Stella Version 1.4 Released

[Voch]

I added the ability to Stella (quite some time ago) to dynamically change Xstart, Ystart, Width, Height, and Format while the emulation is running, then press 'Ctrl S' to merge those properties into the stella.pro file.  It beats having to edit it manually, and it really helps to see the changes immediately.  About the only reason to directly edit stella.pro at this point is to set HMoveBlanks or add a new entry, and I intend to add those eventually as well.

 

Oooh. Very nice. I also like the Developer->PAL Mode menu item to fix the colors...

 

Voch

[+stephena]

Following outstanding issues:

1.  Display issue

"Cartridge.MD5" "66b92ede655b73b402ecd1f4d8cd9c50"

"Cartridge.Name" "H.E.R.O. (1984) (Activision) [a1]"

"Cartridge.Manufacturer" "Activision"

"Cartridge.ModelNo" "AZ-036-04"

"Cartridge.Rarity" "Rare"

 

Has the following setting:

"Emulation.HmoveBlanks" "No"

 

This causes the screen to appear choppy and flicker.

I found out that the [a1] ROM is actually a PAL rom, and when I use the PAL setting, the choppiness and flickering goes away. You should try to get the [a3] version, as it's NTSC and doesn't have any of the problems you mention.

 

In the meantime, I've updated the stella.pro file with this information.

 

Still working on the keyboard issue ...

 

Steve

[Trebor]

Following outstanding issues:

1.  Display issue

"Cartridge.MD5" "66b92ede655b73b402ecd1f4d8cd9c50"

"Cartridge.Name" "H.E.R.O. (1984) (Activision) [a1]"

"Cartridge.Manufacturer" "Activision"

"Cartridge.ModelNo" "AZ-036-04"

"Cartridge.Rarity" "Rare"

 

Has the following setting:

"Emulation.HmoveBlanks" "No"

 

This causes the screen to appear choppy and flicker.

I found out that the [a1] ROM is actually a PAL rom, and when I use the PAL setting, the choppiness and flickering goes away. You should try to get the [a3] version, as it's NTSC and doesn't have any of the problems you mention.

 

In the meantime, I've updated the stella.pro file with this information.

 

Still working on the keyboard issue ...

 

Steve

 

Perfect! The [a3] H.E.R.O ROM displays with no flickering. Thanks (once again).

 

Though unfortunate while playing H.E.R.O. - I encountered the same "no response" need to 'double pump' the key to make the character move issue. Oh, well...looking forward to the next release

 

Take care,

Trebor

[Trebor]

Sorry, Steve. One more question ore requesting in regards to this:

OK, that's no problem to add (just the removal of one line of code, actually). But to be clear, I would be naming the snapshot as the name listed in the stella.pro file, which won't necessarily be what the ROM is actually called. So that behaviour won't change.

 

Is there any tool/application that can scan my set of Atari 2600 ROMS and name them exactly as they appear in the stella.pro file. Currently, my set of Atari 2600 ROMS are named according to the "Good" tool set.

 

I would really like to have the Atari 2600 ROMS named as they are listed in the stella.pro file, so when I take a screenshot the file will be named exactly the same as the ROM image.

 

Thanks again, Steve.

[+stephena]

Is there any tool/application that can scan my set of Atari 2600 ROMS and name them exactly as they appear in the stella.pro file.  Currently, my set of Atari 2600 ROMS are named according to the "Good" tool set.

 

I would really like to have the Atari 2600 ROMS named as they are listed in the stella.pro file, so when I take a screenshot the file will be named exactly the same as the ROM image.

 

Thanks again, Steve.

Not that I know of. But a quick Perl script should take care of it quite easily. Maybe that's something that could be done the the StellaX GUI in a future release.

 

BTW, I thought the names in the stella.pro file *did* come from the "Good" toolset?

 

Steve

[Mayhem]

That's what I thought too. Which is why it is both good and bad.

 

Good? I ran my ROMs for CC2 through the latest Stella (first time for using the emulator) and it identified a few duplicates I'd overlooked. Hence I was able to strip them down and remove (such as Stuntman = Nightmare). And I don't have to worry about changing my emu setup to be NTSC or PAL, it autoswitches.

