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Stella Changelog

What's new in Stella 6.0.2

Oct 15, 2019
  • Updated properties database for Pink Panther ROM.

New in Stella 6.0 (Jan 27, 2019)

  • Note: because of major TIA sound changes, the state file format has changed, and old state files will not work with this release.
  • New cycle exact audio core based on work by Chris Brenner (crispy); greatly improved audio emulation accuracy (i.e. E.T., Ms. Pacman).
  • Full rewrite of the audio subsystem; resample TIA output to target sample rate directly in Stella.
  • Added option to force stereo sound for all ROMs, or to use the setting on a per-ROM basis.
  • Threading: decouple emulation from frame rendering.
  • Main loop rewritten; emulating speed and timing is now much more faithful (i.e. speed in Pick'n'Pile).
  • Added preliminary support for 'CTY' bankswitching scheme and recently released 'Chetiry' ROMs. Special thanks to SpiceWare for adding music support to this scheme.
  • UI modernization (new widget look, dialog titles added, dialogs refactored).
  • The bankswitch scheme can now be forced by naming the ROM with a specific extension (ie: .f8s for F8SC, .fe for FE, etc). The supported extensions are the same as the ones from HarmonyCart and UnoCart.
  • Audio settings replaced with new 'audio.xxx' settings.
  • FPS setting replaced with speed setting for adjusting emulation speed.
  • Extra functionality for Time Machine dialog (start/stop recording; minor fixes).
  • When logging messages to the System Logger, condense similar messages that arrive in batches into fewer messages (including timestamps).
  • Fixes for collision corner cases (during HBlank).
  • Fixed excessive CPU usage while in UI modes (ROM launcher, debugger, etc).
  • The 'launcherexts' option has been replaced by a true/false option named 'launcherroms', which specifies to show only ROMs or all files in the ROM launcher.
  • Changes in 'Game Properties' dialog
  • 'Default' button now affects only current tab like in all other dialogs.
  • 'Display' and 'Console' tab changes are now immediate.
  • Fixed bug when selecting 'Auto-detect' format for 50Hz ROMs
  • Fixed bug in autodetecting Genesis controllers.
  • Fixed bug with 'thumb.trapfatal' commandline argument; sometimes Stella would lock up when encountering a fatal error instead of entering the debugger and displaying a message.
  • Fixed bug in reading from settings file with entries that were empty; the parsing was failing. This affected the 'cpurandom' argument; when all options in it were turned off, they were all turned on again during the next program run.
  • Fixed bug with 'hold' events; they are now released a short time after starting a ROM.
  • When starting Stella for the first time, the first ROM selected will determine which path to use by default for subsequent runs.
  • Fixed emulator crash when starting SaveKey ROMs from commandline with SaveKey messages enabled.
  • Fixed missing TV format update in frame stats dialog when switching display type.
  • Fixed missing debug color update when switching display type.
  • 'Fill to scanline' now works for scanlines above current scanline too.
  • The debugger 'uhex' command is now honoured in CDF and BUS schemes.
  • When switching screenmodes, the sound is now paused and later resumed. This fixes popping and cracking sounds apparent on some systems, notably OSX when toggling windowed/fullscreen mode.
  • State file format has been optimized to be smaller, and faster loading and saving. This affects both the files saved to your computer as well as Time Machine functionality.
  • The ROM name saved in a PNG tEXt chunk now honours the 'snapname' setting.
  • Improved snapshots when phosphor is enabled.
  • Updated PAL palette.
  • Added 'Cartridge.StartBank' ROM property, to force a ROM to use a specific bank for its reset vector.
  • Added Developer setting, which breaks on reads from write ports. It now detects such conditions in many more cases. This new way of detecting RWP errors obsoletes the old '_rwport' debugger command, which has now been removed.
  • Added recently released 'Arkyology' prototype ROM to the database.
  • Added 'Amoeba Jump' and 'Flappy' ROMs (from the Retron77) to the database.
  • Fixed 'Street Racer' and 'Video Olympics' ROMs to use paddles in both ports.
  • If using SDL 2.0.5 or above, the calculated desktop size now takes the taskbar/dock into account (so windows should no longer overlap those areas).
  • For UNIX systems: in the ROM launcher, when using symlinks use the symlink pathname instead of the underlying filesystem pathname.
  • The UNIX builds now use the system-installed PNG and ZLIB libraries by default.
  • The Macintosh builds are now named 'macOS' throughout the codebase to reflect the new naming from Apple.
  • For better compatibility, the Windows 32-bit version does not require SSE2 anymore.
  • Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

New in Stella 5.1.3 (Oct 8, 2018)

  • Fixed crash in OpenBSD when quitting the app, which can also be happening on other systems (no reports yet, but the problem is now fixed for good).

