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PC-Ecke => # PC-Games und News => Thema gestartet von: SiLæncer am 07 Oktober, 2007, 18:42

Titel: 40 JAHRE ATARI 2600 - Mit Aliens zum Welterfolg
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 07 Oktober, 2007, 18:42
30 JAHRE ATARI 2600 - Mit Aliens zum Welterfolg

Kippschalter, Holzfurnier, 128 Byte Speicher: Das sind die Eckdaten einer der beliebtesten Spielkonsolen aller Zeiten, des Atari 2600. Im Oktober 1977 erblickte der Daddel-Klassiker das Licht der Welt - und wurde erst nach erheblichen Startschwierigkeiten zum Kassenschlager.

Eine Invasion Außerirdischer war die Rettung für Atari. Gut zwei Jahre Entwicklungsarbeit hatte man in die erste programmierbare Spielkonsole, das "Video Computer System" (VCS) gesteckt. Mit dem Gerät, das später in "Atari 2600" umbenannt wurde, wollte man an den Erfolg des legendären Videospiels Pong anknüpfen. Anders als beim Vorbild, das nur ein Spiel beherrschte, sollte der Nachfolger jedoch programmierbar sein, also per Software mit verschiedenen Spielen gefüttert werden können.

(http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,985961,00.jpg)

Doch obwohl das VCS gerade noch rechtzeitig zum Weihnachtsgeschäft im Oktober 1977 in die Regale der US-Händler kam, blieb der Erfolg aus. Hunderttausende Exemplare der damals 250 Dollar teuren Spielmaschine lagen abholbereit in den Lagern - und fanden keine Käufer. Das Hauptproblem: Die Auswahl an Spielen war zu klein. Zum Start standen nur neun Titel zur Verfügung.

Den Umschwung brachte erst das Arcade-Game "Space Invaders". 1979 sicherte sich Atari eine Lizenz für das Spiel, das bis dahin nur in Spielhallen zu sehen war. Ein kluger Schachzug, schließlich war das Ballerspiel, in dem man Alien-Raumschiffe abschießen musste, in seinem Heimatland Japan zeitweise so beliebt, dass die von den Automaten geschluckten 100-Yen-Münzen zum seltenen Gut wurden.

11.000 Dollar für den Milliardenerfolg

Das neue Spiel kam gerade rechtzeitig für die Firma, die gerade vom Warner-Konzern von einer Hippie-Bude in ein Schlips-und-Anzug-Unternehmen umgebaut wurde. Scharenweise rannten die Leute nun in die Läden und kauften Ataris Konsole, nur um das japanische Kultspiel daddeln zu können. Das Resultat: Rund 30 Millionen Exemplare der Atari 2600 sollen während der kommenden Jahre über die Ladentische gegangen sein.

Insgesamt spülten die Spielekisten etwa fünf Milliarden Dollar in Ataris Kasse. Programmierer Rick Maurer, der den Erfolg mit seiner Version von Space Invaders für Atari erst möglich machte erhielt als Lohn lediglich 11.000 Dollar - und arbeitete nie wieder für das Unternehmen.

Atari hingegen lebte einige Jahre sehr gut von dem Erfolg der aus heutiger Sicht reichlich sperrigen Konsole. Mindestens 200 Spiele sollen für das System entwickelt worden sein. Sie alle wurden auf sogenannten Cartridges verkauft, kleinen Spielmodulen, die man einfach auf das Gerät aufsteckte und sofort losdaddeln konnte. Insgesamt sollen 120 Millionen dieser Cartridges verkauft worden sein.

Die Konsole selbst ging, in verschiedenen Varianten, etwa 30 Millionen Mal über den Ladentisch. Erst 1991, 14 Jahre nach ihrer Vorstellung, wurde die Produktion endgültig eingestellt. Keine andere Konsole konnte sich solange der Gunst der Käufer erfreuen.

Lebensverlängerung per Internet

Und damit scheint noch lange nicht Schluss zu sein. Mit dem Projekt "Stella", erhalten Atari-Fans die Konsole bis heute als Gast auf Heimcomputern am Leben. Stella, so lautete der Codenamen unter dem die Atari 2600 ab 1975 entwickelt wurde. Heute ist Stella eine Emulatorsoftware, also ein Programm, das die alte Spielkonsole als Software nachbildet. Damit kann man auf Mac und PC heute noch die Spiele von damals nachspielen.

Einen besonders leistungsfähigen Rechner braucht man dafür nicht. Schließlich übertrifft heute jeder billige MP3-Player die 2600 um ein mehrfaches, wenn man Prozessorleistung und Speicherkapazität vergleicht. Schließlich diente ihr ein mit nur 1,19 Megahertz getakteter Mikroprozessor als Antrieb. Das Betriebssystem war in einem 32 Kilobyte großen Chip abgelegt, der Arbeitsspeicher (das RAM) war lächerliche 128 Byte groß - mehr brauchte man nicht, um die Highscores der Spiele abzulegen. Eine Festplatte oder gar ein Diskettenlaufwerk gab es nicht und die Grafik beschränkt sich auf 128 Farben bei einer Auflösung von 320 x 200 Bildpunkte.

Heutzutage übertreffen selbst Mobiltelefone diese technischen Daten um ein Vielfaches. Und doch zieht es immer wieder Spiele-Fans zu den alten Konsolen-Spielen. Vielleicht weil die sich, statt mit Monstergrafik und Surround-Sound zu protzen, notgedrungen auf ihre Spielidee konzentrieren mussten. Wer das noch mal erleben will, sollte sich unbedingt den Stella-Emulator auf den Rechner ziehen und sich eines der alten Games besorgen. Man staunt nicht schlecht, welchen Reiz Klassiker á la "Centipede" und "Pole Position" noch heute ausstrahlen - trotz Krüppelgrafik und Mono-Sound. Das macht einfach Spaß.

Quelle : www.spiegel.de
Titel: Atari CX40: Die Mutter aller Joysticks
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 03 März, 2010, 13:52
Er gilt als Prototyp des Game-Controllers: Der Joystick der Spielkonsole Atari 2600 war ein ergonomischer Alptraum - dafür war der schwarze Klotz praktisch unverwüstlich. Thomas Hillenbrand erinnert sich an brachiale Ballerorgien und blutige Handflächen.

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/319738068_ddffebf727.jpg)

Mein Freund Tobias hatte sich einen dieser Hightech-Joysticks gekauft. Das Gerät sah aus wie der Steuerknüppel eines Apache-Helikopters und hatte zehn Knöpfe, mindestens. Man musste ihn vor dem Gebrauch mit einer speziellen Software kalibrieren. "Nur ganz leicht antippen", erklärte mein Kumpel, "und bloß nicht so feste, der war voll teuer."

Schon bevor ich das Raumschiff durch das erste Level bugsiert hatte, machte es "rack" und der Supercontroller war hinüber.

Mein brutales Gerüttel und Gezerre hatte ihn zerstört. Aber ich kann einfach nicht anders. Den Großteil meines Gamer-Lebens habe ich mit dem CX40 von Atari gespielt, einem klobigen schwarzen Joystick aus Plastik. Der wurde mit der 2600er-Konsole mitgeliefert und war so unverwüstlich wie ein sowjetischer Schützenpanzer.

Bei diesem mit vier Kontaktplatinen (oben, unten, links, rechts) ausgestatteten Urjoystick war leichtes Antippen zwecklos. Man musste den Steuerknüppel vielmehr brutal herumreißen, damit sich "Pac-Man" oder "Frogger" in die gewünschte Richtung bewegten.

Blutige Striemen nach dem Feindflug

Computerspielen war in den frühen Achtzigern ein Hobby mit körperlicher Komponente. Während man die Linke um den klobigen Joystick-Kubus krallte, rüttelte man mit der Rechten am Steuerhebel. Kraft ging vor Finesse, und viele Spiele waren entsprechend konzipiert. Bei "Decathlon" etwa musste man den Stick in einer rabiaten Links-Rechts-Bewegung hin- und herruckeln. Wer am schnellsten ruckelte, dessen Läufer kam als erster ins Ziel. Schwächere Joysticks hätten das nicht ausgehalten.

Weil der CX40 so anti-ergonomisch war, gaben jedoch mitunter meine Hände auf. Dafür sorgte vor allem der Griff, dessen Gummiüberzug ein sadistischer Industriedesigner mit sechs Längsrillen versehen hatte. Wenn ich fünf, sechs Stunden lang mein Lieblingsspiel "River Raid" gespielt hatte, bildeten sich blutige Striemen an meiner Handinnenseite. Nur mit Hilfe von um den Joystick und die Hand gewickelten Kleenex-Tüchern und viel Paketband konnte ich weiterspielen. Unter Schmerzen zwar, aber es galt ja, die Welt zu retten.

Als die Computerspiele ausgefeilter wurden, waren filigranere Joysticks gefragt. Die waren allerdings technisch oft sehr anfällig. Ich erinnere mich an eine Computerzeitschrift, die Anfang der Neunziger zehn Joysticks auf Herz und Nieren testete. Zu der eingehenden Prüfung gehörten diverse Stürze aus bis zu drei Metern Höhe sowie ein halbstündiges Bad in warmer Cola. Fast alle Geräte gaben danach den Geist auf. Dem CX40 hätte so etwas nichts ausgemacht.