 

Bad? Because sometimes it misreports NTSC ROMs as being PAL and vice versa. And that it doesn't recognise some PAL ROMs either. And some ROMs flicker (I presume from trying to boot in NTSC mode when it should be PAL and vice versa). And occasionally the screen is miscut when running a PAL ROM.

 

So Stella or Z26...? Personally I'm getting use out of both, to test ROMs and check things over before sticking them onto my CC2...

[+stephena]

Bad? Because sometimes it misreports NTSC ROMs as being PAL and vice versa. And that it doesn't recognise some PAL ROMs either. And some ROMs flicker (I presume from trying to boot in NTSC mode when it should be PAL and vice versa). And occasionally the screen is miscut when running a PAL ROM.

The issues you mention are taken care of in the stella.pro file. I'm in the process of updating that file right now (I've already reached the "H"s). Except for a few ROMs that are either bad or just don't work with Stella (yet), I've been able to fix all NTSC/PAL, palette, and positioning/cutoff problems directly in the stella.pro file.

 

I'll release it as soon as I'm finished; I won't wait for a new release of Stella.

[+stephena]

Bad? Because sometimes it misreports NTSC ROMs as being PAL and vice versa. And that it doesn't recognise some PAL ROMs either. And some ROMs flicker (I presume from trying to boot in NTSC mode when it should be PAL and vice versa). And occasionally the screen is miscut when running a PAL ROM.

The issues you mention are taken care of in the stella.pro file. I'm in the process of updating that file right now (I've already reached the "H"s). Except for a few ROMs that are either bad or just don't work with Stella (yet), I've been able to fix all NTSC/PAL, palette, and positioning/cutoff problems directly in the stella.pro file.

 

I'll release it as soon as I'm finished; I won't wait for a new release of Stella.

Something I forgot to mention in the last message. There seems to be some slight sound problems with PAL ROMs. I *think* it may be a timing issue in the sound code where it assumes that all ROMs are NTSC, but I'm not sure since I didn't write the sound code. I'll research this for the next release.

 

In the meantime, I'd advise everyone to use NTSC (rather than PAL) versions of ROMs whenever possible.

 

[whine mode]

It's too bad that there wasn't a ROM image standard created for 2600 ROM dumps (like there is for NES) with all ROM information contained as a header in the ROM itself. It would eliminate the need for a stella.pro file, and would enable z26 to work like Stella (right now I believe it has no concept of ROM properties at all).

[whine mode off]

 

Steve

[Thomas Jentzsch]

[whine mode]

It's too bad that there wasn't a ROM image standard created for 2600 ROM dumps (like there is for NES) with all ROM information contained as a header in the ROM itself.  It would eliminate the need for a stella.pro file, and would enable z26 to work like Stella (right now I believe it has no concept of ROM properties at all).

[whine mode off]

We had this discussion before, maybe you and the major z26 guys should try to join and define such a format (plus a simple conmverting tool).

[+stephena]

Though unfortunate while playing H.E.R.O. - I encountered the same "no response" need to 'double pump' the key to make the character move issue.   Oh, well...looking forward to the next release    

 

Take care,

Trebor

This may seem like a strange request, but do you access to another keyboard to try (either PS/2 or USB)?

 

Or, could you try using a standard SDL.dll from libsdl.org (or z26) instead of the one included with Stella 1.4 (just make sure you back up the original somewhere). The SDL.dll included with 1.4 is modified to work with the Stelladaptor. Although unlikely, I may have introduced some other bugs into it.

 

Steve

[Voch]

My Java programming career is going nowhere. So after checking out the latest stella.pro from CVS I dove back into messing with it. I hope i'm not stepping on anyone's toes with this...

 

* reworked the Cartridge.Name values based on Cowering's Good2600 1.00...we now have 2690 entries with at least Cartridge.MD5 and Cartridge.Name values

* Added quite a few PAL Display.Format entries (looked for the String "(PAL" in the Good2600 filename)

 

I have a new Stella profile on my home page. Anyone feel like plopping it in to CVS or should I just start hosting the profile again?

 

I'm trying to figure out what else I can sniff off of the Good2600 filename (manufacturer information, etc.) but the filename format is inconsistent. The hard full-time-job part that I want to avoid is the single-game tweaking via e-mail from everyone (renaming the Cartridge.Name entries and sniffing PAL games is easy with a little Java know-how).

