MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: MESS parents/clones

> > > The logic is that the European version is the parent, as in MAME.
> > > If not available, the US version is the parent.
> > >
> > > what you experience is a problem related to the fact that lists are not split by
> > > region , and this is on purpose: as the lockout message explains the program is
> > > compatible with both regions and it checks not to be run in the wrong country.
> >
> > This policy seems absurd to me. Listing software as "compatible" as long as it
> > displays an error screen when run on the wrong hardware and doesn't simply crash?
>
> it's not meant to be listed as compatible, it's meant to be possible to launch them
> for debugging usage (because they are bitwise compatible) and I personally plan to
> eventually emulate region-bypass devices which will make it important to have them in
> the same list
>
> You might also want to notice that we have a "compatibility" flag in the xml which
> prevents launching sets of the incompatible regions from command line when you skip
> the -media switch, see e.g. 32x softlist. but I doubt any frontend make useful usage
> of that, which is a shame (it does not help the fact that I never had enough time yet
> to add it also in popular systems like megadrive and snes)

Technically, they are compatible in the MAME/MESS sense (documentation over playability). The console detects the region of the game (or the reverse may happen depending on the system; the game code may detect the region of the console), and produces an error message or even a blank screen if it isn't the intended machine, or in the case of the "toaster" NES, the console will just sit there flashing on and off if another region's game is inserted or if it can't read the region data (e.g. if an HES game is used without another game in the back of it, or a game/ZIF slot with dirty connectors, or a faulty CIC chip, which I am yet to come across).