Jump to content
IGNORED

Stella 6.7 released (and concerning the future of Stella)


stephena

Recommended Posts

Yeah, I suspected the home button was a lost cause. 

 

As for RT and LT, they're just normal Sanwa arcade buttons that are on or off and aren't actually analog triggers. So I'm assuming my issue is because of how they're mapped within Windows. They're recognized as the left and right trigger of a Xbox gamepad when I depress them, such as this screenshot I just made while having both buttons depressed (Using https://gamepad-tester.com/). 

 

723126369_ArcadeStick.thumb.jpg.c303a393846f67cb8a3645ba194e15fa.jpg

I wonder if there's a workaround.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have one last question about an unrelated issue. I did a fresh install of Stella a few weeks ago on a new PC and noticed today that the screen in Tapper is very jittery. This wasn't the case before, but I was a version or two out of date prior to this.

 

I recall the same issue or something similar happening years ago due to I believe the scanline count changing regularly in Tapper, but it was fixed. Did the latest version of Stella perhaps inadvertently recreate that issue?

 

Edit: Nevermind, alt + j fixed it. :)

Edited by Atariboy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never gotten ZR ZL (i.e. LeftTrigger and RightTrigger) to work reliably.  Tried an XBox Elite and a plain old Xbox S/X controller.

 

My working solution has been to use the L and R (Left Shoulder and Right Shoulder) buttons.

 

Note that with all the varying factors in my system I wasn't able to pin it down to a problem with Stella itself thus no bug report.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been a while since I played with stella. But I tried out Zaxxon and noticed the bottom lines still bounce up and down once you get into the game. And also, prior to hitting the reset switch, there's this tinny buzzing sound, is that supposed to be that way? Don't have real hardware or a Zaxxon cart to test against.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Should Stella ever resume development, it would be interesting and amusing to have it play a sound file (1 out of 10 random choices perhaps) of a cartridge being inserted/removed when selecting/quitting a game from the menu. Ditto for the console switches when activating them.

 

Perhaps even have a 2600 faceplate transparency fade in and out as you toggle them. An overlay. Bonus points for the quick random brrlleeeppttscchh when the unit is being powered on and the NTSC signal gets rammed into the TV set so to speed. Also have the option to display real static when powered off. Not fake looping static gif/jpg, but real random static procedurally generated. With real static audio.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/3/2023 at 4:30 PM, Keatah said:

It's been a while since I played with stella. But I tried out Zaxxon and noticed the bottom lines still bounce up and down once you get into the game. And also, prior to hitting the reset switch, there's this tinny buzzing sound, is that supposed to be that way? Don't have real hardware or a Zaxxon cart to test against.

 

No not on the real hardware. Scanline bouce from 1 scanline variation in Stella is overemphasized with more sensitivity than the average Television set.  @ZeroPage Homebrew showcased this new feature when reviewing BREAKANOID despite asking them to use the latest version of the ROM for better compatibility with this new feature in Stella. 

 

I think Stella enhancements shouldn't seek to break existing classics or new productions by having this feature on by default, rather users who want it for testing should have to activate it in a menu.

 

Javatari and Z26 are recommended over Stella for Atari 2600 emulation by RelationalFramework for this reason and because Stella fell apart anyway and had to be replaced with "technical difficulties" screens at this demo scene party in Gdansk when trying to render advanced real time Atari demos that go over cycle by design innovation and still maintain a stable scanline count on a real Atari 2600:

Technical reasons for the technical difficulty screens: My design doubles the available number of cycles per scanline and multiplies the number of available cycles per frame on real Atari 2600 hardware that is more challenging to emulate. I am on the development team for the Retron77 console running Stella which also exhibits the same technical difficulties.

 

Edited by Mr SQL
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Mr SQL said:

No not on the real hardware. Scanline bouce from 1 scanline variation in Stella is overemphasized with more sensitivity than the average Television set.

Makes sense thanks for the insight.

 

There's also another issue (I believe) with Zaxxon having a tinny buzzing sound as soon as you select the rom. I don't recall that being there 40 years ago on my real unit?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/3/2023 at 10:30 PM, Keatah said:

It's been a while since I played with stella. But I tried out Zaxxon and noticed the bottom lines still bounce up and down once you get into the game.

Zaxxon has a varying scanline count between 261 and 265. Some TVs react to this (my Sony Trinitron does), some don't. If you don't care, you can reduce the Options/Developer/Video/Jitter/roll effect setting.

