==Supported systems and compatibility==
Currently, [http://www.progettoemma.net/mess/sysset.php over 950 a thousand systems are supported]by MESS, including the CPC and CPC Plus ranges and the GX4000. This is probably the main reason for using MESS: A single download is enough to emulate more or less every home computer and gaming console that ever existed in the late 1970s and 1980s—provided one can find a ROM set that works (see below). MESS does not have the depth of other emulators, but it sure has enormous breadth. Its flexible input mapping and MAME-compatible pixel shader effects make MESS particularly suited for gaming.
MESS runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. If you also use MAME, you may want to get [http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/latest-ume-mame-mess-binaries UME] instead, which combines MESS and MAME into a single executable with a shared configuration file, <tt>ume.ini</tt>.