 

Voch

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I experience some troubles with the Windows version. When starting Gunfight or Star Fire, I get either a black screen, a static screen looking like a screenshot of the game with nothing moving or the stating screen plus some noise. It seems like the emulation freezes sometime within the first 1-3 frames.

 

I'm running a 800 Mhz / Geforce 3 / Win 98 / DirectX 9 machine.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

or the stating screen plus

 

static not stating...

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Voch]

Hi there!

 

I experience some troubles with the Windows version. When starting Gunfight or Star Fire' date=' I get either a black screen, a static screen looking like a screenshot of the game with nothing moving or the stating screen plus some noise. It seems like the emulation freezes sometime within the first 1-3 frames.

 

I'm running a 800 Mhz / Geforce 3 / Win 98 / DirectX 9 machine.

 

Greetings,

Manuel[/quote']

 

Probably needs the Cartridge.Type value tweaked in the profile. Let the games begin!

 

Voch

[Voch]

Probably needs the Cartridge.Type value tweaked in the profile.

 

Sorry to quote myself. The Cartridge.Type seems to be set properly in the current profile for those two games and I can get 'em to run fine in StellaX 1.4 on my XP machine here at work. I dunno what's wrong...

 

Voch

[+stephena]

My Java programming career is going nowhere. So after checking out the latest stella.pro from CVS I dove back into messing with it. I hope i'm not stepping on anyone's toes with this...

Well' date=' I'm modifying it right now with updated Xstart, Ystart, Width and Height values for many games. While these values might not be [b']absolutely correct[/b] for the original 2600 game (like extraneous black space), I remove that space where I know nothing will appear. Also, I've found that some games listed as PAL are not in fact PAL games, and some listed as NTSC are in fact PAL. So I've changed their format, no matter what the Name says (otherwise, they would flicker and be choppy). I guess my main goal with stella.pro is not absolute accuracy, but having the games within it work with Stella.

* reworked the Cartridge.Name values based on Cowering's Good2600 1.00...we now have 2690 entries with at least Cartridge.MD5 and Cartridge.Name values

* Added quite a few PAL Display.Format entries (looked for the String "(PAL" in the Good2600 filename)

See the above for a possible problem with this.

I have a new Stella profile on my home page. Anyone feel like plopping it in to CVS or should I just start hosting the profile again?

We need to decide who's going to do it, or come up with some way of merging the two. You seem to work on adding new profile entries with updated names and md5sums. I tend to work on tweaking values that Stella requires (that's something that can't be automated). We need some way of merging our efforts.

I'm trying to figure out what else I can sniff off of the Good2600 filename (manufacturer information, etc.) but the filename format is inconsistent. The hard full-time-job part that I want to avoid is the single-game tweaking via e-mail from everyone (renaming the Cartridge.Name entries and sniffing PAL games is easy with a little Java know-how).

I guess that's the part I'm doing right now.

 

Steve

[+stephena]

Hi there!

 

I experience some troubles with the Windows version. When starting Gunfight or Star Fire' date=' I get either a black screen, a static screen looking like a screenshot of the game with nothing moving or the stating screen plus some noise. It seems like the emulation freezes sometime within the first 1-3 frames.

 

I'm running a 800 Mhz / Geforce 3 / Win 98 / DirectX 9 machine.

 

Greetings,

Manuel[/quote']

 

Does this happen only with the games you mention, or with all of them? If only those you mention, can you provide more details about that particular game? Is it something you're personally working on, not 'in the wild' yet? Try pressing 'Ctrl s' while the game is running and forward me the resulting *.pro files.

 

Thanks for the feedback,

Steve

[+stephena]

[whine mode]

It's too bad that there wasn't a ROM image standard created for 2600 ROM dumps (like there is for NES) with all ROM information contained as a header in the ROM itself. It would eliminate the need for a stella.pro file' date=' and would enable z26 to work like Stella (right now I believe it has no concept of ROM properties at all).

[whine mode off']

We had this discussion before, maybe you and the major z26 guys should try to join and define such a format (plus a simple conmverting tool).

I never thought coming up with a standard would be a problem. Rather, how would we distribute the ROMs afterwords? Technically we're not allowed to redistribute any ROMs at all, and it's something I'd personally rather not do.

