Name: Stella
Rating: 4.625 (17 reviews)

Free

Absolutely Free

Stella overview

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 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.

Oh, for those of you too young to remember, 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!

Note: While the software is classified as free, it is actually donationware. Please consider making a donation to help support development.

What’s new in version 6.7

Updated on Jun 15 2022

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

Other:

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.
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.

Information

License

Free

Size

10.5 MB

Developer’s website

https://stella-emu.github.io

Downloads

56763

App requirements

Intel 64
OS X 10.9 or later

0.0

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Comments
User Ratings

orbannatalie

May 17 2021

6.5.3

4.0

Version: 6.5.3

I couldn't believe, I find this app. Oh, my God, thanks!

emerywehitney

Feb 25 2018

5.1.1

4.5

Version: 5.1.1

love this app

cookinglizard

Feb 12 2018

5.1

5.0

Version: 5.1

Remember you were a kid once? Now I do! Thank you soooo much!!!

Cjbolland

Oct 31 2015

4.6.7

Version: 4.6.7

Awful graphics, awful sound, awful controls, ... I LIKE IT ! :-) Best 2600 emulator

Fredducker

Aug 4 2015

4.6.1

Version: 4.6.1

Can I find documentation somewhere on how to use it? I have ROMs in .bin, .stx, .tap, .cas, .atr, .cpgz, .st formats and only the .bin can be recognized? Is that normal? And at first the .bin ROMs appeared in the "browse" window of Stella, now they are all gone but they still are in the folder? Would lvoe some help figuring it out :)

Jason-Milles-76

Jun 2 2012

3.7

Version: 3.7

Nostalgia all the way. A must have for every dedicated 'old-school' gamer (read: +40 year old kids) ;-)

Endie

Dec 31 2011

3.5

Version: 3.5

It's not listed here but still available for Tiger/PPC: http://sourceforge.net/projects/stella/files/stella/3.5/Stella-3.5-macosx.dmg/download Great nostalgic fun!

fran-6

Sep 8 2010

3.2.1

Version: 3.2.1

If you are nostalgic, you have owned or always dreamed about owning an Atari 2600 and in the mood of playing some old games that have made history, well look no further since you won't find any better emulator than Stella.

Gitte79

Apr 22 2010

3.1

Version: 3.1

Maybe not right place but where canI find the roms?

Bdkennedy1

A free Atari 2600 emulator that runs the games perfectly. Written with love and much appreciated. Thank you!

Danielhart

Mar 25 2006

2.0

Version: 2.0

It unexpectadly quits everytime I open it, anyone know a way to fix it? I'm on an iMac 10.1.3 OS X

Guest

Oct 17 2005

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.

Feb 21 2005

1.4.2

Version: 1.4.2

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)?

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.....

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

Feb 20 2005

how do you use this thing, it just opens and blue screen openes and closes, where do i get atari games?

Apr 5 2003

1.2

Version: 1.2

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.