run MESS systems. BIOSes are files that contain code |
| 13 | | that exist in ROM on the system board, and the term "software" encompasses files representing cartridges and disk images not on the system |
| 14 | | themselves.</p> |
| 12 | <p>First, it is important to make a distinction between the two types of files needed to run MESS systems. BIOS files contain code |
| 13 | that exists in ROM chips built into the system unit, therefore they are always needed regardless of what software you want to run. |
| 14 | The term "software" encompasses files containing any other data to be run on the system, for example dumps of ROM cartridges (so-called "ROMs") |
| 15 | or images of floppy disks.</p> |
| 15 | 16 | <hr align="center" width="98%" /> |
| 16 | | <h2>Where to find?</h2> |
| 17 | | <p class="normal">It is important to remember that both BIOSes and software images are subject to copyright law. Hence, it is illegal to have |
| 18 | | BIOSes for systems that you do not have; you need to obtain these by dumping the ROMs from the system boards of the systems you wish to |
| 19 | | emulate. On some systems, it isn't that hard to write the relevant ROM to a medium like a cassette and transfer it to a PC.</p> |
| 20 | | <p class="normal">It is also worth noting that MESS expects BIOSes to be "pure"; in other words a straight dump from the system. Other |
| 21 | | emulators may use a slightly different format of may have their BIOSes prefixed with bytes. Needless to say, such BIOSes would not work in |
| 22 | | MESS.</p> |
| 23 | | <p class="normal">Software Images are a different story, while many software images are copyrighted, many are not and you can obtain them </p> |
| 17 | <h2>Where to find them</h2> |
| 18 | <p class="normal">Ideally, these files should be obtained by "dumping" the original data yourself, for example with an EPROM programmer or a serial cable connected to the original system. |
| 19 | However, many people have already done this work, so BIOS files and software images are widely available on the Internet. |
| 20 | It is important to remember, however, that both BIOS files and software images are subject to copyright law and it is illegal to download or have |
| 21 | dumps of systems or software that you do not own genuine physical copies of (with the exception of software freely distributed by its authors, for example "homebrew" games).</p> |
| 22 | <p class="normal">It is also worth noting that MESS expects BIOS files to be "pure"; in other words straight dumps from the ROM chips. Other |
| 23 | emulators may concatenate files together or may prefix some kind of header. For this reason, BIOS files from the Internet may not work |
| 24 | unless they are specifically intended for use with MESS.</p> |
| 24 | 25 | <hr align="center" width="98%" /> |
| 25 | 26 | <h2>Where to put them</h2> |
| 26 | | <p class="normal">BIOSes are placed in subdirectories off of the MESS roms directory with names matching that of the system. For example, the |
| 27 | | CoCo 3 has the following BIOS files:</p> |
| 27 | <p class="normal">Zipped BIOS files are placed in the <span class="filename">roms</span> subfolder of your MESS folder, with filenames matching the short names of the systems. For |
| 28 | example, your directory structure might look like this if you want to use the Apple ][, Color Computer 3, and Super NES drivers:</p> |
| 28 | 29 | <ul> |
| 29 | 30 | <li> |
| 30 | | <p class="filename">roms\coco3\coco3.rom</p> |
| 31 | <p class="filename">C:\MESS\roms\apple2 |
| 31 | 32 | </li> |
| 32 | 33 | <li> |
| 33 | | <p class="filename">roms\coco3\disk11.rom</p> |
| 34 | <p class="filename">C:\MESS\roms\coco3 |
| 34 | 35 | </li> |
| 36 | <li> |
| 37 | <p class="filename">C:\MESS\roms\snes.zip</p> |
| 38 | </li> |
| 35 | 39 | </ul> |
| 36 | | <p class="normal">Alternatively, these BIOS files can be placed in a ZIP file. In the above case, there would be a <span class="filename">coco3.zip</span> file in the <span class="filename">roms</span> directory. This ZIP file would have <span class="filename">coco3.rom</span> and <span class="filename">disk11.rom</span> in its root.</p> |
| 37 | | <p class="normal">Software Images can be placed in similar subdirectories (e.g. <span class="filename">software/coco3/MyCoolCocoGame.dsk</span>). The GUI will first look for software |
| 38 | | images in this directory. However, placing software images here is not mandatory and one can tell the GUI to look for Software Images |
| 39 | | elsewhere, and when using the command line the full path to the images must be specified.</p> |
| 40 | <p class="normal">If the <span class="filename">roms</span> folder does not exist, create it.</p> |
| 41 | <p class="normal">It is recommended to leave these files zipped for neatness' sake, however MESS will also recognize the files if they are extracted to subdirectories, |
| 42 | e.g. <span class="filename">roms\coco3.zip</span> could be extracted to <span class="filename">roms\coco3\coco3.rom</span> and <span class="filename">roms\coco3\disk11.rom</span>. |
| 43 | Extracting the files into the <span class="filename">roms</span> folder itself will not work.</p> |
| 44 | <p class="normal">You can also put BIOS files elsewhere by changing the rompath option in mess.ini, see the help page "MESS Configuration Files" (or go to Options, Directories in the GUI).</p> |
| 45 | <p class="normal">Software images can be placed in similar subdirectories (e.g. <span class="filename">software\coco3\MyCoolCocoGame.dsk</span>). The GUI will first look for software |
| 46 | images in this directory. However, placing software images here is not mandatory and one can tell the GUI to look for software images |
| 47 | elsewhere, and when using the command line the full path to the images must be specified regardless.</p> |
| 40 | 48 | </body> |
| 41 | 49 | </html> |