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MAME/MESS VGM mod

Current version: 0.256 (released on 2023-06-28)

Technical discussion about the VGM format, and all the software you need to handle VGM files.

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MAME/MESS VGM mod

Post by ValleyBell »

Program: MAME/MESS 0.256 (homepage)
Program Type: VGM Creator/Emulator
Platform: Windows (64-bit), others (via source code)
Logs chips: All supported (no, I don't name all 42 ones right now) Here's the list:
SN76489 (and variants), T6W28, YM2413, YM2612/YM3834, YM2151, SegaPCM, RF5C68, YM2203, YM2608, YM2610/B, YM3812, YM3526, Y8950, YMF262, YMF278B, YMF271, YMZ280B, RF5C164 (SegaCD PCM), PWM (Sega 32x), AY8910 (and variants), GameBoy DMG, NES APU, MultiPCM, UPD7759, OKI6258, OKI6295, K051649 (SCC1), K054539, HuC6280, C140, K053260, Pokey, QSound, SCSP, WonderSwan, Virtual Boy VSU, SAA1099, ES5503, ES5505, ES5506, Seta X1-010, C352, Irem GA20
Comment: Modded by Valley Bell to log vgms. (enabled via mame.ini/mess.ini)
Note: MAME and MESS fused with version 0.162. So there are separate packages for MAME and MESS for older versions, but only one for newer ones.


Windows 64-bit (56.61 MB) (2023-06-28)
Additional Files (20.58 MB) (2023-06-28)
Source: Diff (36.5 KB) (2023-06-28) / GitHub repo branch

"Additinal Files" is stuff like artwork, software lists, etc... that you don't necessarily need to run the emulators.
Also it gets never updated (except when updating to a newer major release), so you just need to download it once.


Old versions
Notes about MAME/MESS 0.156 and older:
  • MESS is based on MESSUI, not the commandline program.
  • homepage MAME/MESS/MESSUI


MAME 0.248 Windows 64-bit (52.84 MB) (2022-10-27)
MAME 0.248 Source Diff (36.1 KB) (2022-10-27) / GitHub repo branch
MAME 0.248 Additional Files (20.40 MB) (2022-10-27)

MAME 0.244 Windows 64-bit (52.35 MB) (2022-06-17)
MAME 0.244 Source Diff (36.5 KB) (2022-06-17) / GitHub repo branch
MAME 0.244 Additional Files (20.08 MB) (2022-06-17)

MAME 0.236 Windows 64-bit (52.62 MB) (2021-10-03)
MAME 0.236 Source Diff (36.0 KB) (2021-10-03)
MAME 0.236 Additional Files (18.36 MB) (2021-10-03)

MAME 0.222 Windows 64-bit (48.79 MB) (2021-09-12)
MAME 0.222 Source Diff (35.8 KB) (2021-09-12), Note: Needs to be applied to Git commit ad6505b instead of MAME 0.222 release source.
MAME 0.222 Additional Files (16.87 MB) (2021-09-12)

MAME 0.200 Windows 32-bit (49.81 MB) / 64-bit (52.14 MB) (2018-08-21)
MAME 0.200 Source Diff (38.3 KB) (2018-08-21)
MAME 0.200 Additional Files (12.01 MB) (2018-08-21)

MAME 0.196 beta Source Diff (32.7 KB) (2018-04-07)
MAME 0.192 beta Source Diff (32.1 KB) (2018-01-15)
MAME 0.188 beta Windows 64-bit + Source Diff (42.47 MB) (2017-07-26) (crashes often when logging sample ROMs)
MAME 0.184 beta Windows 64-bit + Source Diff (38.27 MB) (2017-07-23) (doesn't log all sample ROM types)
MAME 0.181 beta Windows 64-bit (40.23 MB) / Source Diff (20.8 KB) (2017-01-15) (doesn't log all sample ROM types)

MAME 0.164 Windows 32-bit (23.99 MB) / 64-bit (27.71 MB) (2015-08-14)
MAME 0.164 Source Diff (32.8 KB) (2015-08-14)
MAME 0.164 Additional Files (8.52 MB) (2015-08-14)

MAME 0.156 Windows 32-bit (14.75 MB) / 64-bit (16.09 MB) (2015-07-21)
MESS 0.156 Windows 32-bit (7.81 MB) / 64-bit (8.51 MB) (2015-07-21)
MAME 0.156 Windows 32-bit (14.75 MB) / 64-bit (16.07 MB) (2014-12-27)
MESS 0.156 Windows 32-bit (7.80 MB) / 64-bit (8.50 MB) (2014-12-27)
MAME/MESS 0.156 Source Diff (29.1 KB) (2014-12-27), Source Diff (35.3 KB) (2015-07-21)
MAME 0.156 Additional Files (296 KB) (2014-12-27)
MESS 0.156 Additional Files (6.51 MB) (2014-12-27)

