The TWildcatBase.OpenConference was creating a TMsgDatabase without populating the SDK globals, causing access violations on MwConfig. Now calls the full Register sequence: InitWCglobal, LoadMakeWild, BTInitIsam before opening; BTExitIsam + DisposeWCglobal on close. test_wildcat reads conferences 0..6 from vendored testdata (copied to /tmp/ma_wildcat so the source tree stays read-only).