Quelle : www.spiegel.de
Titel: Re: Atari CX40: Die Mutter aller Joysticks
Beitrag von: dvb_ss2 am 03 März, 2010, 14:05
Zitat
dafür war der schwarze Klotz praktisch unverwüstlich
Das stimmt überhaupt nicht!!!  ;D

Auf'm Atari mag's das Spiel nicht gegeben haben, aber dieser Joystick hielt auf Dauer dem Spiel Decathlon (Activision?) auf dem C64 nicht stand!

Zur Verteidigung des Joyticks sei aber auch gesagt, dass man den Joystick mit Sekundenkleber u. Klebeband/Tesa wieder flicken konnte und anschließend weiterspielen konnte. ;)

Den hier habe ich allerdings nie klein gekriegt:
http://www.c64-wiki.de/index.php/Competition_Pro

dvb_ss2
Titel: Re: Atari CX40: Die Mutter aller Joysticks
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 03 März, 2010, 15:43
Zitat
Den hier habe ich allerdings nie klein gekriegt:
http://www.c64-wiki.de/index.php/Competition_Pro

Hehe ...den hatte ich dann auch hinterher ...hat ewig gehalten ....
Titel: Re: Atari CX40: Die Mutter aller Joysticks
Beitrag von: dvb_ss2 am 03 März, 2010, 17:31
Uuups, das SPiel gab's ja doch für Atari:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decathlon

...und hier auch ein paar Screens des "Joystick-Killerspiels":
http://www.c64-wiki.de/index.php/Decathlon

dvb_ss2
Titel: Atari++ 1.72
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 23 August, 2013, 23:45
(http://i1-win.softpedia-static.com/screenshots/Atari---Emulator_1.png?1377293522)
The Atari++ is an emulator of the Atari eight bit computers, namely the Atari 400 and 800, the Atari 400XL, 800XL and 130XE, and the Atari 5200 game console.

Freeware

http://www.xl-project.com/
Titel: Stella 3.9.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 24 August, 2013, 07:15
(http://stella.sourceforge.net/title.gif)
Stella allows you to enjoy all of your favorite Atari 2600 games on your PC. Stella is a cross-platform Atari 2600 VCS emulator that brings back the games that left an imprint on your childhood.

You can now use this simple and accessible tool to load and play your favorite games in no time at all.

License : GPL

Whats new: >>

Release Notes
· Note: because of TIA/6502 changes, the state file format has changed again, and old state files will not work with this release.

Several bugfixes and improvements to the debugger:
· Improved display of debugger when using larger video modes. There are now three font sizes, which are automatically selected when the debugger is sized accordingly. When using larger fonts, the extra space is now used more efficiently.
· Fixed bug in disassembly when the mirror used for the current PC didn't match the mirror for the current bank. In this case, the disassembler became confused and didn't properly track the PC address.
· Fixed bug in display of current TIA frame number in the UI; depending on how breakpoints were set, it was sometimes off by one.
· Fixed RAM widget Search/Compare textboxes; entering any data and then pressing 'Enter' / clicking 'OK' locked the UI until exiting and re-entering the debugger.
· Changed display for various TIA position counters to decimal (from hex) in the TIA tab. Related to this, all data input widgets in the UI now have the ability to enter binary, decimal or hex values by using the proper leading character (\, #, $, respectively).
· Added 'INTIM Clks' to the 'I/O' tab. which shows the number of clocks between each 'step' of the INTIM timer.
· Added ability to modify 'tiadriven' commandline argument to the 'TIA' tab, and 'ramrandom' to the 'I/O' tab. These options were available for quite some time, but they weren't exposed in the UI.
· Added 'cpurandom' commandline argument, and associated UI item to the 'I/O' tab. This works similar to 'ramrandom', and randomizes the contents of the CPU registers on ROM startup.
· Added 'uhex' debugger prompt command, which toggles all hexadecimal display between upper/lower case. This setting is also saved in the settings file as argument 'dbg.uhex'.
· Removed 'loadsym' command from the debugger prompt, since the DASM symbol file is always loaded anyway, making the command redundant. Related to this, fixed loading symbols with ###.name convention; the leading number is now stripped.
· Added support for DASM lst files (created with the -l option). For now, the contents are only partially used, to detect constants vs. symbolic addresses in the symbol file. Eventually, further information from the lst file may be used.
· The GRPx and PFx registers in the TIA output now show inactive background pixels as either blanked or with the underlying object colour, instead of always being black. This gives a more accurate representation of how the registers are actually drawn onscreen. Thanks to Tjoppen of AtariAge for this idea and sample code.
· The 'Source Address' locations for the CPU registers now show labels where appropriate.

Renamed 'Override properties' dialog (accessible from the ROM launcher by a right-mouse-button click) to 'Power-on options', with the following new options:
· Set start-up state for both joysticks as well as console select/ reset buttons. Related to this, added 'holdjoy01' and 'holdjoy1' commandline arguments, and removed 'holdbutton0' argument.
· The ability to load the ROM directly from this dialog, after changing any settings, and also to start in the debugger.
· Added more detailed information as to how to use this functionality to the UI.
· Buttons held down are reset approx. 0.5 seconds after starting the ROM, to simulate pressing and releasing the buttons on a real console.

· Fixed bug when using event remapping; changes were being saved only when launching a ROM from the launcher, not in standalone mode.
· Improved bankswitch autodetection for newer EF and EFSC ROMs generated by batari Basic, thanks to RevEng of AtariAge.
· Added properties database info for "Princess Rescue" ROM.

· Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.
[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 3.9.3
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 15 Juni, 2014, 11:00
Whats new: >>

    Added bankswitch schemes BF, BFSC, DF, DFSC and 4KSC, thanks to RevEng and CPUWIZ of AtariAge.
    Updated ROM properties for several ROMs, thanks to Omegamatrix of AtariAge.
    Fixed program crash when specifying a bankswitch type that Stella didn't recognize; an error message is now displayed.

3.9.2:

    Improved parsing of the DASM lst file for the debugger disassembly; it sometimes missed constant declarations.
    Changed 'usemouse' argument from a true/false option to accept 'always', 'analog' and 'never'. This allows to use the mouse as a controller under more specific circumstances. The default is 'analog', which means the mouse is only used to emulate analog-like devices (paddles, trackball, etc).
    Added ability to use bold fonts within the debugger window, which can be set with the 'dbg.fontstyle' commandline argument as well as in the debugger UI Settings dialog. This is useful for those that find the current font too narrow.
    Renamed 'debuggerres' argument to 'dbg.res'. All future debugger- specific options will start with 'dbg.'.
    The TIA 'zoom' area in the debugger now supports scrolling the mouse wheel (currently up/down only, as I don't have a sideways scrolling mouse to test with).

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.0
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 03 Juli, 2014, 19:20
Whats new: >>

Ported Stella to SDL2, which brings many new features. Among the largest improvements is native hardware acceleration support for Windows (Direct3D) and Linux/OSX (OpenGL). It is also now possible to port Stella to iOS and Android devices using OpenGLES. Hardware acceleration is now required, which means up-to-date drivers are needed. Software rendering is still present, but is somewhat unoptimized and unsupported going forward.
Fullscreen video modes now use the desktop resolution. Switching to fullscreen and back to windowed mode no longer rearranges icons on your desktop.
TIA TV effects are now available in all video modes, since hardware acceleration is a requirement.
Added a much more detailed view of cart extended RAM to a new debugger tab. Special thanks to SpiceWare for this implementation.
Added preliminary support for 'DASH' bankswitching scheme by A. Davie.
The AtariVox and SaveKey controllers now have the ability in the debugger to completely erase the virtual EEPROM data.
Added 'savesnap' debugger prompt command, and also associated context menu item to the debugger TIA output area. This saves the current TIA image to a PNG file.
Added 'hidecursor' commandline option, which allows to completely disable showing the mouse cursor (useful on systems that don't have a mouse).
Removed 'uipalette' option, as the original palette is no longer supported.
Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 02 September, 2014, 17:41
Whats new: >>

Improved 'DASH' bankswitching scheme support; there is now a debugger tab for changing banks and viewing internal cart RAM, and autodetection is now implemented.
Added 'MDM' (Menu Driven Megacart) bankswitch scheme as described on AtariAge and originally developed by Edwin Blink.
Improved snapshot viewing in the ROM launcher; snapshots are now scaled to the available space, and can better accommodate sizes other than those generated by Stella itself.
Improved support on multi-monitor systems. Stella will now use the same monitor for fullscreen-windowed mode switches. Special thanks to Magnus Lind for patches that added this functionality.
Removed the 'bank' command from the debugger prompt, as it only worked (inconsistently) with certain bankswitch types. The bankswitch UI should now be used to query/set bank state.
Fixed bug in disassembly output; instructions at $F000 were never being highlighted during execution.
The UNIX configure script now supports newer versions of Hurd. Special thanks to Stephen Kitt for the patch.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.1.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 15 September, 2014, 16:30
Whats new: >>

Re-added 'uipalette' option due to popular demand (of at least one person :)).
Fixed bug in Windows port where pressing 'Alt' key combos resulted in an annoying system beep. Currently this is fixed by patching the SDL2 library and including a modified version with Stella.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.2
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 29 Oktober, 2014, 05:45
Whats new: >>

