Systems Community Reference AtariAge Store Site Title Search Title: System: Region: MESS Emulator Tutorial by Tim 'Tooth Protector' Warner (timandsusan2002 at earthlink dot net) Table of Contents. Introduction This tutorial will get you up and running in no time flat, playing games from a variety of different gaming platforms on your Microsoft Windows-based computer by using the outstanding (MESS) emulator. In this tutorial, we are going to focus on learning to play GCE Vectrex games by using MESS. However, the procedures outlined in this tutorial apply to any of the game platforms that are supported by MESS. Part One: Obtaining the Necessary Files To play GTE Vectrex games on your PC by using MESS, you'll need the following files:. MESS: As of this writing, the most recent version of MESS is 0.81.
How to Care for a Chipped or Broken Tooth. If your tooth is broken, chipped, or fractured, see your dentist as soon as possible. Otherwise, your tooth could be damaged further or become infected.
Vectrex BIOS ROM: This file is required to play Vectrex games with the MESS emulator. Vectrex Game ROMs: Vectrex game ROMs have the extension.GAM or.BIN. Vectrex Screen Overlays: Vectrex screen overlays have the extensions.PNG and.ART.
Visit the following Web site to download the latest version of MESS: Visit the following Web site to obtain Vectrex (and other) MESS BIOS ROMs: Note that you must have the appropriate BIOS ROM image for any game system that you want to access with MESS. Visit the following Web site to download Vectrex screen overlays: Visit the following Web site to download Vectrex game ROMs: Of course, judicious use of Google or one of the myriad peer-to-peer file-sharing applications should get you where you need to be as regards obtaining BIOS ROMs and game ROMs. Your first step is to use or some other ZIP file-management utility to unpack all of your files. Begin by creating a folder named MESS on your hard drive and unpacking the MESS emulator files into it.
After the file extraction your MESS folder should look something like the following: Next, you'll want to place your ZIPPED Vectrex BIOS ROM in the MESS BIOS folder. Note that the actual BIOS ROM (which in the case of Vectrex is actually called SYSTEM.IMG) must remain in your VECTREX.ZIP archive file. Place your overlay files into the MESS ARTWORK folder. The VECTREX.ZIP overlay archive file that you downloaded earlier should remain zipped and placed, whole and entire, into the appropriate folder.
Finally, place your Vectrex game ROMs into the MESS SOFTWARE folder. Part Two: Configuring MESS To begin, open your MESS folder and double-click MESSGUI.EXE to start up MESS. If you are wondering: Where are my systems? Where are my game ROMs? Then don't worry about it too much. We have to instruct MESS as to where everything is.
That's what we will do now. First, let's point MESS to the location of our ROM BIOS files. From MESS, click Options = Directories.
In the Directories dialog box, select BIOSses from the Show directories for: drop-down list box. Although there may already be an entry in the Directories list named BIOS, I tend to favor manually selecting the appropriate folder anyway. Therefore, select whatever entry appears beneath Directories and then click Browse. In the Browse for Folder dialog box, browse to the location of your MESS BIOS folder and click OK. You should now have a valid path configured for the BIOSes section of the Directories dialog box. Click OK in the Directories dialog box to return to MESS.
In the left-most pane, click Available to display your list of available emulators. You should see an entry called Vectrex.
If not, then click All Systems in the left-most pane and select Vectrex in the System pane. To refresh the display, press F5 or click View = Refresh. Right-click the Vectrex icon in the System list and select Properties from the shortcut menu. In the Vectrex Properties dialog box, navigate to the Software tab. Next, click Browse. What we are going to do now is to point MESS to the location of our Vectrex game ROM files. In the Browse for Folder dialog box, browse to the location of your MESS SOFTWARE folder, select that folder, and then click OK.
You should now see the correct directory path in your Vectrex Properties dialog box. Click OK to return to MESS. Yes, yes, I know: we can globally specify the location of the SOFTWARE folder by clicking Options = Directories, choosing Software in the Directories dialog box, and browsing to the location of the MESS SOFTWARE folder. However, in my experience this procedure fails to make the Vectrex ROMs appear in the Software list in MESS.
So now you know two ways to do basically the same thing. One more thing before we get to playing games-we should specify the location of our ARTWORK folder; the ARTWORK folder is the folder that contains our overlay files. From MESS, click Options = Directories, and then, in the Directories dialog box, select Artwork from the Show directories for: drop-down list box.
Use the Browse button to specify the location of your MESS ARTWORK folder. Click OK when you are through in the Directories dialog box to return to MESS.
Although I'm not going to go into all available configuration options in this quick-start guide, you can tweak all sorts of other Vectrex-related emulation settings by right-clicking the Vectrex icon in the System list in MESS, selecting Properties from the shortcut menu, and then navigating to each of the tabs in the Vectrex Properties dialog box. Global options that affect all systems can be configured by clicking Options = Default System Options. By clicking Options = Interface Options, you can control a variety of global configuration settings. Of special note are the check boxes in the Emulation section; enabling these options allows you to bypass the introductory screens and run MESS at a higher thread priority.