New in Stella 5.1.2 (Jun 6, 2018)

  • Fixed bug with SaveKey autodetection; some ROMs were not correctly detecting that a virtual SaveKey device as plugged in. This notably fixes issues in "Super Cobra" and "Scramble" ROMs.
  • Make previously mentioned ROMs use the SaveKey device by default.
  • Fixed bug in UI navigation with joystick hat movement.

New in Stella 5.0.2 (Jan 31, 2018)

  • Improved emulation of Trakball controller, eliminating bias in left/right directions. Thanks to Thomas Jentzsch for the idea and code. Related to this, added 'tsense' commandline argument and associated UI item, to allow changing sensitivity of mouse trackball emulation.
  • Added preliminary support for multi-threading in the Blargg TV effects code. This is still a WIP; more improvements are coming. Related to this, further optimized the TIA rendering code. Also added 'threads' commandline argument and associated UI item to enable/disable multi-threading. Thanks to Thomas Jentzsch for the bulk of the work in this area.
  • Blargg TV effects now no longer cut off the right side of the image (by several pixels) in certain cases.
  • Updated CDF scheme to latest version from Spiceware. In addition, this scheme now supports versioning, so older and newer ROMs will continue to work.
  • Fixed an annoying bug in Linux, where Alt-Tab'ing out of a window and then back again would pass a 'Tab' key event to the app, which in most cases would navigate to the next UI element.
  • Fixed potential issue with state file saving and the debugger; under certain circumstances a rewind would give a different state than before (note that the state file format has changed because of this).
  • Fixed lockups when entering the debugger under certain circumstances.
  • The debugger 'listtraps' command now shows all traps set, not just the first one(s).
  • Reverted joystick changes for Decathlon ROMs from last release, as it was added by mistake.

New in Stella 5.0.1 (Jul 23, 2017)

  • Fixed issues in keypad, Genesis and various other controllers that use INPTx registers; the emulation is now much more accurate in this area.
  • Various 'Bumper Bash' and 'Decathlon' ROMs are marked as always having all 4 directions on a joystick enabled, since they can't be played properly otherwise.
  • Added 'Hunchy II' from Chris Walton (cd-w) to ROM properties database.
  • Codebase now uses C++14 features.

New in Stella 4.7.2 (Mar 26, 2016)

  • Fixed bug when entering and exiting the debugger; sometimes the character corresponding to the '`' key would be output in the prompt area.
  • Updated DPC+ Thumb ARM emulation code to latest from David Welch. In particular, this fixes incorrect handling of the V flag when adding and subtracting, but also fixes compile-time warnings that I couldn't get rid of before.
  • Updated UNIX configure script to work with GCC 6.x compilers, and to remove references to obsolete compiler versions that can no longer be used to compile Stella.

New in Stella 4.7.1 (Feb 14, 2016)

  • Improved TV 'jitter' emulation; the recovery time can now be spread over multiple frame, to simulate a real TV taking multiple frames to recover. Related to this, added new commandline argument 'tv.jitter_recovery' to set the recovery time. Finally, enabling the jitter effect and the recovery time are now accessible through the UI. Special thanks to SpiceWare of AtariAge for the initial idea and implementation.
  • Fixed bug with 'Medieval Mayhem' ROMs; the paddle range was set too low, and as a result the number of players couldn't be selected.
  • Fixed bug when using more than two input controllers with the same name; each controller after the second one was named the same as the second one. This caused the joystick mappings to be lost, since there was only information about two controllers being saved.
  • Indirectly fixed issues with Stelladaptor/2600-daptor devices and paddles having too large of a deadzone in Linux. Currently, this involves running an external application to set the deadzone, since SDL2 does not yet expose this information. The program is called 'evdev-joystick', and will be released separately from Stella.
  • Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 11 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area). Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.

New in Stella 4.7 (Jan 26, 2016)

  • Improved paddle emulation in several ways:
  • Added ability to specify the maximum range of movement for paddles when using a mouse or digital device to emulate the paddle. This is useful since on a real console most paddle games use very little of the paddle range, and could result in moving the mouse onscreen with nothing appearing to happen (when in effect it was as if you turned a real paddle all the way to the end of the range). This eliminates issues in (for example) Kaboom, where there was a huge 'deadzone' when moving to the left. All applicable ROMS in the internal database have been updated.
  • The range for paddle emulation now takes an integer from 1 - 20, indicating how much to scale movement (ie, how fast the onscreen paddle will move when you move the mouse). The movement itself is now also smoother than before.
  • Fixed bug in 'Score mode' in TIA emulation; the TIA object colours were correct, but the associated priority was sometimes incorrect.
  • Fixed bug in ROM launcher; selecting 'Options -> Game Properties' after loading a ROM would always point to the last opened ROM, not to the one currently selected.
  • Fixed bug in storing ROM properties; in some cases, a copy of the ROM properties was being stored in the external file when it was exactly the same as the internal entry.
  • Added 'CV+' bankswitching scheme, developed by myself and LS_Dracon (of AtariAge). This scheme contains RAM like the CV scheme, and also switchable 2K ROM segments by writing to $3D.
  • Added more C++11 updates all over the codebase, and ran Stella through Coverity for the first time. I'm proud to say that Stella now has a 0.00 defect rate!