 

But I think coming up with a standard header is somewhat easy. Getting it out in the wild and being used is the difficult part.

 

Steve

[Voch]

We need to decide who's going to do it' date=' or come up with some way of merging the two.[/quote']

 

All I did this morning was write a quickie Java program that takes the current stella.pro data, fixes the Cartridge.Name entries to match those of the Good2600 utility filenames, and adds any Cartridge.MD5 and Cartridge.Name entries that aren't in the profile, and outputs a stella.new file sorted by Cartridge.Name.

 

I just commented out the part of the code that sniffed the "(PAL" string from the Good2600 name to set the Display.Format value since it's not reliable.

 

The only external requirement is this MD5 checksum text file of the sums of the ROM files.

 

I can run this for you whenever you take a tweaking break or you can just grab it and run it for yourself. I can also modify it so it just adds new entries or whatever you need.

 

Voch

[Voch]

We need to decide who's going to do it' date=' or come up with some way of merging the two.[/quote']

 

...conversation with Stephen taken offline so as to not bog down this thread. Sorry.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Rather' date=' how would we distribute the ROMs afterwords? Technically we're not allowed to redistribute any ROMs at all, and it's something I'd personally rather not do.[/quote']

A simple (Java) converter program could do the job, based on the info in the Stella.pro file.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I experience some troubles with the Windows version. When starting Gunfight or Star Fire' date=' I get either a black screen, a static screen looking like a screenshot of the game with nothing moving or the static screen plus some noise. It seems like the emulation freezes sometime within the first 1-3 frames.

 

I'm running a 800 Mhz / Geforce 3 / Win 98 / DirectX 9 machine.[/quote']Does this happen only with the games you mention, or with all of them?

 

All games. An observation I just had: when closing the window, it seems like another frame or two are done before it disappears.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[+stephena]

Hi there!

 

I experience some troubles with the Windows version. When starting Gunfight or Star Fire' date=' I get either a black screen, a static screen looking like a screenshot of the game with nothing moving or the static screen plus some noise. It seems like the emulation freezes sometime within the first 1-3 frames.

 

I'm running a 800 Mhz / Geforce 3 / Win 98 / DirectX 9 machine.[/quote']Does this happen only with the games you mention, or with all of them?

 

All games. An observation I just had: when closing the window, it seems like another frame or two are done before it disappears.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

I'll have to check how it runs on Windows 98, as it was only tested on XP. Maybe the SDL library I compiled in XP is causing problems. Can you try using either the one from z26 or the main SDL webpage (libsdl.org).

 

Are you trying to use OpenGL mode and don't have the OpenGL drivers installed? In that case, it would be extremely slow as it would be doing software rendering.

 

Let me know (by personal email if you want),

Steve

[+stephena]

Hi there!

 

I experience some troubles with the Windows version. When starting Gunfight or Star Fire' date=' I get either a black screen, a static screen looking like a screenshot of the game with nothing moving or the static screen plus some noise. It seems like the emulation freezes sometime within the first 1-3 frames.

 

I'm running a 800 Mhz / Geforce 3 / Win 98 / DirectX 9 machine.[/quote']Does this happen only with the games you mention, or with all of them?

 

All games. An observation I just had: when closing the window, it seems like another frame or two are done before it disappears.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

I'll have to check how it runs on Windows 98, as it was only tested on XP. Maybe the SDL library I compiled in XP is causing problems. Can you try using either the one from z26 or the main SDL webpage (libsdl.org).

 

Are you trying to use OpenGL mode and don't have the OpenGL drivers installed? In that case, it would be extremely slow as it would be doing software rendering.

 

Let me know (by personal email if you want),

Steve

Yes, I'm quoting myself I've partially found the problem. The SDL.dll I included seems to be causing problems. It was compiled in VC6 under Windows XP. When I use the one from libsdl.org it works fine (but without Stelladaptor support, of course).

 

So I'll try recompiling the dll under Windows 98 and see if that works. If not, I guess I'll have to figure out another way of doing Stelladaptor support in Windows (damn, I hate having to work around Windows bugs ...)

 

Steve

[Room 34]

THANK YOU FOR THE MAC OS X VERSION!!!!

 

This is fantastic... the first time I've ever been able to play Stella at fullscreen on my iBook at full speed. Awesome!