Text input from non-US keyboard layouts is now supported. Note that all text in Stella is still ASCII-only, but at least it can now be entered using a native layout.
Related to the text input changes, the debugger Alt-combo shortcuts have been changed; they now use the same key but with Control instead of Alt (Control-F for frame advance, etc).
Controllers are now detected dynamically by Stella. This means that you can plug/unplug joysticks/paddles/etc while Stella is running, and they will be added and removed automatically. Also fixed is a bug whereby sometimes custom joystick mappings weren't being saved.
The 'cpurandom' option is now broken down by register type, so you can selectively enable/disable randomization for each one. The default is to disable randomization for all registers.
Fixed 'MDM' scheme to trigger bankswitching on writes to hotspots (previously it only triggered on reads). Also, the scheme has been modified as originally designed by E. Blink; hotspots are now in the range $800-$BFF instead of $800-$FFF.
The OSX app-icon now includes 32x32 and 16x16 versions, so 'small' icons will be viewable in 'Finder', 'Get Info', etc.
The Linux port now uses an app-icon; this seems to be needed for some window managers.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.5
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 02 Januar, 2015, 06:15
Changelog
The conversion to C++11 has begun :) From this point on, to build Stella you will need a C++11 compatible compiler (Visual Studio 2013, Clang 3.3, gcc 4.9, Xcode 6, etc). Eventually, this will bring more bug-free and (hopefully) faster code.
Fixed major bug with joysticks, where mapping was being lost on reset, the app would crash when plugging/unplugging certain sticks, etc.
Fixed major (but rare) crash that could occur when state files were zero'ed or corrupted.
Added dialog which shows the internal joystick database (all the joysticks that Stella knows about) and the ability to remove (currently unplugged) joysticks from this database.
Added preliminary support for 'WD' (Wickstead Design) bankswitching scheme, used for a previously unreleased prototype ROM.
Improved ZIP file handling, so that it now works as a normal filesystem does (it properly shows nested files and directories).
The debugger 'reset' command now does a complete system reset, instead of simply setting the PC to the reset vector address.
The 'listdelay' command now accepts a value of zero, indicating that list-skipping (jumping to a line in a list by keypress) is disabled.
The 'ctrlcombo' command now has a GUI item, allowing it to be changed from within the application.
Added 'Shift-Alt/Shift-Cmd s' keyboard shortcut, to enable continuous snapshot mode for each frame. This is really only useful if you save snapshots in 1x mode; using it in high-resolution mode is not recommended. Special thanks to SvOlli for the idea and code.
The minimum supported version for the OSX port is now OSX 10.7. Because of this, the 32-bit version is also discontinued, as 10.7 supports 64-bit Intel only apps.
Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 10 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area). Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.
Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.
[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.6
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 22 März, 2015, 18:15
Changelog
Finally fixed fullscreen rendering issues on some OpenGL implementations in Linux (mostly Intel-specific). Basically, the concept of 'dirty updates' has been removed; the window is now updated continuously. This may also fix issues some people were having with triple-buffering in Windows Direct3D, etc.
Fixed sound corruption that happened when running a ROM for the first time. This was most obvious under OSX, but occasionally happened on other systems too.
Reverted some minor C++11 features (std::regex and cbegin/cend iterators) in a few places, since otherwise GCC 4.9 is required to compile Stella, and it isn't available on many systems yet. These changes allow Stella to be built with GCC 4.8, which is present in the latest 'long term release' of Ubuntu.
Fixed error messages on state loading; sometimes multiple messages were being added together and displayed.
Fixed bug when running ROMs using AtariVox controllers; the app would crash upon exiting the ROM.
Snapshot functionality now works while the emulation is paused.
Certain textfields in the UI now have filtering enabled, preventing insertion of illegal characters. This will be extended throughout the code in future releases.
DataGridWidgets in the debugger now respond to keypad '+' and '-'.
Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.
[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.6.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 24 April, 2015, 05:40
Changelog
Fixed bug whereby text input could not be entered in certain widgets in the debugger.
Updated UNIX configure script to work with GCC 5.x compilers.
[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.6.5
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 27 September, 2015, 06:55
Changelog
Stella release 4.6.5 for Linux, MacOS X and Windows is now available.

    Added mappable events for toggling TV color/BW, left difficulty A/B and right difficulty A/B. This means that one key, joystick button, etc. can be used to toggle each event. Thanks to Buzbard of AtariAge for the suggestion.
    Added ability to edit values in more widgets in the debugger. For now, this applies mainly to the various decimal and binary fields. More widgets will be made editable in future releases.
    The TIA now emulates the jitter that occurs when scanline counts are not consistent frame-over-frame. Also, the DPC+ scheme now emulates jitter that can occur when using its Fractional Datafetchers if the DFxFRACINC registers are not re-initialized every frame. Special thanks to SpiceWare for this implementation.
    Tweaked 'MDM' scheme autodetection to detect that the identification string can be in either bank 0 or bank 1.
    Changed 'hidecursor' commandline argument (and associated UI item) to 'cursor'. The new argument allows to set mouse cursor visibility separately for both UI and emulation modes.
    Fixed snapshot bug most noticeable in MacOSX, where taking a snapshot of a TIA image sometimes left parts of the UI onscreen (and in the resulting picture).
    Fixed memory leak; the game console wasn't being closed after exiting a ROM.
    For the Windows port: added an application icon for Stella in the Control Panel "Add/Remove Programs" list.
    For the OSX port: Updated build scripts to be compatible with Xcode 7.
    Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

-Have fun!
[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.6.6
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 12 Oktober, 2015, 05:30
Whats new:>>

Added 'Alt/Cmd + j' shortcut key and 'tv.jitter' commandline argument to toggle the TV scanline jittering emulation added in the last release. Also, this jittering now defaults to off.
Fixed bug in 'MDM' bankswitch scheme; bankswitching wasn't being done under certain circumstances.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.6.7
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 29 Oktober, 2015, 12:30
Whats new:>>

Fixed bug when using real paddles plugged into a Stelladaptor 2600-daptor device; the movement was very erratic.
Fixed small logic error in 'MDM' bankswitching scheme.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.7
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 26 Januar, 2016, 13:53
Changelog

Improved paddle emulation in several ways:

    Added ability to specify the maximum range of movement for paddles when using a mouse or digital device to emulate the paddle. This is useful since on a real console most paddle games use very little of the paddle range, and could result in moving the mouse onscreen with nothing appearing to happen (when in effect it was as if you turned a real paddle all the way to the end of the range). This eliminates issues in (for example) Kaboom, where there was a huge 'deadzone' when moving to the left. All applicable ROMS in the internal database have been updated.
    The range for paddle emulation now takes an integer from 1 - 20, indicating how much to scale movement (ie, how fast the onscreen paddle will move when you move the mouse). The movement itself is now also smoother than before.

Fixed bug in 'Score mode' in TIA emulation; the TIA object colours were correct, but the associated priority was sometimes incorrect.
Fixed bug in ROM launcher; selecting 'Options -> Game Properties' after loading a ROM would always point to the last opened ROM, not to the one currently selected.
Fixed bug in storing ROM properties; in some cases, a copy of the ROM properties was being stored in the external file when it was exactly the same as the internal entry.
Added 'CV+' bankswitching scheme, developed by myself and LS_Dracon (of AtariAge). This scheme contains RAM like the CV scheme, and also switchable 2K ROM segments by writing to $3D.
Added more C++11 updates all over the codebase, and ran Stella through Coverity for the first time. I'm proud to say that Stella now has a 0.00 defect rate!

[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.7.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 14 Februar, 2016, 12:15
Changelog

Improved TV 'jitter' emulation; the recovery time can now be spread over multiple frame, to simulate a real TV taking multiple frames to recover. Related to this, added new commandline argument 'tv.jitter_recovery' to set the recovery time. Finally, enabling the jitter effect and the recovery time are now accessible through the UI. Special thanks to SpiceWare of AtariAge for the initial idea and implementation.
Fixed bug with 'Medieval Mayhem' ROMs; the paddle range was set too low, and as a result the number of players couldn't be selected.
Fixed bug when using more than two input controllers with the same name; each controller after the second one was named the same as the second one. This caused the joystick mappings to be lost, since there was only information about two controllers being saved.
Indirectly fixed issues with Stelladaptor/2600-daptor devices and paddles having too large of a deadzone in Linux. Currently, this involves running an external application to set the deadzone, since SDL2 does not yet expose this information. The program is called 'evdev-joystick', and will be released separately from Stella.
Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 11 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area). Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.

[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.7.2
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 26 März, 2016, 09:45
Whats new:>>

Fixed bug when entering and exiting the debugger; sometimes the character corresponding to the '`' key would be output in the prompt area.
Updated DPC+ Thumb ARM emulation code to latest from David Welch. In particular, this fixes incorrect handling of the V flag when adding and subtracting, but also fixes compile-time warnings that I couldn't get rid of before.
Updated UNIX configure script to work with GCC 6.x compilers, and to remove references to obsolete compiler versions that can no longer be used to compile Stella.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 4.7.3
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 23 November, 2016, 13:52
Whats new:>>

Added preliminary support for the 3E+ bankswitching scheme, developed by Thomas Jentzsch.
Fixed HMOVE positioning bug that occurred under certain circumstances. Thanks to Omegamatrix of AtariAge for the bug report and patch to fix the issue.
Added 'trapm', 'trapreadm', 'trapwritem' commands to debugger prompt. These are similar to the non-'m' versions, except that they also trap on all mirrors of the given address.
Fixed bug in debugger 'reset' command; it wasn't resetting the bankswitching, so after a reset the banks were in an undefined state.
Updated UNIX configure script to fix a bug where it fails in cross-compilation under certain circumstances. Thanks to Vlad Zakharov for providing a patch to fix this issue.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Ataribox: Erste Fotos der Retro-Konsole
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 17 Juli, 2017, 16:51
Atari arbeitet an der Ataribox, einer Nostalgiemaschine im Stil der Nintendo-Classic-Mini-Konsolen. Jetzt gibt es erste Bilder der beiden Farbvarianten.