Part Three: Playing Vectrex Games To play a Vectrex game in MESS, simply select Vectrex from the System list and then double-click the desired game title in the Software list in MESS. Press any key at the first screen to continue. Here is the Vectrex title screen: You'll find that gameplay begins immediately. Following is an in-game screen from Hyperchase: In terms of controlling the action, click Options = Joysticks = Joystick 1 from the MESS game interface menu bar.
In the Joysticks/Controllers dialog box you'll see the default keyboard mappings. To change a mapping, simply click your mouse in the appropriate text box and press the new key.
Click OK to return to the game. In case you didn't know this already, MESS is based upon the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME). Therefore, for most systems interface controls can be re-mapped either globally or on a per-game basis by pressing TAB during gameplay. However, this feature does not appear to work with Vectrex games.
Regardless of whether you are playing your Vectrex game in a window or in full-screen mode, you have access to a menu bar. One really neat thing you can do with MESS that you never could have done with Vectrex hardware is to save your game progress. To save your game progress, simply click File = Save State. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to where you want to save your save-state file, name it, and click Save. The file will be saved with the.STA extension. You can use the File = Load State command to load a saved game state. (Make sure to load the appropriate game ROM before you attempt to load a save state.) Well, that's about all there is to it.
I hope that you found this tutorial helpful. Happy gaming!
Teeth are remarkably strong, but they can chip, crack (fracture) or break. This can happen in several ways:.
Biting down on something hard. Being hit in the face or mouth.
Falling. Having cavities that weaken the tooth. Having large, old amalgam fillings that don't support the remaining enamel of the tooth When a tooth chips or breaks, it may not hurt. However, your tongue usually feels the sharp area quite quickly. Minor tooth fractures usually don't cause pain, but if a large piece of the tooth breaks off, it can hurt. The nerve inside the tooth may be damaged. Extreme discomfort also can happen when nerve endings in the dentin are exposed to air, or to hot or cold foods or drinks.
Pain from a broken or cracked tooth may be constant or may come and go. Many people feel pain when they chew because chewing puts pressure on the tooth. What You Can Do Cracked (Fractured) Teeth There is no way to treat a cracked tooth at home. You need to see your dentist.
Sometimes the tooth looks fine, but it hurts only when you eat or when the temperature in your mouth changes (because you drank something hot or cold, for example). If your tooth hurts all the time, it may have a damaged nerve or blood vessels. This is a serious warning sign. You will know if you have a cracked tooth if it does not hurt to bite on the tooth, but pain occurs when you release the bite.
Broken Teeth If you have a broken tooth, see your dentist as soon as possible. Your dentist can figure out if the break was caused by a cavity, and if the tooth's nerve is in danger. A damaged nerve usually will require root canal treatment. Until you get to the dentist's office:.
Rinse your mouth well with warm water. Apply pressure with a piece of gauze on any bleeding areas for about 10 minutes or until the bleeding stops. If this doesn’t work, use a tea bag with pressure on the area to stop the bleeding. Apply a cold pack to the cheek or lips over the broken tooth. This will help reduce swelling and relieve pain. If you can't get to your dentist right away, cover the part of the tooth that is in your mouth with temporary dental cement. You can find this at a drugstore.
Take an over-the-counter pain reliever. What Your Dentist Will Do There are several types of tooth fractures and breaks, each of which requires different treatments. These include:.
Minor cracks —Also called 'craze lines,' these are surface cracks that affect only the outer white surface of the tooth, called the enamel. Minor cracks rarely need treatment.
However, your dentist may lightly polish the area to smooth out any rough spots. Cracked tooth — This type of fracture involves the whole tooth, from the chewing surface all the way down to the nerve.
The pieces remain in place, but the crack gradually spreads. Cracks can sometimes be repaired with filling material. The tooth often will need a crown to prevent the crack from getting worse. If the pulp (nerve and other live tissues) is damaged, you may need a root canal as well.
Chips — Minor chips don't always need treatment. Your dentist may suggest repairing the damage with filling material to prevent it from getting worse or to make the tooth look and feel better. If the chip is very small, the dentist may polish and smooth out the chipped area. Broken cusp — These breaks affect the pointed chewing surfaces (the cusps) of the teeth. They usually do not affect the pulp and are unlikely to cause much pain. Your dentist may repair the damage to restore the tooth's shape.
Frequently, however, an onlay or crown will be required. Serious breaks — These breaks go deep enough to expose the nerve.
They almost always cause the tooth to hurt and be sensitive. Usually, the broken part of the tooth will bleed. You will need root canal treatment to remove the exposed nerve and probably a crown to restore the tooth to normal function so you can eat and chew properly. Split tooth — This means that the tooth has split vertically into two separate parts. Some teeth, such as your back teeth (molars), have more than one root.
It may be possible to keep one of the roots, which will then be covered with a crown. First, you will need root canal treatment.
Second, the dentist will remove any roots that cannot be kept. Third, you will need a crown to cover the root and replace the tooth. In some cases, when a root cannot be saved, the tooth will have to be removed. Vertical breaks or split root —These cracks start in the root of the tooth and extend upward toward the chewing surface. These breaks are often painful because the area around the root may be inflamed or infected. In most cases, the tooth will have to be removed.
Decay-induced break — In this case, the tooth has broken or crumbled because a cavity weakened it from the inside out. Your dentist will evaluate the cavity and recommend the best way to restore the tooth.