MAME 0.152 Windows 32-bit (13.65 MB) / 64-bit (15.57 MB) (2014-04-07), 64-bit (15.58 MB) (2014-10-12) (with preliminary NMK112 logging)
MAME 0.152 Additinal Files (1.10 MB) (2013-12-24)
MESS 0.152 Windows 32-bit (6.79 MB) / 64-bit (7.96 MB) (2014-04-07), 64-bit (7.95 MB) (2014-10-31) (with fixed Sega Pico PCM)
MESS 0.152 Additinal Files (6.92 MB) (2013-12-24)
MAME/MESS 0.152 Source Diff (24.4 KB) (2014-04-07)

MAME 0.148 Windows 32-bit (13.48 MB) / 64-bit (15.27 MB) (2013-01-14)
MESS 0.148 Windows 32-bit (6.05 MB) / 64-bit (7.00 MB) (2013-01-14)
MAME/MESS 0.148 Additinal Files (6.40 MB) (2013-01-14)
MAME/MESS 0.148 Source Diff (21.9 KB) (2013-01-14)

MAME 0.144 Windows 32-bit (15.11 MB) / 64-bit (15.72 MB) (2012-03-31)
MESS 0.144 Windows 32-bit (6.55 MB) / 64-bit (7.16 MB) (2012-03-31)
MAME 0.144 Windows 32-bit (15.12 MB) / 64-bit (15.71 MB) (2011-12-23)
MESS 0.144 Windows 32-bit (6.55 MB) / 64-bit (7.15 MB) (2011-12-23)
MAME 0.144 Additinal Files (150 KB) (2011-11-15)
MESS 0.144 Additinal Files (13.90 MB) (2011-11-15)
MAME/MESS 0.144 Source Diff (14.7 KB) (2011-11-16), Source Diff (15.6 KB) (2011-12-24), Source Diff (19.4 KB) (2013-01-12)

MAME 0.140 Windows 32-bit (11.56 MB) / 64-bit (12.19 MB) (2011-09-27)
MESS 0.140 Windows 32-bit (21.22 MB) / 64-bit (22.28 MB) (2011-09-27)
MAME/MESS 0.140 Source Diff (10.2 KB) (2011-02-19), Source Diff (13.9 KB) (2011-10-21), Source Diff (14.1 KB) (2011-10-28)



Known not-working games with supported chips: (this also applies to M1)
Games that use a NMK112 chip (or other custom chips) for bank switching of OKIM6295 sample ROMs:
  • DonPachi [donpachi] ("Cave Hardware", according to the comments in MAME, only the SFX chip is banked, so music should work) NMK112 banking
  • Power Instinct 2 [pwrinst2] / Power Instinct Legends [plegends] ("Cave Hardware") NMK112 banking
  • Rapid Hero [raphero] (MAME comment: "Incorrect OKI samples banking in Rapid Hero")
  • Super Spacefortress Macross II [macross2], Thunder Dragon 2 [tdragon2] (derived: bigbang), Bombjack Twin [bjtwin] (derived: sabotenb, cactus, nouryoku) NMK112 banking
  • S.S. Mission [ssmissin] (derived: airattck), Task Force Harrier [tharrier] (custom bank switching)
  • Power Instinct [powerins] NMK112 banking
  • Quiz Panicuru Fantasy [quizpani] NMK112 banking
  • Battle Garegga [bgaregga], Armed Police Batrider [batrider] (Toaplan 2 board) NMK112 banking
Update: NMK112 banking support was added with VGMPlay 0.40.6 and MAME 0.156 (2015 release), so many of the previously broken games log fine now.

Sega Model 2 games aren't rippable currently due to the music tempo being off. This causes some desync'ing, especially in Fighting Viper.
WonderSwan support is so bad that even logged VGMs sound like a mess of glitched tones. They finally improved it between 0.222 and 0.236!

Additionally there are some games whose C140 is connected to RAM instead of ROM. In that case, MAME makes a note about it in error.log. (M1 and MAME until 0.156/2014 also disable C140 logging.)
This is the case for all Namco NA-1 / NA-2 games.