(https://1.f.ix.de/scale/geometry/695/q75/imgs/18/2/2/4/0/3/8/3/Yfasv4C-afdb1446e9f5caba.jpeg)

Atari hat erste Fotos der Ataribox veröffentlicht. Die Retro-Spielekonsole wurde im vergangenen Monat mit einem kurzen Youtube-Video angeteasert. Viel war darin nicht zu sehen. Jetzt ist wenigstens bekannt, wie das fertige Produkt aussehen wird. Es gibt zwei Farbvarianten: Eine etwas peppiger anmutende Variante kommt in schwarz und rot, die Holz-Fassung sieht deutlich edler aus.

Der ganze Artikel (https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Ataribox-Erste-Fotos-der-Retro-Konsole-3772752.html)

Quelle : www.heise.de
Titel: Stella 5.0.0
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 19 Juli, 2017, 09:18
Changelog

Note: because of major TIA/6502/RIOT changes, the state file format has changed, and old state files will not work with this release.
Completely new TIA core is now available, ported from 6502ts by Christian Speckner (DirtyHairy). This new core is extremely accurate, and matches real hardware in almost every test we've performed. New features include:
Meltdown emulates correct
The lap number in Pole Positions displays correctly
Artifacts in the mountains on Snoopy and the Red baron are gone
Line artifacts in Title Match Pro Wrestling and Realsports Boxing are fixed
The spurious line at the left border of Video Chess now displays correctly
All 32 char text demos from AtariAge now work perfectly (Stella 4 shows artifacts on several of these)
Stella is now the only emulator to display the "Mega Bitmap Demo" (atext.bin) from AtariAge correctly
Improved starfield effect for missiles (still TODO for ball and players)
RSYNC emulation has improved, all testcases now match real hardware
Several other ROMs that have never worked in any emulator are now emulated correctly
RDY behavior with respect to write cycles is accurate
Optional YStart autodetect and more robust frame handling
NUSIZ during player draw matches hardware
RESMx during missile draw matches hardware
Paddle emulation is slightly more accurate. As a consequence, the "paddle feel" may be slightly different from Stella 4
Fixed debug colors can now be set for each graphical object, from a choice of 'red', 'orange', 'yellow', 'green', 'blue' and 'purple'. This is accessible through the new 'tia.dbgcolors' commandline argument and within the UI.
Implemented new phosphor emulation mode, which is much closer to real TV output. Related to this, added ability to change the default phosphor blend level in the UI and through the new 'tv.phosblend' commandline argument. Special thanks to Thomas Jentzsch for the idea and implementation.
TV phosphor effect can now be force-enabled for all ROMs, instead of manually setting ROM properties for each ROM. This is accessible in the UI and through the 'tv.phosphor' commandline argument, and defaults to being off (or enabled per-ROM).
PAL color-loss and Blargg TV effects can now be enabled at the same time. Previously, when Blargg effects were enabled, PAL color-loss couldn't be shown. Related to this, the Blargg effects now use much less memory and in some cases run faster than before.
Much improved RIOT timer emulation never before seen in any emulator. Special thanks to Christian Speckner (DirtyHairy) for the implementation, and alex_79 for finding documentation that finally describes in more detail how the M6532 chip actually works.
Added BUS (experimental) and CDF bankswitching schemes, and also ARM Timer 1 support; special thanks to SpiceWare for the code.
Fixed bug with SaveKey and AtariVox not properly closing their memory files before starting another instance of the same ROM, when the ROM was opened in the ROM launcher.
Various improvements to the debugger and command prompt:
The 'cls' command now only clears the screen, not the history
The 'help' command now accepts other commands, and gives extra
information about the command (ie, 'help breakif' prints extended information about the breakif command)
Added 'palette' command, which shows a color swatch of the currently active TIA palette
Added 'debugcolors' command, which shows a legend for 'fixed debug colors' mode
The previous trap'm' commands now work when setting TIA read addresses; previously they only worked for write addresses
The previous trap'm' commands are now renamed 'trap', 'trapread' and 'trapwrite'
The TIA tab now shows 'old' contents of player and ball registers
Various UI items are crossed out when disabled, to more clearly indicate their current state
Various UI items that previously required a double-click to toggle (pixel and bit widgets) now require only a single-click.
Command completion now works with internal functions and pseudo-ops (basically, anything starting with the '_' character)
System labels (aka, register names, etc) can now be typed in lowercase. Previously, these labels always had to be uppercase.
In general, input error checking is much more strictly enforced
Read-only UI items now have a different background color, to clearly indicate if an item can be modified.
Debugger '.lst' and '.sym' files are now searched based on the name of the ROM file, and not on the internal properties name.
Snapshots can now be saved by pressing the F12 key (the various other ways to save snapshots still exist).
Mouse grabbing is now enabled in windowed mode only when the ROM is using a virtual analog controller (paddles, trakball, etc).
Renamed various trakball-like controllers more accurately: AmigaMouse, AtariMouse (previously CX80) and Trakball (previously CX22). Related to this, reduced the resolution of the Trakball by half, to properly match real hardware.
The stack pointer (SP) is now initialized to $FD instead of $FF, to match research done in other 6502 projects.
Fixed bug in debugger tracing and displaying the partial TIA image; the first time entering the debugger and starting to trace, the image was blanked out (black) instead of being drawn in greyscale. Also, the image is now synchronized, instead of being two frames behind.
Fixed crash with zipped ROMs that are less than 4K in size; so far this bug has only ever occurred in Windows XP, but it's been there since Stella 4.1.
Fixed bug in 'Rom Audit' functionality; sometimes ROMs without a valid properties entry were being renamed as "Untitled.bin".
For the entire UI, removed colons and generally made the UI items easier to read.
When in 'ROM launcher mode', Stella now uses slightly less CPU time. More work is required in this area, though.
Added ROM properties for D.K. VCS homebrew ROM, thanks to Andreas Dietrich.
Added slight improvement for auto-detecting Superchip bankswitching; the new implementation now works for the NTSC 'Dig Dug' ROM. Special thanks for SpiceWare for the idea and modified implementation.
Fixed long-standing bug in 3-voice music in DPC+ bankswitching scheme; the music now sounds much more like the real thing.
For the Linux/UNIX port:
The settings directory now uses the XDG Base Directory Specification. In most cases, this means that your files will now be stored in '$HOME/.config/stella' instead of '$HOME/.stella'. To keep your old settings, run the following commands from the terminal:
cd ~
mv .stella .config/stella
You will probably need to edit '~/.config/stella/stellarc' and change some paths accordingly.
For the OSX port:
Always use the built-in png and zlib libraries instead of the system versions.
The preferences file has changed from 'net.sourceforge.Stella.plist' to 'Stella-emu.plist'. To keep your old settings, run the following commands from the terminal:
cd ~/Library/Preferences
mv net.sourceforge.Stella.plist Stella-emu.plist
Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 13 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area). Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.
Updated included PNG and ZLIB libraries to latest stable version. Also, both libraries are now compiled into the app whenever one is selected. This fixes issues with a newer ZLIB not working with an older PNG, etc.
Updated build scripts for Visual Studio 2017 (Windows) and MacOS Sierra (latest version of Xcode), and make these the minimum supported versions for building Stella.
Updated UNIX configure script to work with the clang 5+ and gcc 7+ compiler versions, and fixed compile issues on AArch64 and ppc64le architectures.

[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 5.0.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 24 Juli, 2017, 09:14
Changelog

Fixed issues in keypad, Genesis and various other controllers that use INPTx registers; the emulation is now much more accurate in this area.
Various 'Bumper Bash' and 'Decathlon' ROMs are marked as always having all 4 directions on a joystick enabled, since they can't be played properly otherwise.
Added 'Hunchy II' from Chris Walton (cd-w) to ROM properties database.
Codebase now uses C++14 features.

[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 5.0.2
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 22 August, 2017, 09:50
Changelog

Improved emulation of Trakball controller, eliminating bias in left/ right directions. Thanks to Thomas Jentzsch for the idea and code. Related to this, added 'tsense' commandline argument and associated UI item, to allow changing sensitivity of mouse trackball emulation.
Added preliminary support for multi-threading in the Blargg TV effects code. This is still a WIP; more improvements are coming. Related to this, further optimized the TIA rendering code. Also added 'threads' commandline argument and associated UI item to enable/disable multi-threading. Thanks to Thomas Jentzsch for the bulk of the work in this area.
Blargg TV effects now no longer cut off the right side of the image (by several pixels) in certain cases.
Updated CDF scheme to latest version from Spiceware. In addition, this scheme now supports versioning, so older and newer ROMs will continue to work.
Fixed an annoying bug in Linux, where Alt-Tab'ing out of a window and then back again would pass a 'Tab' key event to the app, which in most cases would navigate to the next UI element.
Fixed potential issue with state file saving and the debugger; under certain circumstances a rewind would give a different state than before (note that the state file format has changed because of this).
Fixed lockups when entering the debugger under certain circumstances.
The debugger 'listtraps' command now shows all traps set, not just the first one(s).
Reverted joystick changes for Decathlon ROMs from last release, as it was added by mistake.