New in Stella 4.6.7 (Oct 29, 2015)

  • Fixed bug when using real paddles plugged into a Stelladaptor 2600-daptor device; the movement was very erratic.
  • Fixed small logic error in 'MDM' bankswitching scheme.

New in Stella 4.6.6 (Oct 14, 2015)

  • Added 'Alt/Cmd + j' shortcut key and 'tv.jitter' commandline argument to toggle the TV scanline jittering emulation added in the last release. Also, this jittering now defaults to off.
  • Fixed bug in 'MDM' bankswitch scheme; bankswitching wasn't being done under certain circumstances.

New in Stella 4.6.5 (Sep 28, 2015)

  • Added mappable events for toggling TV color/BW, left difficulty A/B and right difficulty A/B. This means that one key, joystick button, etc. can be used to toggle each event. Thanks to Buzbard of AtariAge for the suggestion.
  • Added ability to edit values in more widgets in the debugger. For now, this applies mainly to the various decimal and binary fields. More widgets will be made editable in future releases.
  • The TIA now emulates the jitter that occurs when scanline counts are not consistent frame-over-frame. Also, the DPC+ scheme now emulates jitter that can occur when using its Fractional Datafetchers if the DFxFRACINC registers are not re-initialized every frame. Special thanks to SpiceWare for this implementation.
  • Tweaked 'MDM' scheme autodetection to detect that the identification string can be in either bank 0 or bank 1.
  • Changed 'hidecursor' commandline argument (and associated UI item) to 'cursor'. The new argument allows to set mouse cursor visibility separately for both UI and emulation modes.
  • Fixed snapshot bug most noticeable in MacOSX, where taking a snapshot of a TIA image sometimes left parts of the UI onscreen (and in the resulting picture).
  • Fixed memory leak; the game console wasn't being closed after exiting a ROM.
  • For the Windows port: added an application icon for Stella in the Control Panel "Add/Remove Programs" list.
  • For the OSX port: Updated build scripts to be compatible with Xcode 7.
  • Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

New in Stella 4.6.1 (Apr 23, 2015)

  • Fixed bug whereby text input could not be entered in certain widgets in the debugger.
  • Updated UNIX configure script to work with GCC 5.x compilers.

New in Stella 4.6 (Mar 21, 2015)

  • Finally fixed fullscreen rendering issues on some OpenGL implementations in Linux (mostly Intel-specific). Basically, the concept of 'dirty updates' has been removed; the window is now updated continuously. This may also fix issues some people were having with triple-buffering in Windows Direct3D, etc.
  • Fixed sound corruption that happened when running a ROM for the first time. This was most obvious under OSX, but occasionally happened on other systems too.
  • Reverted some minor C++11 features (std::regex and cbegin/cend iterators) in a few places, since otherwise GCC 4.9 is required to compile Stella, and it isn't available on many systems yet. These changes allow Stella to be built with GCC 4.8, which is present in the latest 'long term release' of Ubuntu.
  • Fixed error messages on state loading; sometimes multiple messages were being added together and displayed.
  • Fixed bug when running ROMs using AtariVox controllers; the app would crash upon exiting the ROM.
  • Snapshot functionality now works while the emulation is paused.
  • Certain textfields in the UI now have filtering enabled, preventing insertion of illegal characters. This will be extended throughout the code in future releases.
  • DataGridWidgets in the debugger now respond to keypad '+' and '-'.
  • Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

New in Stella 4.5 (Jan 2, 2015)

