Release Name: 2.1
Notes:
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 PC thanks to
Stella!
Stella is a multi-platform Atari 2600 VCS emulator. It allows you to play all
of your favorite Atari 2600 games again!
Stella was originally developed for
Linux by Bradford W. Mott, however, it has been ported to a number of other
platforms.
This is the 2.0.1 release of
Stella for Linux, Mac OSX and Windows. Distributions
for other operating systems will appear as they become available. The
distributions currently available are:
* Binary distribution in RPM format for Linux (stella-2.1.1-1.i586.rpm)
* Binary distribution for Mac OSX (StellaOSX2.1.0.dmg.gz)
* Binary installer (exe) for Windows (stella-2.1-win32.exe)
* Binary zip for
GP2X (stella-2.1-gp2x.zip)
* Binary zip for WinCE (stella-2.1-wince.zip)
* Source code distribution for Linux, Mac OSX, Windows,
GP2X and WinCE (stella-2.1-src.tar.gz)
* Source code in SRPM format for Linux RPM-based systems (stella-2.1-1.src.rpm)
PLEASE DO NOT WRITE ASKING FOR ROM IMAGES TO USE WITH
STELLA! ALL SUCH
REQUESTS WILL BE IGNORED!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Changes:
2.0.1 to 2.1: (January 29, 2006)
* Added phosphor effect, similar to
z26. Useful on ROMs which alternate
sprites from one frame to another, resulting in an annoying flicker.
When using phosphor mode, a pixels colour is mixed with its previous value,
resulting in a blended image that doesn´t flicker, emulating the
phosphoresence effect on a real television.
* Added ´pp´ developer commandline argument to set the "Display.Phosphor"
property, and ´ppblend´ to set the amount to blend pixels in phosphor
mode. Also added ´Alt p´ key to enable/disable phosphor effect while
ROM is emulated. By default, phosphor mode is only used when necessary,
as specified in the stella.pro file.
* Renamed ´cheetah´ commandline argument to ´cheat´.
* Added per-frame cheatcodes (4 characters long), which are evaluated
each frame.
* Added cheatcode
GUI, where cheats can be named, edited, saved, etc.
* Cheat codes are now saved to stella.cht file and are automatically
reloaded when
Stella starts.
* Improved ´joymouse´ functionality. While in
GUI mode, any axis will
simulate mouse movement, and any button will simulate a mouse click.
So the
GUI can be completely navigated without a mouse.
* Improved CommandDialog and LauncherDialog wrt joymouse functionality.
These dialogs are used more than any other on devices without a mouse,
so joystick axis movement switches between
GUI objects, rather than
simulating the mouse. This leads to much faster selection of objects.
* Added mapping of multiple
SDL joystick axis to Event Mapping.
* Added joystick hat support, and mapping of multiple hats to Event Mapping.
* Added remapping of paddle emulation to the keyboard or joystick axis
(the mouse is still used by default for paddles). Related to this,
use more precise analog values when analog axis are mapped to
analog-type events (such as paddles).
* Treat joystick events as other types of controllers based on the virtual
port entry in stella.pro. This means that mappings for a joystick will
emulate other devices when necessary.
* Added ´sp´ developer commandline argument, which sets the
"Console.SwapPorts" property and swaps the arrangement of the virtual
ports. Useful for games like "Raiders of the Lost Ark", where the
joysticks are normally swapped.
* Added ability to set which Stelladaptor device emulates which virtual
joystick port (´sa1´ and ´sa2´ commandline arguments, which accept
´left´ or ´right´).
* Fixed issues with jittering joysticks/mice causing weird events when
starting
Stella.
* Added ´freq´, ´tiafreq´ and ´clipvol´ commandline arguments, which
affect the sound subsystem (see manual for further info).
* Made state files completely cross-platform, both in terms of endianness
as well as CPU size (32 vs. 64 bit).
* Fixed crash with using ´cheat´ and ´break´ from the commandline.
* Implemented dynamic loading of
OpenGL library.