[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Retro-Spielkonsole Ataribox erscheint 2018, kostet 250 US-Dollar
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 26 September, 2017, 18:28
Die Ataribox kommt 2018 mit einer Menge vorinstallierter Spiele auf den Markt. Ein AMD-Kombichip mit Radeon-GPU treibt die Spielkonsole an.

Die Retro-Spielkonsole Ataribox soll im ersten Halbjahr 2018 auf den Markt kommen. Dies geht aus einer Pressemitteilung der Firma Ataribox hervor. Die Konsole soll je nach Variante und Speicherkonfiguration zwischen 250 und 300 US-Dollar kosten. Auf der Konsole sollen zahlreiche Atari-Retrospiele bereits installiert sein – allerdings verspricht Ataribox auch "aktuelle Spiele" von mehreren Studios ohne konkrete Namen zu nennen.

Radeon-GPU, Linux, volle PC-Erfahrung

Ein AMD-Kombichip mit integrierter Radeon-Grafikeinheit treibt die Ataribox an. Als Betriebssystem kommt Linux zum Einsatz, die Benutzeroberfläche wurde für eine einfache Bedienung am Fernseher gestaltet. Die Ataribox soll Besitzern aber auch eine "volle PC-Erfahrung am TV" bieten und Anwendungen, Streaming, Social Media, Browsing, Musik und mehr erlauben. Im Unterschied zu vielen anderen TV-Streaming-Geräten oder Konsolen soll die Ataribox "dank Linux offener" sein. Nutzer können laut dem Hersteller das Betriebssystem konfigurieren, nach persönlichen Vorlieben anpassen und auf Spiele von anderen Online-Services zugreifen, sofern sie kompatibel mit dem Betriebssystem und der Hardware sind. Genaue Informationen bleibt Atari allerdings schuldig – denkbar wäre beispielsweise die Integration des Steam-Stores.

Atari veröffentlichte außerdem die drei ersten Bilder eines Ataribox-Prototypen mit Holzelementen. Die Konsole soll einen Steckplatz für SD-Karten haben, dazu USB-Ports und eine HDMI-Buchse.

Crowdfunding-Kampagne "für die Spieler"

Noch im Herbst 2017 will Atari eine Crowdfunding-Kampagne auf Indiegogo für die Ataribox starten – das erscheint merkwürdig ob des fertigen Prototypen und dem geplanten Marktstart, der spätestens im Juni nächsten Jahres erfolgen soll. Atari erklärt dazu, dass man durch die Crowdfunding-Kampagne die Atari-Community mit ins Boot holen wolle. "Wir möchten euch Gelegenheit geben, um Early Acess zu erhalten, Spezialvarianten der Konsolen abzugreifen und als aktive Partner beim Marktstart dabei zu haben. Wir möchten, dass ihr Teil der Geschichte seid". Über Crowdfunding-Kampagnen sammeln Hersteller letztlich Geld ein, um ihre Projektideen umzusetzen.

Quelle : www.heise.de
Titel: Stella 5.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 06 Februar, 2018, 04:40
Changelog

Added "Time Machine" mode, which automatically creates save states in user-defined intervals. The user can navigate back and forth within these states inside the emulator and the debugger.

Huge improvements to the disassembly view in the debugger and disassembly files created:

reformatting in debugger for better space utilization
much improved code and data detection
access tracking and indicators for TIA/IO/RAM adresses in disassembly
break vector is tracked (if used)
improved cycle count (page penalties, sums created in disassembly)
improved handling of instruction masking opcodes (e.g. BIT)
Fixed change tracking bug during rewind; changes were accumulated instead of being displayed only for the last rewind step.
Extended 'rewind' to take a second parameter which allows rewinding multiple states.
Added 'unwind' command, which undoes the latest rewind(s).
Added '<' (unwind) button to debugger.
Thumbulator support is not conditional any more.
Moved various developer related settings in new Developer Settings dialog. These settings now come in two groups (player/developer) and allow switching all settings at once.
Don't trap write accesses to the datastream pointers in CDF and BUS. This fixes -dev.thumb.trapfatal 1.
Complete rework of TV mode and ystart autodetection. The new implementation is more robust and reduces startup time.
Add two "grace lines" of black to the top of the frame when autodetecting ystart.
Fixed Genesis controller autodetect (Stay Frosty 2, Scramble, etc).
Fixed a bug in ystart autodetection that could cause screen jumps.
Fixed several bugs in holdselect, holdreset and holdjoyX commandline arguments; these now work as expected.
Fixed bug in TIA collision handling; it is now disabled in VBlank.
Improve TIA PF collision handling during hblank; this fixes a bug in Thrust ROM.
Fixed wrong display of HM values in debugger after 'HMCLR' has been executed.
Fixed bug with the debugger 'savedis' command in Windows; it wasn't actually saving the files at all. This has never been reported before, so I guess it shows how many people use that functionality.
The debugger 'savedis', 'saverom' and 'saveses' now save files in a default, user-visible directory (see the documentation for more information). In the case of 'saveses', the filename is now named based on the date and time of when the command was entered.
Fixed bug with saving snapshots in 1x mode; there was graphical corruption in some cases. Such snapshots also now include any TV effects / phosphor blending currently in use.
Fixed regular-sized snapshots when phosphor effect was enabled; sometimes the image was 'double-blended', resulting in a snapshot that was too dark.
Fixed crash when selecting 'CompuMate' as a controller type for a non-CompuMate ROM; this controller type can no longer be manually selected, and will be used automatically used for CompuMate ROMs.
Fixed cheat codes, so 7 digits codes are now accepted as described in the doc.
Fixed swapped ports being displayed wrong in System Logs and debugger.
Added options to erase the AtariVox/Savekey flash memory, either for all ROMs or only the current one. Also added a message (configurable) when the flash memory is accessed.
Access to the AtariVox/SaveKey can be signaled with a message.
Added new interface palette 'Light'.
Frame stats display made transparent. Also it now displays the real frame rate and if the developer settings group is enabled.
Improved tab auto-complete in debugger.
Added conditional traps and savestate creation to debugger.
Added 'Options...' button to debugger which gives access to the options menu during debugging.
Added debugger pseudo-register '_cyclesLo' and '_cyclesHi', which give the number of CPU cycles that have occurred since emulation started.
Added debugger pseudo-register '_fcycles', which gives the number of CPU cycles that have occurred since the frame started.
Added debugger pseudo-register '_icycles', which gives the number of CPU cycles of the last instruction.
Extended debugger 'dump' command to take a second argument, indicating the end of the range to dump data.
Improved change tracking; more values are tracked and change tracking now works in case of a break too.
Added widgets for trackball and SaveKey/AtariVox controllers.
Improved emulation of 'FE' bankswitch scheme (no user-visible changes, but internally the emulation is much more accurate compared to the real thing). Related to this, improved the debugger support for this scheme (you can now switch banks in the debugger view).
Added emulation of 7800 initial RAM values and Pause key.
Added ROM properties for 'Scramble' ROMs, and updated info for all "Champ Games" ROMs.
Added ROM properties for 'Zippy the Porcupine' ROMs, and updated info for all "Chris Spry (Sprybug)" ROMs.
Support UNIX style builds (configure / make) on OSX with both XCode / clang and g++.
Fixed error when building with uClibc-ng for ARM (thanks to Sergio Prado).
Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

[close]

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 5.1.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 22 Februar, 2018, 12:26
Whats new:>>

Fixed bug in Stargunner ROM starting with a blank screen.

http://stella.sourceforge.net/
Titel: Stella 5.1.2
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 22 Mai, 2018, 13:40
Whats new:>>

Fixed bug with SaveKey autodetection; some ROMs were not correctly detecting that a virtual SaveKey device as plugged in. This notably fixes issues in "Super Cobra" and "Scramble" ROMs.
Make previously mentioned ROMs use the SaveKey device by default.
Fixed bug in UI navigation with joystick hat movement.

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 5.1.3
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 11 Juni, 2018, 16:15
Whats new:>>

Mostly just fixes for OpenBSD in this release, but the crashing bug could be seen on other systems too.
Fixed crash in OpenBSD when quitting the app, which can also be happening on other systems (no reports yet, but the problem is now fixed for good).

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.0 Pre-release 1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 07 August, 2018, 20:40
Changelog

So, after quite some time in development, Stella 6.0 is ready for its first beta test. That's right, we're bumping the major version number up one notch. That should give you an idea of how much has changed with the code. The changelog is pretty huge, but for now I will only mention the most important features that require testing. In no particular order, they are:

Cycle-exact audio core based on work by Chris Brenner (crispy here on AtariAge). This is based on code directly from crispy's FPGA project, converted to C and eventually massaged into C++ by myself and DirtyHairy. Much more accurate sound emulation, in particular E.T. sounds correct for the first time in Stella's history. Ms. Pac-man interference patterns from mixing audio channels is also present.
Sound resampling. The old core output at 31400Hz (native resolution for the 2600). However, many systems then had to convert it to either 44.1 or 48KHz, with a resulting 'beating' effect (imperfections/popping/clicking in the output). The new core does resampling by default, allowing to output in 44.1, 48, or 96KHz, with simple (fast, less accurate) or Lanczos-based (slower, more accurate) resamplers. Several variations in settings are possible.
Improved timing. The TIA emulation and video output have been decoupled, and done in separate threads. This allows the emulation to more accurately run at the correct speed while not being affected by variations in video output. PAL games that ran too fast (or slow) should now work correctly. As well, sound now runs at a sample rate determined by the scanline count of the ROM, not a fixed 31.4KHz.
Minimized CPU usage in the UI (mostly the ROM launcher and debugger). CPU usage drops to nearly nothing in the UI when nothing is changing; in old versions, it could use up to an entire core.
Stella gets a new coat of paint :) Much improved UI, with several different themes (standard, light, classic) in a more 'flat', modern looking form. Also many nice flourishes here and there, such as tickmarks, better highlighting, much better text descriptions of items, etc. Also rearranged items slightly, moving them to more appropriate places.
New PAL palette. Should be much more like the real thing, since it was developed and tweaked by an actual PAL user (I personally don't have a PAL system nor the ability to run one).

