Stella version 2.3.5 released

[+stephena]

OK, here's the latest release of Stella. For those that are wondering, this is just an intermediate bugfix release before the 2.4 version. So there are no TIA updates. However, there are a few nice features that have been in the pipeline, which I didn't want to delay until 2.4. Also, all the bugs reported by beta testers in another thread have been fixed. Anyway, here's the changelog:

 

 * Greatly improved cartridge bankswitch type auto-detection.  Stella
can now (mostly) autodetect cartridge types 'E0', 'E7', '3E', '3F' and
Superchip carts.  Obviously, this autodetection is not infallible, but
relies on patterns in the ROM data, and how it was compiled.  Because
of the auto-detection types already supported, almost all bankswitch
info was removed from internal ROM properties.  Set the ROM property
"Cartridge.Type" to "Auto-detect" for this to take effect.

 * Added auto-detection of display type (NTSC or PAL).  Currently, PAL60
ROMs will be detected as NTSC.  This is almost 100% accurate, and fails
in very few cases (for those that are mislabeled, the ROM properties
can be set specifically).  Set the ROM property "Display.Format" to
"Auto-detect" for this to take effect.

 * Improved emulation timing when exiting one ROM and starting another.
Previously, this could result in the second ROM having its sound start
later than it should have.

 * Removed pause functionality from the core, since it's been superceded
by the other event states.  You can now enter one of the menus for a
similar effect (options, command, debugger, etc).

 * Added toggle for PAL color-loss emulation, which defaults to off.
Previous versions of Stella always used color-loss emulation.
Related to this, added 'colorloss' commandline argument.

 * Added rudimentary support for configuring the UI palette ('uipalette'
commandline argument) and ability to change the size of the launcher window
('launchersize' commandline argument).  This will be expanded on in future
releases.

 * Reworked options menu so it's now accessible from the ROM launcher as
well as while playing a ROM.

 * Re-added ability to change the width and height of a Console.  Related to
this, changing XStart/YStart/Width/Height dynamically no longer resets
the ROM.

 * Removed 'tiadefaults' commandline argument, since Stella will now default
to using accurate positioning, and not use 'tweaks'.

 * Joystick code now allows all 4 directions; 'Bumper Bash' now works
correctly.

 * Improved Keypad emulation; 'Alpha Beam with Ernie', 'Oscars Trash Race'
and 'Magicard' now work correctly.

 * Reworked GUI code, so that all dialog boxes are automatically centered.

 * Added 'rominfo' commandline argument, which prints some detailed info for
a ROM.

 * For the OSX port; fixed crashes in OpenGL mode.

 * For the GP2X port; some improvements to the sound code.

 * For the GP2X port; added vertical centering of the TIA image (when possible).

 

As always, you can download Stella from http://stella.sf.net. Also, please report any bugs here.

[midget35]

as ever stephena - your work is appreciated!

 

Alpha Beam working is the highlight of this release for me. thank you!

[+stephena]

as ever stephena - your work is appreciated!

 

Alpha Beam working is the highlight of this release for me. thank you!

Great to hear. The next major release will be all about getting more games to work. It will include the new TIA stuff, and hopefully support for all remaining controllers (lightgun, mice/trakball, Kidvid, etc).

[Haunted]

Is there any chance of restoring pause functionality in the next release? Of course you can open a menu to get the same effect, but a clean pause can sometimes be nice to have, like when you're taking screenshots.

[+stephena]

Is there any chance of restoring pause functionality in the next release? Of course you can open a menu to get the same effect, but a clean pause can sometimes be nice to have, like when you're taking screenshots.

You can take a snapshot with 'F12' (or whatever you have that event mapped to). Snapshot support is now built in to all versions of Stella, and is not user-selectable. And if you need to look at the screen in some detail, you can drop into the debugger and analyze it there. And you can even zoom in on specific sections for more detail.

 

Removing this was a hard decision, but having it there actually slowed things down a little, and was confusing to some people. The basic problem is that many users thought that when Stella was paused, it had locked up. However, to get around that, I could have made the paused screen have a message saying 'paused' or dimmed the palette, or something. But in that case, you still wouldn't be able to use that for a snapshot, since it wouldn't accurately represent what the game looks like. Added to the fact that most keys didn't work in pause mode (but some did), it just seemed less confusing to remove the functionality entirely.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Something is wrong with the menu. When I press TAB the attached screen comes up. How do I change the other settings?

 

BTW: ESC seems to crash the game.

[+stephena]

Something is wrong with the menu. When I press TAB the attached screen comes up. How do I change the other settings?

 

BTW: ESC seems to crash the game.

Oops, this seems to be a key mapping issue. Start the emulator, but do not start a game. Go to Options->Input Settings and click on the 'Emul. Events' tab. Then click 'Defaults'. Do the same for the 'UI Events' tab. It seems some of the mappings must have changed. I recommend to start with a fresh settings file each time you upgrade Stella.

 

Edit: Alternately, just start with a clean stella.ini file (ie, delete the old one, and re-create all your settings).

Edited January 24, 2007 by stephena

[vdub_bobby]

Like the new interface very much, good job.

[+stephena]

Like the new interface very much, good job.

I thought you might like that I think you were the original person who wanted the main options dialog accessible from the ROM launcher??

[vdub_bobby]

Like the new interface very much, good job.

I thought you might like that I think you were the original person who wanted the main options dialog accessible from the ROM launcher??

Maybe so.

[Keatah]

Please put the pause feature back it, I can't imagine it slowing things down all that much, at least not on any hardware sold in the past 5 years.

 

You could perhaps have it flash "pause" in big red letters for a few seconds then nothing, or flash it once every 15 seconds. Something like that.

