StellaDS - Official Release and Discussion Thread

[+wavemotion]

In the past, I've put out announcements every few major releases - but I've decided to have one-thread-to-rule-them-all to avoid spamming the forums

 

Welcome to the StellaDS Official Release and Discussion Thread!

 

 

What is this?

StellaDS is an Atari 2600 VCS Emulator that is freely available for your DS/DSi/XL/LL handheld. It allows you to play 40 year old Atari 2600 games on a 20 year old handheld.  You can find the latest release on my github page: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/StellaDS

 

The emulator can run from a flash cart (R4 or similar) or directly from an SD card on the DSi/XL/LL. Some clever folks such as @SpiceWare have managed to also get this running on a 3DS though that's above my pay-grade. Google searches will help here.

 

Each generation of DS has greater capabilities. The original DS (and DS-Lite) runs at only 67MHz and as such is capable of playing most of the games you loved as a kid at a full frame rate... think Asteroids, Missile Command, Pitfall, Yar's Revenge, etc.  To play some of the more complex homebrews and the ARM-assisted games (Space Rocks, Gorf Arcade, Turbo Arcade, Draconian, etc.) you will need to run in DSi enhanced mode with 2X the CPU power. Generally running any sort of R4 flash cart will not allow even the faster DSi handheld to run in this enhanced mode - for that you must run directly from the SD card using custom firmware or something like Twilight Menu++. You can read about how to do this here: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/ds-emu-setup

 

Features :

A solid level of compatibility to make games playable. Most games run full speed with improved sound on a DSi in native 134MHz mode. For the older DS-LITE and DS-PHAT (running at 67MHz), most of the simple 8k, 4k and 2k games will play perfectly. More sophisticated bank-switching schemes really require the DSi (with 2X the CPU power) for the best experience.

 

The internal database uses the ROMHUNTER roms (these are the good ones!). The emulator should auto-detect most games and play them perfectly but you can tweak settings as you like.
 

StellaDS features include:

• Full console emulation including Reset, Select, Difficulty Switches, TV Type, PAL vs NTSC, selectable color palettes and more.
• Virtually all practical bankswitching games are supported up to 512K of ROM and 32K of RAM (similar to the Harmony Encore specifications).
• Wide range of controllers including joystick, paddles, driving controller, booster grip, keypads, Quadtari, Genesis 2-button and more.
• Savekey Support with backing 32K EEPROM.
• DPC+ Arm-Assisted games supported! (DSi or above needed for full speed).
• CDF/CDFJ/CDFJ+ Arm-Assisted games supported! (DSi or above needed for full speed).
• FA2 and Cherity supported with backing EEPROM support.
• High score support with up to 10 scores for each game.
• Manuals included for more than 100 of the common games.
• Custom keypad overlay for Star Raiders.
• Frame Blending to help smooth out flicker and make the games shine.
• Save/Restore state so you can save your progress and load it back up later.

 

The compatibility is quite solid here - with most games playing exactly as you remember them on the venerable DS hardware. The touch-screen on the bottom allows for a quick flick of your finger to change VCS switches or to apply new settings or load a new game. Recent editions bring in major improvements to the CDF/J/+ driver rendering all of the latest Champ Games playable (yes, that includes Turbo Arcade and Elevator Agent) from @johnnywc

 

Where does this fit in with the mainline Stella?

In general, it doesn't. StellaDS is based on an amalgamation of different Stella releases. Modern Stella is a work of art - and is generally cycle accurate and robust in so many areas that closely mimic the real hardware. That level of accuracy will not run fast enough on the venerable DS handheld. So StellaDS baseline is probably closest to mainline Stella 3.7.5 with fixes and enhancements taken liberally from Stella 4, 5 and 6 (up to 6.7 as of the time of this writing). In addition, some optimizations had to be performed that will place this emulator a solid grade below the mainline Stella in terms of accuracy. The goal is to get as close to accurate as possible while providing enough speed to make the games playable on the little handheld. Do not expect perfection - you have been warned! Any bugs, error and omissions found in StellaDS are completely and totally on me - be happy you didn't pay anything for it!