There are many more items, but these are the ones that need the most testing. In particular, please test the following:

The accuracy of the new sound core. If you know of a 'trouble' ROM that is different in emulation compared to the real thing, then feedback on this is most appreciated.
Play around with all combinations of the stuff in the Audio Dialog (resampling mode, headroom, buffer size, etc) and report any issues.
As with the sound core testing, test any trouble ROMs that run out of spec (ie, not close to either 60Hz or 50Hz) and if possible, compare to the real console. This will tell us if the new timing code is working correctly.
Play with the UI extensively. Basically open/use/close all dialogs in all parts of the app, making sure that (a) the options are actually shown, and (b) that you don't get a blank screen/missing/not updated UI items.
For PAL users, please compare the PAL palette with your actual console, to see that it is more accurate in this release.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.0 Final
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 27 Dezember, 2018, 21:20
Changelog

Huge update, with changes all across the board. Major new feature is cycle-exact audio emulation, but there are many debugger improvements too.
Note: because of major TIA sound changes, the state file format has changed, and old state files will not work with this release.
New cycle exact audio core based on work by Chris Brenner (crispy); greatly improved audio emulation accuracy (i.e. E.T., Ms. Pacman).
Full rewrite of the audio subsystem; resample TIA output to target sample rate directly in Stella.
Added option to force stereo sound for all ROMs, or to use the setting on a per-ROM basis.
Threading: decouple emulation from frame rendering.
Main loop rewritten; emulating speed and timing is now much more faithful (i.e. speed in Pick'n'Pile).
Added preliminary support for 'CTY' bankswitching scheme and recently released 'Chetiry' ROMs. Special thanks to SpiceWare for adding music support to this scheme.
UI modernization (new widget look, dialog titles added, dialogs refactored).
The bankswitch scheme can now be forced by naming the ROM with a specific extension (ie: .f8s for F8SC, .fe for FE, etc). The supported extensions are the same as the ones from HarmonyCart and UnoCart.
Audio settings replaced with new 'audio.xxx' settings.
FPS setting replaced with speed setting for adjusting emulation speed.
Extra functionality for Time Machine dialog (start/stop recording; minor fixes).
When logging messages to the System Logger, condense similar messages that arrive in batches into fewer messages (including timestamps).
Fixes for collision corner cases (during HBlank).
Fixed excessive CPU usage while in UI modes (ROM launcher, debugger, etc).
The 'launcherexts' option has been replaced by a true/false option named 'launcherroms', which specifies to show only ROMs or all files in the ROM launcher.
Changes in 'Game Properties' dialog
'Default' button now affects only current tab like in all other dialogs.
'Display' and 'Console' tab changes are now immediate.
Fixed bug when selecting 'Auto-detect' format for 50Hz ROMs
Fixed bug in autodetecting Genesis controllers.
Fixed bug with 'thumb.trapfatal' commandline argument; sometimes Stella would lock up when encountering a fatal error instead of entering the debugger and displaying a message.
Fixed bug in reading from settings file with entries that were empty; the parsing was failing. This affected the 'cpurandom' argument; when all options in it were turned off, they were all turned on again during the next program run.
Fixed bug with 'hold' events; they are now released a short time after starting a ROM.
When starting Stella for the first time, the first ROM selected will determine which path to use by default for subsequent runs.
Fixed emulator crash when starting SaveKey ROMs from commandline with SaveKey messages enabled.
Fixed missing TV format update in frame stats dialog when switching display type.
Fixed missing debug color update when switching display type.
'Fill to scanline' now works for scanlines above current scanline too.
The debugger 'uhex' command is now honoured in CDF and BUS schemes.
When switching screenmodes, the sound is now paused and later resumed. This fixes popping and cracking sounds apparent on some systems, notably OSX when toggling windowed/fullscreen mode.
State file format has been optimized to be smaller, and faster loading and saving. This affects both the files saved to your computer as well as Time Machine functionality.
The ROM name saved in a PNG tEXt chunk now honours the 'snapname' setting.
Improved snapshots when phosphor is enabled.
Updated PAL palette.
Added 'Cartridge.StartBank' ROM property, to force a ROM to use a specific bank for its reset vector.
Added Developer setting, which breaks on reads from write ports. It now detects such conditions in many more cases. This new way of detecting RWP errors obsoletes the old '_rwport' debugger command, which has now been removed.
Added recently released 'Arkyology' prototype ROM to the database.
Added 'Amoeba Jump' and 'Flappy' ROMs (from the Retron77) to the database.
Fixed 'Street Racer' and 'Video Olympics' ROMs to use paddles in both ports.
If using SDL 2.0.5 or above, the calculated desktop size now takes the taskbar/dock into account (so windows should no longer overlap those areas).
For UNIX systems: in the ROM launcher, when using symlinks use the symlink pathname instead of the underlying filesystem pathname.
The UNIX builds now use the system-installed PNG and ZLIB libraries by default.
The Macintosh builds are now named 'macOS' throughout the codebase to reflect the new naming from Apple.
For better compatibility, the Windows 32-bit version does not require SSE2 anymore.
Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.0.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 07 Juni, 2019, 13:06
Changelog

This is a small release that improves support for a few bankswitching schemes:

    Added support for CDFJ bankswitching type (Galaga, Wizard of War, etc).

    Allow the DPC+ scheme to not enable playfield 'jitter' effect for certain older DPC+ driver versions; this allows 'Epic Adventure' ROM to finally work in Stella.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.0.2
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 12 Oktober, 2019, 19:45
Whats new:>>

Just a quick release, as we're still working on 6.1, which we hope to release soon. That one will be a huge update. For now we have something special; support for a highly anticipated, recently dumped ROM. Changelog as follows:

    Updated properties database for Pink Panther ROM.

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.1.0 RC
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 07 Februar, 2020, 19:15
Changelog

6.0.2 to 6.1: (MM dd, 2020)

  * IMPORTANT NOTES:
    - Because of major event remapping changes, all remappings will be reset
      to defaults; if you had custom mappings, they will need to be
      re-entered again.

    - Because of major internal changes, all state files are now invalid.

    - Support for Windows XP has been discontinued as of this version.  WinXP
      is now completely out of support from Microsoft, so we are doing the
      same.

  * Major improvements to display mode handling in NTSC vs. PAL.  The window
    is now the same size for both modes, and scaling is applied to simulate
    the height of scanlines (in PAL mode, there are more scanlines and hence
    each is narrower).  This more properly emulates how the display would look
    on a real TV.

  * Removed the 'Display_Height' property, changing it to 'Display_VCenter'.
    This new feature, along with the display mode changes above, almost
    completely eliminate having to manually tweak each ROM so that it will
    not have part of the image cut off.

  * Removed the 'Display_YStart' property and all automatic detection of
    ystart.  It caused problems on some ROMs, and was not the way a real
    console would work anyway.  Related to this, ROMs now load much faster.

  * Major improvements to event remapping:
    - Allow mapping of modifier-key and button-direction combinations
    - Physical controllers can map the same action to different events on
      different virtual controllers
    - Many more events can be remapped
    - Events can be filtered by type in UI

  * Paths have been simplified:
    - The following file/directory locations are no longer configurable
      (statedir, nvramdir, cheatfile, palettefile, propsfile); they are
      now all under the base directory
    - Removed cfgdir; Distella config files are now placed with their
      associated ROMs
    - Added 'basedir' commandline argument, which allows to change the
      base directory where almost all config-related items are stored;
      related to this, discontinued the 'basedir.txt' functionality
    - Added 'baseinappdir' commandline argument, which sets the base
      directory to the application folder (Windows only for now); this
      replaces the functionality of 'basedir.txt'

  * Added automatic controller detection.

  * Controllers can be changed during emulation (no ROM reload required
    anymore).

  * Added support for Light Gun controller.

  * Added limited KidVid support (8, 9 and 0 start the games).

  * Removed superfluous controller option 'PADDLES_IDIR'.

  * Added configurable paddle dejittering.

  * Key-repeat mode improved; entering Time Machine by holding down a key
    combo continues to send events (previously, you had to release and then
    press the combo again).

  * Certain buttons in the UI can now be activated repeatedly by holding
    down the mouse button (Time Machine, debugger step/trace/frame advance,
    etc.)

  * Added option to configure mouse double click speed.

  * Added option to configure controller input repeat speed.

  * Added high quality scaling.

  * Made scanlines better aligned to scaling.

  * Added 'HiDPI' mode, which scales the UI by 2x when enabled.  This is
    meant for 4k and above monitors, but can actually be used at any
    lower resolution that is large enough to display the scaled UI.

  * Fixed TIA 'Center' option, Stella now remembers the last windowed position.

