2600 Emulation/80 Classic Games

[Torr]

Even now with the newest release of Stella I can't help but wonder why it doesn't look as good as the emulator used for the Atari 80 Classic Games compilation.

The colors are so nice and vibrant on 80 Classic Games (as opposed to washed out and dull like every other emu I've tried) and it's a pain sometimes getting the right resolution so games don't look stretched, clipped, or just not quite "full screen" enough for my taste.

Seeing as how a lot of ROMs are compatible with the emu used for 80 Classic Games, how much tweaking would it take to make it emulate all 2600 games this well?

Or inversely how come other 2600 emus can't seem to match it's graphical beauty?

[majinbuu]

I've never had a chance to be able to play the 80 games compilation, but my guess for the washed out look comes from the pc video adapter applying filtering on the output image, especially if you use openGL found in the 1.x versions of stella. With the newer Stella versions (2.x) I can get a pretty good picture that is fullscreen with no blurriness or dullness. Also, if you are using a LCD monitor and you run the emulator in a resolution that is not the monitor's default resolution it will always be blurry.

 

The above about the blurriness is just a guess, maybe someone who knows more can give you a better answer

Edited June 5, 2008 by majinbuu

[+FujiSkunk]

My beef with the 80 emulator is that what is supposed to be almost pure white is instead a very noticeable purple. Look at the score while playing Centipede and you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

Otherwise yes, I was quite impressed with this emulator myself, even more so that the developers allowed it to work with other ROM images so easily.

 

If only the Activision emulator were so generous. Somehow they bundle the ROM image together with manual, box and cartridge scans. Imagine being able to put those together and creating your own virtual cartridge carousels. That together with the already-excellent ability to create your own music playlists would make for one awesome virtual 2600 experience!

Edited June 5, 2008 by skunkworx