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DESCRIPTION
Stella... The Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS), introduced in 1977, was the most popular home video game system of the early 1980's. Now you can enjoy all of your favorite Atari 2600 games on your Mac thanks to Stella!
Stella is a multi-platform Atari 2600 VCS emulator released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Stella was originally developed for Linux by Bradford W. Mott, however, since its original release several people have joined the development team to port Stella to other operating systems such as Mac OS X, AcornOS, AmigaOS, DOS, FreeBSD, IRIX, Linux, OS/2, and Unix. The development team is working hard to perfect the emulator and we hope you enjoy our effort.
WHAT'S NEW
Version 3.0:
- Huge updates to the TIA emulation system. Illegal HMOVEs are now handled correctly, resulting in improvements to many ROMs (thanks to Wilbert Pol for many ideas and code for these improvements). All HMOVE emulation 'cheats' were removed; the emulation is now cycle-exact in this area.
- Improved emulation of the Cosmic Ark 'starfield effect', also used in Stay Frosty; the emulation now looks very accurate.
- Many improvements to the normal TIA rendering code, fixing problems when disabling certain graphical objects (certain objects were being misdrawn when others were enabled/disabled).
- Improved TIA collision handling in the non-displayable area of the screen; this fixes problems in RAMRacer ROM.
- Improved TIA redraw problems/graphical garbage when ROMs generate many more scanlines than a real TV would allow; this fixes problems in Q-Bert and the recent Playaround demo.
- Added 'Fixed Debug Colors' option similar to the no$26k emulator. This allows each graphical object to be drawn in a fixed color, more clearly showing how the objects interact. HMOVE blanks are also shown in a different color. The TIA now emulates a 7-color register model, allowing even shared objects to show different colors. This is toggled with the 'Alt Comma' key.
- Related to 'Fixed Debug Colors', HMOVE blanks can now toggled during TIA display with the 'Alt-m' key.
- Added rewind functionality to the debugger, where states are saved after each step/trace/scanline/frame advance. Pressing 'Alt-r' or clicking the new rewind button will undo up to 100 previous operations.
- Added 'electron beam indicator' to the debugger TIA output. Basically, this is a visual pointer indicating the position of the electron gun when scanning the display.
- Added ability to completely disable fullscreen mode, which fixes problems for some people where fullscreen mode was being entered even if it wasn't enabled.
- Added '-joyallow4' commandline argument and associated UI item to allow all 4 directions to be pressed simultaneously on a joystick.
- Improvements made to the ROM launcher: the backspace key now goes to the parent directory (this key can be remapped), and previously selected directories are now automatically selected.
- Added support for 2IN1 bankswitching scheme, where two ROMs are present in one binary. Currently supported are 2, 4, 8, and 16K ROMs.
- Added bankswitch support for the 6K version of Starpath/Supercharger ROMS. This allows the 6K version of Cubis to run.
- Updated bankswitching schemes FASC and MB; they are now known as FA and F0, respectively. This naming brings Stella in line with other emulators and programming utilities.
- Fixed editing of cheats in the Cheat Dialog; the old cheat wasn't being removed.
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.
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| Stella User Reviews (7 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Mar 25 2006 |
DANIELHART It unexpectadly quits everytime I open it, anyone know a way to fix it? I'm on an iMac 10.1.3 OS X
(Version 2.0) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | Oct 16 2005 |
BEDOUIN Works great. The new interface also shows the complete titles of all ROMs -- much easier than guessing from filenames like before. It also remembers the default ROM directory, where in the past you had to locate it manually. Thanks to the developer (and all emu developers) who let us keep playing these classic games.
(Version 2.0) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | Feb 21 2005 |
MARCEL Sorry, but it's crashing all the time you are trying to open a rom-file. Only know the old OS 9 version, which was working perfectly with all my roms. With this OS X version I can't open any of these files... :( Any ideas for a solution (maybe a tool to validate corrupted roms or something like this)?
(Version 1.4.2) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| Mar 25 2006 |
DANIELHART Know where I can download the os 9 version? I can't find it at the developer's site..
(Version 2.0) | |
| Feb 20 2005 |
ANONYMOUS Roms aren't pointed to by the developers site for a reason. It would be illegal. The original copyright holders have the ability to sue the emulator writer, if he is distributing roms. I'm sorry your teenage mind can't comprehend the concept of Intellectual Property Rights, but the emulator authors are simply trying to avoid swarms of lawyers. And by the way, the last poster was right......Do a google search on "Atari 2600 Roms" and see what you find. Your simple mind might be amazed....and it doesn't even require an FU.....
(Version 1.4.2) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Feb 20 2005 |
ANONYMOUS Thanks for the great little app! I was playing Frogger within minutes! I feel sorry for those who are all pissed about not being able to find ROMs... Atari ROMs are like the easiest ones to find on the net, I found the entire collection right away. It's called the "internet" - try it sometime. ;-P
(Version 1.4.2) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Feb 20 2005 |
ANONYMOUS how do you use this thing, it just opens and blue screen openes and closes, where do i get atari games?
(Version 1.4.2) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| Apr 5 2003 |
IAN LUECK Excellent Atari emulator that runs just about any game you throw at it, plus it fixes the bug from Stella 1.1.2 where it wouldn't run in OS 9. The only request: A full screen mode. Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing.
(Version 1.2) | |
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