  * Added fractional (25% increments) TIA zooms.

  * Removed 'tia.fsfill' option, replacing it with 'tia.fs_stretch'.  This
    new option allows to preserve TIA image aspect ratio in fullscreen
    mode, or stretch to fill the entire screen.

  * Added configurable 'Overscan' option for fullscreen modes.

  * Fullscreen TIA modes no longer assume that desktop taskbars, etc
    are present, hence they are scaled to the proper fullscreen size.

  * Added option to display dialogs in screen corners.

  * Added hotkey for sound on/off.

  * Enhanced 'Command' menu to display current state and more commands.

  * Added option to save and load all TimeMachine states at once.

  * Added option to automatically load/save states when entering/exiting
    emulation.

  * Added option to change pitch of Pitfall II music.

  * ROM Info Launcher can now display multiple lines per property and
    bank switching type.

  * In file listings, you can now select directories by holding 'Shift' on
    the first character entered.  Entering characters in lowercase still
    selects files, as before.

  * Fixed bug when starting ROMs via MacOS finder.

  * Added various developer options for oddball TIAs:
    - stuffed player, missiles and ball move
    - delayed playfield bits and color
    - delayed players and ball VDEL swap

  * Disabled some developer options for 'Player settings'.

  * Writes to RAM read ports are ignored now.

  * Added Developer setting, which breaks on writes to read ports.

  * Improved breakpoints to now consider the banks.

  * Improved debugger's TIA display and zoom windows.

  * Improved hotkeys, now many emulation keys work in debugger too.

  * Fixed display of negative values in debugger; sometimes they were
    shown as positive.

  * Reworked ROM properties database, making it load faster in certain cases.

  * Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 16
    (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area).
    Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.

  * Fixed 'Dancing Plate (Unknown) (PAL)' to use joystick.

  * Fixed cheatcode handling in 2K and 4K ROMs.

  * Fixed bug where ROMs smaller than 64 bytes were not recognized.

  * Fixed bug where frying one ROM was continued with the next ROM.

  * Fixed not working 7800 pause key.

  * Enhanced UA bankswitching to support certain Brazilian carts.

  * Fixed WD bankswitching.

  * Added FC bankswitching for Amiga's Power Play Arcade Video Game Album.

  * Added auto-detection of display format based on filename.

  * Auto-detection of bankswitch scheme by file extension now includes
    more human-readable formats (not restricted to DOS 3-char length).
    See the documentation for the new names.

  * Fixed bug in DPC+ scheme; 'fast fetch mode' was enabled at startup,
    when it should be disabled by default.

  * Added proper Retron77 port.

  * Added proper libretro port, and fixed display for OpenGLES renderers.

  * PNG/ZIP image support is now conditionally compiled into Stella.
    All major ports (Linux/macOS/Windows) have it enabled by default.

  * SDL/GUI support is now conditionally compiled into Stella.  All major
    ports (Linux/macOS/Windows) have it enabled by default.  This is
    currently needed by the libretro port.

  * Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.1 Final
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 23 März, 2020, 19:20
Changelog

    OK, it's finally time for another major release. This is a big one, with changes all across the board:

    IMPORTANT NOTES:

    Because of major event remapping changes, all remappings will be reset to defaults; if you had custom mappings, they will need to be re-entered again.
    Because of major internal changes, all state files are now invalid.
    Support for Windows XP has been discontinued as of this version. WinXP is now completely out of support from Microsoft, so we are doing the same.
    Major improvements to display mode handling in NTSC vs. PAL. The window is now the same size for both modes, and scaling is applied to simulate the height of scanlines (in PAL mode, there are more scanlines and hence each is narrower). This more properly emulates how the display would look on a real TV.
    Removed the 'Display_Height' property, changing it to 'Display_VCenter'. This new feature, along with the display mode changes above, almost completely eliminate having to manually tweak each ROM so that it will not have part of the image cut off.
    Removed the 'Display_YStart' property and all automatic detection of ystart. It caused problems on some ROMs, and was not the way a real console would work anyway. Related to this, ROMs now load much faster.

    Major improvements to event remapping:

    Allow mapping of modifier-key and button-direction combinations
    Physical controllers can map the same action to different events on different virtual controllers
    Many more events can be remapped
    Events can be filtered by type in UI

    Paths have been simplified:

    The following file/directory locations are no longer configurable
    (statedir, nvramdir, cheatfile, palettefile, propsfile); they are now all under the base directory
    Removed cfgdir; Distella config files are now placed with their associated ROMs
    Added 'basedir' commandline argument, which allows to change the base directory where almost all config-related items are stored; related to this, discontinued the 'basedir.txt' functionality
    Added 'baseinappdir' commandline argument, which sets the base directory to the application folder (Windows only for now); this replaces the functionality of 'basedir.txt'
    Added automatic controller detection.
    Controllers can be changed during emulation (no ROM reload required anymore).
    Added support for Light Gun controller.
    Added limited KidVid support (8, 9 and 0 start the games).
    Removed superfluous controller option 'PADDLES_IDIR'.
    Added configurable paddle dejittering.
    Key-repeat mode improved; entering Time Machine by holding down a key combo continues to send events (previously, you had to release and then press the combo again).
    Certain buttons in the UI can now be activated repeatedly by holding down the mouse button (Time Machine, debugger step/trace/frame advance, etc.)
    Added option to configure mouse double click speed.
    Added option to configure controller input repeat speed.
    Added high quality scaling.
    Made scanlines better aligned to scaling.
    Added 'HiDPI' mode, which scales the UI by 2x when enabled. This is meant for 4k and above monitors, but can actually be used at any lower resolution that is large enough to display the scaled UI.
    Fixed TIA 'Center' option, Stella now remembers the last windowed position.
    Added fractional (25% increments) TIA zooms.
    Removed 'tia.fsfill' option, replacing it with 'tia.fs_stretch'. This new option allows to preserve TIA image aspect ratio in fullscreen mode, or stretch to fill the entire screen.
    Added configurable 'Overscan' option for fullscreen modes.
    Fullscreen TIA modes no longer assume that desktop taskbars, etc are present, hence they are scaled to the proper fullscreen size.
    Added option to display dialogs in screen corners.
    Added hotkey for sound on/off.
    Enhanced 'Command' menu to display current state and more commands.
    Added option to save and load all TimeMachine states at once.
    Added option to automatically load/save states when entering/exiting emulation.
    Added option to change pitch of Pitfall II music.
    ROM Info Viewer size is not limited to fixed zoom steps anymore.
    ROM Info Viewer can now display multiple lines per property and the bank switching type.
    In file listings, you can now select directories by holding 'Shift' on the first character entered. Entering characters in lowercase still selects files, as before.
    Fixed bug when starting ROMs via MacOS finder.

    Added various developer options for oddball TIAs:

    stuffed player, missiles and ball move
    delayed playfield bits and color
    delayed players and ball VDEL swap
    Disabled some developer options for 'Player settings'.
    Writes to RAM read ports are ignored now.
    Added Developer setting, which breaks on writes to read ports.
    Improved breakpoints to now consider the banks.
    Improved debugger's TIA display and zoom windows.
    Improved hotkeys, now many emulation keys work in debugger too.
    Fixed display of negative values in debugger; sometimes they were shown as positive.
    Reworked ROM properties database, making it load faster in certain cases.
    Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 16 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area). Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.
    Fixed 'Dancing Plate (Unknown) (PAL)' to use joystick.
    Fixed cheatcode handling in 2K and 4K ROMs.
    Fixed bug where ROMs smaller than 64 bytes were not recognized.
    Fixed bug where frying one ROM was continued with the next ROM.
    Fixed not working 7800 pause key.
    Enhanced UA bankswitching to support certain Brazilian carts.
    Fixed WD bankswitching.
    Added FC bankswitching for Amiga's Power Play Arcade Video Game Album.
    Added auto-detection of display format based on filename.
    Auto-detection of bankswitch scheme by file extension now includes more human-readable formats (not restricted to DOS 3-char length). See the documentation for the new names.
    Fixed bug in DPC+ scheme; 'fast fetch mode' was enabled at startup, when it should be disabled by default.
    Some more work on DPC+ playfield 'jitter' effect for certain older DPC+ driver versions; more ROMs are now detected properly. Special thanks to SpiceWare for his research in this area.
    Added proper Retron77 port.
    Added proper libretro port, and fixed display for OpenGLES renderers.
    PNG/ZIP image support is now conditionally compiled into Stella. All major ports (Linux/macOS/Windows) have it enabled by default.
    SDL/GUI support is now conditionally compiled into Stella. All major ports (Linux/macOS/Windows) have it enabled by default. This is currently needed by the libretro port.
    Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.
    Updated UNIX configure script to work with the gcc version 10 and above.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.1.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 05 April, 2020, 20:40
Whats new:>>

    Fixed crash in 3E bankswitching scheme when writing to ROM addresses.
    Fix snapshots on Retina HiDPI displays capturing only the top-left corner.
    Fixed wrong color for BK (background) swatch in the debugger.
    Fixed 'Right Diff' button in Command menu changing left difficulty instead.
    Fixed compilation of libretro port on Debian Buster.

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.1.2
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 26 April, 2020, 18:10
Whats new:>>

    Fixed bug with remapped events not being reloaded in certain cases.
    Fixed bug in debugger for 3E scheme when displaying active RAM bank.
    Fixed bug in "Dragon Defender" ROM being misconfigured for Mindlink controller.