 

I don't have a DS unit... what would you recommend?

I have created or maintain numerous DS emulators for other classic systems (Intellivision, Colecovision, TI99/4a, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, etc). You can get a ton of classic gaming from one of these well-engineered DS handhelds.  If you don't yet have a DS unit, I recommend you to get a DSi XL (USA) or LL (Japan) version.  The DSi is very specifically branded and shown as 'DSi' on the back of the unit.

 

 

Or a 2DS/3DS if you can get homebrews to run on those via SD card. The reason I prefer the XL over the original DSi is due to the LCD fade. The original DSi has a fast fade and as such some of the games with small missiles might be a little hard to see or appear to flicker due to the way the original Atari game is coded. Like a real TV, a slower LCD fade looks better. StellaDS includes an option to reduce the flicker - in configuration you can turn on Blending - but this comes at a performance cost. For many games, the DSi can handle that penalty. For the ARM-Assisted games (DPC+, CDF/CDFJ/CDFJ+) that penalty will often be too great which is why the full gamut of Atari games will always render best on an XL/LL screen.

 

Enjoy - and if you do use this emulator, please drop me a line or better yet - comment below. It helps to know the long hours (more than 300 now) of development are worthwhile 

 

Have you played Atari (on your DS) today?!

 

(yes, that's my Spock t-shirt reflecting in the top LCD screen!)

[+wavemotion]

Champ Games Support :

 

StellaDS supports all current Champ Games offerings through Turbo Arcade and Elevator Agent (and the upcoming Tutankhamun Arcade). These games represent the cutting edge of what is possible on the Atari 2600 using an ARM co-processor to help move data through the system. These games push the limits of the emulator. To run these advanced arm-assisted games, you will need a DSi or greater running either Twilight Menu++ or Unlaunch to unlock the 2X CPU (134MHz). The original DS (or the DSi/2DS/3DS running with an R4 cart) will only run in DS compatibility mode (67MHz) which is too slow to render these games full speed.

 

It is also recommended that you use an XL/LL model - these larger screens have a slower LCD fade resulting in a picture that more closely resembles an old TV. This means less flicker overall.

Be aware that most of these games utilize a significant amount of over-scan. The DS/DSi/XL/LL only has 192 pixels of vertical resolution and this means the extra 16-20 pixels of game information will render-off screen. StellaDS will always show the main gameplay portion of the screen and utilizes a screen pan UP/DN to shift in the score or status (non-gameplay) information. For example, in GORF, you will not see the score at the top normally... but if you press the X button (pan UP), the screen will momentarily shift up to show you the score and then automatically pan back down. It's quite smooth and is very serviceable in normal gameplay.
 

 

All Champ Games should run at or near full speed with the exception of the two most complex games: Turbo Arcade (which dips framerate slightly for some complex rendering scenes but is generally not noticeable for gameplay) and Elevator Agent which runs at 56+ (often up to full speed) but is variable enough that you will hear some slight wavering in the music output (but still quite playable and enjoyable). Try the DEMO roms first to be sure you're happy with the emulation quality here. Be aware that any performance issues related to these cutting-edge games is a reflection of my emulation and not the superior craftsmanship of the games themselves. You can see a full set of Champ Games offerings at https://champ.games

[+SpiceWare]

On 8/26/2024 at 6:36 AM, wavemotion said:

Some clever folks such as @SpiceWare have managed to also get this running on a 3DS though that's above my pay-grade.

 

Only thanks to your help in this topic.  Basically:

1. Followed instructions here to install custom firmware
2. Followed instructions here to install TWiLight Menu++

 

@Asaki had a very useful tip to install an FTP server on the 3DS, which lets you update the contents of the SD card while it's still in the 3DS. I installed mtheall/ftpd.  Doing that was a major plus for me as I have handles on my 3DS, which prevent my hands from cramping.

 

 

 

 

 

useful info about the ftpd in this reply, especially:

 

On 11/6/2022 at 10:20 AM, SpiceWare said:

I had trouble connecting at first, but then noticed the 3DS was using 5000 for the port instead of the usual 20 and 21 for ftp. Once I specified the port I was able to connect.