Then there are some games that use two chips of one type (e.g. SN76489), but with different chip clocks. [This is repairable after logging/trimming.]
And finally: the AY8910-part of the YM2203/YM2608/YM2610 chips may play at the wrong frequency. This is a player-related issue and will be fixed with the next major release of VGMPlay/in_vgm. fixed in VGMPlay 0.40.6

Post by Sonic of 8! »

A hint to logging Sega SG-1000/SMS/GG/MD/SCD/S32x VGMs: in each Proprietes of each system, go to the Debug tab and mark the Activate Integrated Debbuger and apply. Now you can search for Sega sound engines at your CPUs (Z80 in most cases)!
オモいカルチャーをオモチャーと言う - 細野晴臣

Problem with uPD7759

Post by Sonic of 8! »

I may report a problem (with MAME) here. I logged some songs in uPD7759 (Puyo Puyo, Zunzunkyou no Yabou and Vulcan Venture) and the VGMPlay identifies uPD7759 at OKIM6258, and don't play the the uPD songs.
オモいカルチャーをオモチャーと言う - 細野晴臣
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Post by ValleyBell »

I'm not sure, but I think the last VGMPlay doesn't support the uPD chip yet. (It shows that the chip is present, but doesn't emulate it.)
I'm sure that it doesn't emulate the OKIM6258.
Also VGMPlay doesn't yet have dual-chip support for any of the v1.61 chips.
I'm releasing the new version today (or tomorrow, if I'm unlucky).

Anyway: Updates since my last MAME/MESS VGM release:
- If you start a game and press ESC on the game information screen, the logged VGM will simply have 0 bytes instead of being empty or even invalid.
- Added chips: K054539, HuC6280, C140

Note: I haven't yet tested the OKIM6258, but I made working logs with all other chips.

Post by Sonic of 8! »

I may have a bug. Can you re-upload MESS here or upload on your MF account, because I try to download but Opera Mini gives a error on them. MAME was fine too.

Also thanks to submitting my packs, but i think that PackList.txt not exist in this forum...
オモいカルチャーをオモチャーと言う - 細野晴臣
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Post by ValleyBell »

Weird ... the links work and I just downloaded the MESS 32-bit version and it worked. (I unpacked it and MESS started.)

What kind of error do you get?

Post by Sonic of 8! »

Opera mini don't starts the download
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Post by Sik »

Opera Mini uses a proxy server, so of course it's more likely to fail. Also the fact that, well, you're dealing with a dumbed down "browser" (if even that, because the real browser is in the proxy server) and that phone connections in general suck.

Though Opera Mini should work with those files... It's not like they're on some random upload site that's made entirely out of javascript or something, they're direct downloads.

EDIT: may want to file a bug report to Opera.
Last edited by Sik on 2011-12-29, 4:23:45, edited 1 time in total.

Post by Sonic of 8! »

Thanks to info Sik!

And my WAP connection is very good: 30MB (MBytes) limit per day, and I may pay 0,50 cents (~0,25 cents in US) for each day that I use. And my deafult Browser don't download files that isn't supported (like rar, zip, txt, avi, 7z). And I can't download files with [] (says "invalid host format").
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Post by Sik »

Sonic of 8! wrote:And my WAP connection is very good: 30MB (MBytes) limit per day, and I may pay 0,50 cents (~0,25 cents in US) for each day that I use.
I meant "suck" in terms of stability, phone connections can fail very easily for long transfers. The data plan you have has nothing to do with it, it's entirely a hardware issue.

Post by Sonic of 8! »

Hmmm... Okay...

And in my old revision of MESS (not this one that is I tried to download), I may emulated 32x and the PWM is listed as 2xDAC. Why is the reason?
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Post by ValleyBell »

Here's the Mediafire Mirror.

Actually the PWM is just a DAC. It's 2xDAC, because there's one for the left and one for the right channel.
btw: I don't recommend to use MESS for 32x emulation at all. It's still very buggy and in Knuckles' Chaotix lots of drums are missing.

Post by Sonic of 8! »

Thanks to the double things.

Yes, 32x and Sega CD is emulation is very slow (imagine the 32x CD...). Saturn, PSX and N64 emulation seems to be much faster than 32x one!

Also, if MESS emulates the VMU mini-games, the sound is PWM, but VMU's PWM is mono, according a Brazilian DC FAQ.
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Post by 2ch-H »

NEC PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 HuC6280 The problem that tempo is slow.

This is a sample. Telenet Japan. Exile. Map screen bgm
MESS VGM log file
Edit: link was removed.


Emulator ootake output wav file to Convert mp3 file
Edit: link was removed.


Emulator Magic Engine. ootake .mednafen. it was the right tempo.

Is a problem correctable?
Last edited by 2ch-H on 2012-05-13, 17:59:33, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by ValleyBell »

Sorry, but I'm afraid I can't fix it by myself.
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