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.2
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 08 Juni, 2020, 05:55
Changelog



    Added interactive palette to Video & Audio settings.

    Added 'Custom' palette, generated from user controlled phase shifts.

    Added that adjustable audio & video settings are displayed as gauge bars.

    Added four global hotkeys which allow selecting and changing numerous audio & video settings without having to remember the dedicated hotkeys.

    Added 'Turbo' mode, runs the game as fast as the computer allows.

    Added that paddle centering (per ROM) and sensitivity can be adjusted.

    Added that mouse sensitivity for Driving controller can be adjusted.

    Added paddle filtering in UI to avoid unwanted navigation events.

    Added selectable dialog fonts.

    Added separate positioning of launcher, emulator and debugger.

    Added optional display to game refresh rate adaption in fullscreen mode.

    Added option which lets default ROM path follow launcher navigation.

    Added debugger 'saveaccess' function, which saves memory access counts to a CSV file.

    Added displaying last write address in the debugger.

    Added debugger pseudo-register '_scanend', which gives the number of scanlines at the end of the last frame.

    Added detection of color and audio data in DiStella.

    Restored 'cfg' directory for Distella config files.

    Added TV Boy and 3EX bank switching types.

    Removed unused CV+ and DASH bank switching types.

    Added support for loading grayscale PNG images in the ROM launcher.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.2.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 21 Juni, 2020, 18:45
Changelog

Stella release 6.2.1 for Linux, macOS and Windows is now available.

    Fixed Pitfall II ROM not working correctly.
    Fixed crashes when using some combinations of bankswitching schemes on incorrect ROMs, or when using invalid ROM file sizes, etc.
    Fixed RIOT timer behaviour on reading/writing at the wraparound cycle.
    Fixed incorrectly setting D6 bit on TIA reads in some cases. Related to this, improve 'tiadriven' option to randomize only D5..D0 bits.
    Fixed custom palette and TV effects adjustable slider rounding issue.
    Fixed some bugs in 3E+ scheme when using non-standard ROM sizes.
    Fixed crash in Audio & Video dialog when opened from debugger, and the debugger window sometimes being resized when using the Options dialog.
    Make NTSC custom phase shift not affect Yellow anymore.
    Fixed '1x' snapshot mode; TV effects are now disabled. This mode now generates a clean, pixel-exact image.
    Fixed mappings sometimes not being saved in the Retron77 port.
    A ROM properties file may now be placed next to the ROM (with the same name as the ROM, except ending in .pro), and Stella will automatically apply the properties to the ROM. [NOTE: this was present in 6.2, but was mistakenly left out of the changelog]
    Added button to Game Info dialog to save properties of the currently loaded ROM to a separate properties file (in the default save directory). This is useful in conjunction with the previous item.
    Allow changing custom palette and TV effects adjustables in 1% steps again.
    Updated documentation for changes in ROM properties key names.
    The codebase now compiles under gcc6 again. Future versions will require gcc7, though.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.3
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 07 Oktober, 2020, 18:50
Changelog

Time for a new release of Stella. Changelog as follows:

    Added adjustable autofire.

    Added 'Dark' UI theme.

    Extended global hotkeys for debug options.

    Added option to playback a game using the Time Machine.

    Allow taking snapshots from within the Time Machine dialog.

    Added the ability to access most files that Stella uses from within a ZIP file. This includes the following:
        Per-ROM properties file (so one can distribute a ROM and its associated properties).
        Debugger symbol (.sym) and list (.lst) files, etc.
        Several others, as we extend the support.
        Basically, you are now able to put many files that Stella uses inside one ZIP file, and distribute just that file.

    Extended AtariVox support to handle flow control, so that long phrases are no longer corrupted/cut off. This includes properly supporting the 2600-daptor II, which is flashable to an AVox-USB converter.

    Added auto-detection of the serial port used for an AtariVox-USB adaptor.

    Added QuadTari controller support.

    Added option to select the audio device.

    Added support for CDFJ+ bankswitching type.

    Further enhanced UA bankswitching to support more Brazilian carts.

    Added option to display detected settings info when a ROM is loaded.

    Added another oddball TIA glitch option for delayed background color.

    Added option to disable aspect ratio correct scaling.

    Added debugger pseudo-registers '_timwrapread' and '_timwrapwrite', which are set when the RIOT timer is read/written on timer wraparound, respectively.

    Bankswitching schemes BUS, DPC+ and CDFx now work when startup bank randomization is enabled (these schemes now ignore that setting).

    Replaced "Re-disassemble" with "Disassemble @ current line" in debugger.

    Fixed bug when taking fullscreen snapshots; the dimensions were sometimes cut off.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.5
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 10 Januar, 2021, 10:15
Changelog

    Our 'Christmas' release was a little delayed; real life got in the way. Anyway, better late than never. Changes as follows:

    Added high scores saving.

    Improved text editing functionality (except PromptWidget):

    Enhanced selection and cut/copy/paste from keyboard.
    Added undo and redo support.
    Added mouse support (selection, cut/copy/paste).
    All actions have keyboard shortcuts.

    Various improvements to the ROM launcher:

    Added wildcard support to the dialog filter
    Added option to search subdirectories
    Added static tooltips to some UI items.
    Added dynamic tooltips to most debugger items.
    Added sound to Time Machine playback.
    Added browser dialogs for user saved files.
    Extended global hotkeys for input devices & ports settings.
    Moved to using an SQLite database for storing user settings, properties and highscores. More work will follow in future releases.
    Increased sample size for CDFJ+.
    Fixed autofire bug for trackball controllers.
    Fixed bug in TV autodetection in filenames; a filename containing 'PAL' inside a word would sometimes misdetect as a PAL ROM.
    Fixed Stelladaptor/2600'daptor devices sometimes not being assigned correct default mappings.
    Codebase now uses C++17 features, which means a minimum of gcc7 or clang5 for Linux/Mac, and Visual Studio 2019 for Windows.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.5.1
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 25 Januar, 2021, 21:21
Changelog

    Just a quick bugfix release, addressing issues on the Retron77 port:

    Fixed paddle button bug for jittering controllers.
    Improve switching between joysticks and paddles on Retron77 port.
    Improve memory usage on Retron77 port.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.5.2
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 26 Februar, 2021, 18:10
Whats new:>>

    Fixed broken Driving Controller support for Stelladaptor/2600-daptor devices.
    Fixed missing QuadTari option in UI.
    Improved QuadTari timing.
    Added CPU usage stats to ARM cart classes debug widgets.

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.5.3
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 21 April, 2021, 17:20
Whats new:>>

    Just another quick bugfix release for the 6.5 series. Changes as follows:

    Added context-sensitive help.
    Improved support of multiple monitors with different resolutions.
    Improved analog input reading (Paddles, Keyboards...).
    Fixed QuadTari support for controller types other than Joysticks.
    Fixed palette and TV effects saving for Retron77.
    Fixed immediate disassembling when switching options in debugger.

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.6
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 17 November, 2021, 11:20
Whats new:>>

Added preliminary PlusROM support for saving high scores.
Added preliminary support for 'MVC' bankswitching scheme by Rob Bairos.
Added web links for many games.
Added dead zone and linearity settings for analog controllers.
Added 'Check for Update' button to Help dialog.
Added different mask patterns for scanline emulation.
Fixed MindLink controller.
Fixed SaveKey not working with QuadTari.
Added TIA randomization on startup option.
Added different debug color luminances for player and missile copies.
Added hotkeys for TV roll speed and toggling 'Developer settings' sets.
Debugger: enhanced prompt's auto complete and history.
Debugger: added optional logging of breaks and traps.
Debugger: added Thumb cycle counting.

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases
Titel: Stella 6.7
Beitrag von: SiLæncer am 14 Juni, 2022, 06:10
Changelog


This is a new semi-major release, with the following changes:

    IMPORTANT NOTES:

        Because of fixes to JSON handling, all remappings will be reset to defaults; if you had custom mappings, they will need to be re-entered again.
        Because of internal changes, all state files are now invalid.

    Completely reworked the file launcher:

        Redesigned user interface
        Added tracking of user favorites, recently played and most popular games
        Added virtual directories for selecting tracked games
        Added quick path navigation
        Added navigation history
        Added icons for files and directories
        Added option to show/hide file extensions
        Extended context menu and shortcuts
        Fixed sluggish behaviour when reading large and/or invalid files

    Added hotkey display to tooltips.
    Added option to automatically pause emulation when focus is lost.
    Added option to toggle autofire mode.
    Improved controller mappings for Paddles.
    Improved controller mappings for Driving controllers.
    Improved Mindlink support.
    Added another oddball TIA glitch option for score mode color.
    Enhanced TV jitter emulation (TODO: doc).
    Enhanced support for CDFJ+ bankswitching type.
    Added 0FA0 bankswitching for Fotomania ROMs.
    Added ARM chip auto detection.
    Extended support for older BUS (experimental) ROMs that worked with an older, obsolete version of the BUS scheme; special thanks to SpiceWare for the code.
    Fixed Stella crash due to invalid ZIP files.
    Fixed TV mode auto detection in some ARM ROMs.
    Fixed color loss when switching TV mode from/to PAL.
    Fixed score mode glitch emulation corner case.
    Fixed state messages staying on screen forever.
    Added M1 support for the macOS build.

    Debugger improvements:

        added PlusROM information
        fixed patching code in ZP-RAM
        improved bank origin detection

    Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 17 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area). Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.

[close]

https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases