Though the teams are separate from each other, the codebase for MESS merged with MAME in 2015 though separate MESS builds can still be compiled from the source. MESS started as a fork of MAME, keeping its philosophy but expanding the amount of target machines widely.
The philosophy behind the project was to recreate the workings of machines like cash registers through emulation. MESS (an acronym for Multi Emulator Super System) was a multi-platform, open-source, multi-system emulator. Merged with MAME in 2015 starting with 0.162