On 2/3/2023 at 10:30 PM, Keatah said:

And also, prior to hitting the reset switch, there's this tinny buzzing sound, is that supposed to be that way? Don't have real hardware or a Zaxxon cart to test against.

Yes, that's there on real hardware too.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Keatah said:

Makes sense thanks for the insight.

 

There's also another issue (I believe) with Zaxxon having a tinny buzzing sound as soon as you select the rom. I don't recall that being there 40 years ago on my real unit?

 

Zaxxon only varies between 261 and 262 scanlines during play which enough to trigger the exaggerated screen roll in Stella. 

 

Jentzsch also held up a sign while my innovation for advanced Atari games with extra cycle time was being reviewed on the show and followed it up with posts teasing about games rolling illustrating "beginner coders" via this feature after my older BREAKANOID ROM was used to showcase it intentionally, so I think that's what the feature is intended to show. 

 

This should be turned off by default so folks can better enjoy the classics more realistically, looks like pure marketing imo.

 

1 minute ago, alex_79 said:

If you search "zaxxon atari 2600" on youtube  you'll find a lot of gameplay footage taken from real TVs (both CRTs and LCDs) or capture cards. They all bounce to various degrees.

 

None of my three classic Televisions bounce during gameplay from a single scanline and LCD Televisions have inaccurate (emulated) NTSC that cannot even show the colors while Video Chess is thinking. 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Just a thought I had, and I don't know if it's worth to open an issue for this so I just post it here:

have you considered having automatic snapshot builds for Stella? E.g. dasm has them (you can download the builds for recent commits from the "actions" tab as long as you have a github account and are logged in). I think they could potentially increase feedback, as likely there are people who'd be interested in testing WIP versions, but who don't know how or have no time or interest to set up a development environment to build the app themselves.

Edited by alex_79
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, alex_79 said:

Just a thought I had, and I don't know if it's worth to open an issue for this so I just post it here:

have you considered having automatic snapshot builds for Stella? E.g. dasm has them (you can download the builds for recent commits from the "actions" tab as long as you have a github account and are logged in). I think they could potentially increase feedback, as likely there are people who'd be interested in testing WIP versions, but who don't know how or have no time or interest to set up a development environment to build the app themselves.

Seems like a good idea. I will create an issue.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I was curious if there are plans to release Stella 6.7 for the Retron 77, or is that on hold until future development actively continues?  I do want to say thank you so much to the team for everything you have done all of these years.  I didn't realize when I first purchased my Retron that Stella was a community driven project, or that it has been around for so long.  Your passion and dedication is very much appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I think the Stella developers can leave the project with their heads held high.  Stella is one of the most mature emulators there is and there are so many other projects out there that will never reach this kind of fruition.

 

Thank you to all concerned with the project.  Stella has done so much to enhance my enjoyment of the 2600.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I found a possible issue with Stella UA emulation.

 

I have UA ROMs out there that no longer work in Stella:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/174376-grandmas-revenge-binary-merry-christmas/

 

The hotspots are $220 and $240, presumably with many address bits that should not be decoded. I am actually using $230 and $240 which should work, and I am certain it did work on earlier versions of Stella. A real UA cart should ignore A4-A0, so $230 should be a mirror of $220.

 

I peeked at UA code and it appears that the CartridgeUA::install method may be decoding too many bits. It appears to be specifically targeting $220 and $240 and may be ignoring $221-$23F and $241-$25F, if I am reading code correctly. It shouldn't be too hard to change the code to work again, and I may be able to do that if Stella devs are too busy, though I currently cannot build Stella.

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, batari said:

I found a possible issue with Stella UA emulation.

Thank you for the information.

 

You are right, it does not work in Stella 6.7. But fortunately it works in the current code, so with the next release, everything should be fine again.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Correction: The game works in 6.7, but not 6.6. @batari Please update to the latest Stella version, then it should work.

 

BTW: I trapped writes to $230..$23f in Grandma's Revenge, but I could not find any. Are you sure?

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Correction: The game works in 6.7, but not 6.6. @batari Please update to the latest Stella version, then it should work.

 

BTW: I trapped writes to $230..$23f in Grandma's Revenge, but I could not find any. Are you sure?

I'm not sure, actually. It looks like I may have multiple versions of the game. I'll compare with the posted version tomorrow.

 

Speaking of trapread and trapwrite, they now seem to trap all mirrors of a location by default. I can't figure out how to revert to the old behavior and only trap a literal address (such as $230 only) with the current version of Stella.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...