[Coco] VCC and Mac

[Dean Leiber]

On Jun 4, 2012, at 1:45 PM, Paulo Lindoso [gmail] wrote:

> Dean,
> 
> I am using Mess 0.132 (Jul 19 2009).  From what I read over the lists,  it seems the most "workable'  version.
> 

Paulo,

I'll have to find a copy of that version and see if it'll run here. I tried the versions on macmess.org (as well as the front end) and I
couldn't get anything to work. I'm running Lion so perhaps that is the problem. 

> Config was truly a mess…

No kidding. I had to force it to create mess.ini and then I had to force it to verify the ROMS before I could get anything to work. (after rummaging through all the docs) All in all,
not user friendly, but its free. I'm playing with a frontend I found to see if that eases the pain somewhat.
> 
> I've downloaded SDLMESS, place it on my Applications folder and reconfigured my mess.ini to point to dirs in my home folder, where I placed ROMs and Software.
> 
> Problems I still have:
> 
> 1) My Macbook pad is not a viable option to replace Joysticks and I can't get to use keys as an option.  Given up trying at the moment... No Zaxxon for me... 
> 
> 2) Mapping special keys is still somewhat messy as well.  Standard TAB to access the menu mixes up with CoCo TAB, it doesn't like Fn+FunctionKeys…

Yes I'm having that problem big time as well. I got 'stuck' in the emulator <LOL> and had to reboot my mac to get out. Not good.
> 
> All in all, it is not a good experience, so I seldom use it, preferring to play with my original CoCo3, which at least reads DSK files with my SuperIDE, but still polishing out some glitches there as well... ;)

I don't have room to set the ol' gal up at the moment, so that's why all the playing with the emulators.
> 
> VCC installed very easily over WineBottler (no extra confs... standard Wine App).  Loading DSK files as floppies was OK as well.  I will soon try to play and write stuff to see how it goes.
> 
> So far, better experience with VCC than MESS…
> 
That has been my experience so far. VCC was easier to set up and get running via Crossover (yeah its not free, but I'm lazy sometimes) than playing with a native version of MESS. As someone pointed out.. an emulator in an emulator. It probably runs about true CoCo speed that way! :-D

Dean