[+stephena]

Please put the pause feature back it, I can't imagine it slowing things down all that much, at least not on any hardware sold in the past 5 years.

 

You could perhaps have it flash "pause" in big red letters for a few seconds then nothing, or flash it once every 15 seconds. Something like that.

Hmm, that's at least 6 or 7 people who have requested this. Perhaps I was too quick to remove it. And after thinking about it a little more, I can re-implement it without slowing things down. I'll consider re-adding it for the next release.

 

Your last suggestion is a good idea. No need to continuously display a pause message, but popping it up every 5-10 seconds would show that the app hasn't locked up.

[+Nathan Strum]

That would be great - I'd also like to see the Pause feature return.

[+stephena]

OK, here's the latest release of Stella. For those that are wondering, this is just an intermediate bugfix release before the 2.4 version. So there are no TIA updates. However, there are a few nice features that have been in the pipeline, which I didn't want to delay until 2.4. Also, all the bugs reported by beta testers in another thread have been fixed.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the WinCE port has been updated to 2.3.5, to be in line with the other ports. There are quite a few improvements in this release, including the following:

 

 * support for QGVA landscape smartphones,
 * greatly improved UI rendering for low res smartphones,
 * keyboard events can be now arbitrarily remapped,
 * UI menus accessibility in smartphones

 

As usual, report any bugs to this thread or to one of the developers directly.

[+stephena]

That would be great - I'd also like to see the Pause feature return.

I've re-added pause functionality, and eliminated the problems it had before. As well, a 'Paused' message will appear on the TIA image every 5 seconds or so, just to make sure one knows that the app hasn't locked up. It will be included in the next release, whenever that may be ...

[espire8]

That would be great - I'd also like to see the Pause feature return.

I've re-added pause functionality, and eliminated the problems it had before. As well, a 'Paused' message will appear on the TIA image every 5 seconds or so, just to make sure one knows that the app hasn't locked up. It will be included in the next release, whenever that may be ...

That's good to hear.

I'll wait for that next version's release and stick with the older one I currently have before upgrading .

[djmips]

Little problem to report in this and the previous version (2.3). On Windows 2000, when you enter the debugger and then type 'run' it will exit Stella. This is very annoying because I habitually type this command when resuming. BTW - the exit button in the GUI works.

[SeaGtGruff]

I'm not sure whether this has been reported yet. It falls into the TIA category. If you perform an HMOVE and then perform HMCLR immediately after, the objects still move the intended distance, but the HMCLR should interfere with HMOVE. I'm not sure what the timings should be on the order in which objects are moved, and how long it takes to move each, but the TIA documentation says you should wait 24 cycles after HMOVE before performing HMCLR or changing any of the HM values.

 

Michael

[+stephena]

Little problem to report in this and the previous version (2.3). On Windows 2000, when you enter the debugger and then type 'run' it will exit Stella. This is very annoying because I habitually type this command when resuming. BTW - the exit button in the GUI works.

I notice this problem as well, but it's intermittent (ie, meaning it's going to be hard to track down). I'll look into it further. I suspect it's related to the parsing of commands in the debugger.

[+stephena]

I'm not sure whether this has been reported yet. It falls into the TIA category. If you perform an HMOVE and then perform HMCLR immediately after, the objects still move the intended distance, but the HMCLR should interfere with HMOVE. I'm not sure what the timings should be on the order in which objects are moved, and how long it takes to move each, but the TIA documentation says you should wait 24 cycles after HMOVE before performing HMCLR or changing any of the HM values.

 

Michael

Yes, this falls under the TIA emulation, which is being rewritten at this point.

[Torr]

Does anbody else have this problem with the new 2.3.5 release?

When I start the program the GUI is the resolution I like, IE it fills the screen, and then when I load the first ROM it too is the resolution I like, IE it fills the screen. But as soon as I go to load a different ROM, the GUI resoultion changes and is now showing me a much smaller version of itself and each subsequent ROM I load is even tinier...

So basically to keep a nice big screen filling resolution I have to keep exiting and restarting the program as I change ROMs.

[stellar 2600]

I haven't had a problem with Stella 2.3.5 yet... I do like how every new version of Stella keeps on getting better and better. I look toward to the new releases. I just had to throw that in there.

[SeaGtGruff]

Does anbody else have this problem with the new 2.3.5 release?

When I start the program the GUI is the resolution I like, IE it fills the screen, and then when I load the first ROM it too is the resolution I like, IE it fills the screen. But as soon as I go to load a different ROM, the GUI resoultion changes and is now showing me a much smaller version of itself and each subsequent ROM I load is even tinier...

So basically to keep a nice big screen filling resolution I have to keep exiting and restarting the program as I change ROMs.

I don't think I've seen that happen yet. If you post your settings, we can see if we can duplicate the behavior.

 

Michael

[Torr]

Does anbody else have this problem with the new 2.3.5 release?

When I start the program the GUI is the resolution I like, IE it fills the screen, and then when I load the first ROM it too is the resolution I like, IE it fills the screen. But as soon as I go to load a different ROM, the GUI resoultion changes and is now showing me a much smaller version of itself and each subsequent ROM I load is even tinier...

So basically to keep a nice big screen filling resolution I have to keep exiting and restarting the program as I change ROMs.

I don't think I've seen that happen yet. If you post your settings, we can see if we can duplicate the behavior.

 

Michael

 

I don't change the settings at all, I leave them at defaults. However I will also note that as I select different "zoom levels" there is no difference in the resolution and most other options seem to have no effect. I also use Software rendering because when I use OpenGL the mouse stops working, but I'd say that's my own system because most things don't run well in OpenGL.

[Torr]

So am I the ONLY person thats having problems with keeping a constant resolution in Stella??