  • The conversion to C++11 has begun :) From this point on, to build Stella you will need a C++11 compatible compiler (Visual Studio 2013, Clang 3.3, gcc 4.9, Xcode 6, etc). Eventually, this will bring more bug-free and (hopefully) faster code.
  • Fixed major bug with joysticks, where mapping was being lost on reset, the app would crash when plugging/unplugging certain sticks, etc.
  • Fixed major (but rare) crash that could occur when state files were zero'ed or corrupted.
  • Added dialog which shows the internal joystick database (all the joysticks that Stella knows about) and the ability to remove (currently unplugged) joysticks from this database.
  • Added preliminary support for 'WD' (Wickstead Design) bankswitching scheme, used for a previously unreleased prototype ROM.
  • Improved ZIP file handling, so that it now works as a normal filesystem does (it properly shows nested files and directories).
  • The debugger 'reset' command now does a complete system reset, instead of simply setting the PC to the reset vector address.
  • The 'listdelay' command now accepts a value of zero, indicating that list-skipping (jumping to a line in a list by keypress) is disabled.
  • The 'ctrlcombo' command now has a GUI item, allowing it to be changed from within the application.
  • Added 'Shift-Alt/Shift-Cmd s' keyboard shortcut, to enable continuous snapshot mode for each frame. This is really only useful if you save snapshots in 1x mode; using it in high-resolution mode is not recommended. Special thanks to SvOlli for the idea and code.
  • The minimum supported version for the OSX port is now OSX 10.7. Because of this, the 32-bit version is also discontinued, as 10.7 supports 64-bit Intel only apps.
  • Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 10 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area). Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.
  • Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

New in Stella 4.2 (Oct 31, 2014)

  • Text input from non-US keyboard layouts is now supported. Note that all text in Stella is still ASCII-only, but at least it can now be entered using a native layout.
  • Related to the text input changes, the debugger Alt-combo shortcuts have been changed; they now use the same key but with Control instead of Alt (Control-F for frame advance, etc).
  • Controllers are now detected dynamically by Stella. This means that you can plug/unplug joysticks/paddles/etc while Stella is running, and they will be added and removed automatically. Also fixed is a bug whereby sometimes custom joystick mappings weren't being saved.
  • The 'cpurandom' option is now broken down by register type, so you can selectively enable/disable randomization for each one. The default is to disable randomization for all registers.
  • Fixed 'MDM' scheme to trigger bankswitching on writes to hotspots (previously it only triggered on reads). Also, the scheme has been modified as originally designed by E. Blink; hotspots are now in the range $800-$BFF instead of $800-$FFF.
  • The OSX app-icon now includes 32x32 and 16x16 versions, so 'small' icons will be viewable in 'Finder', 'Get Info', etc.
  • The Linux port now uses an app-icon; this seems to be needed for some window managers.

New in Stella 4.1.1 (Sep 15, 2014)

  • Re-added 'uipalette' option due to popular demand (of at least one person :)).
  • Fixed bug in Windows port where pressing 'Alt' key combos resulted in an annoying system beep. Currently this is fixed by patching the SDL2 library and including a modified version with Stella.

New in Stella 4.1 (Sep 2, 2014)

  • Improved 'DASH' bankswitching scheme support; there is now a debugger tab for changing banks and viewing internal cart RAM, and autodetection is now implemented.
  • Added 'MDM' (Menu Driven Megacart) bankswitch scheme as described on AtariAge and originally developed by Edwin Blink.
  • Improved snapshot viewing in the ROM launcher; snapshots are now scaled to the available space, and can better accommodate sizes other than those generated by Stella itself.
  • Improved support on multi-monitor systems. Stella will now use the same monitor for fullscreen-windowed mode switches. Special thanks to Magnus Lind for patches that added this functionality.
  • Removed the 'bank' command from the debugger prompt, as it only worked (inconsistently) with certain bankswitch types. The bankswitch UI should now be used to query/set bank state.
  • Fixed bug in disassembly output; instructions at $F000 were never being highlighted during execution.
  • The UNIX configure script now supports newer versions of Hurd. Special thanks to Stephen Kitt for the patch.

New in Stella 4.0 (Jul 5, 2014)

  • Ported Stella to SDL2, which brings many new features. Among the largest improvements is native hardware acceleration support for Windows (Direct3D) and Linux/OSX (OpenGL). It is also now possible to port Stella to iOS and Android devices using OpenGLES. Hardware acceleration is now required, which means up-to-date drivers are needed. Software rendering is still present, but is somewhat unoptimized and unsupported going forward.
  • Fullscreen video modes now use the desktop resolution. Switching to fullscreen and back to windowed mode no longer rearranges icons on your desktop.
  • TIA TV effects are now available in all video modes, since hardware acceleration is a requirement.
  • Added a much more detailed view of cart extended RAM to a new debugger tab. Special thanks to SpiceWare for this implementation.
  • Added preliminary support for 'DASH' bankswitching scheme by A. Davie.
  • The AtariVox and SaveKey controllers now have the ability in the debugger to completely erase the virtual EEPROM data.
  • Added 'savesnap' debugger prompt command, and also associated context menu item to the debugger TIA output area. This saves the current TIA image to a PNG file.
  • Added 'hidecursor' commandline option, which allows to completely disable showing the mouse cursor (useful on systems that don't have a mouse).
  • Removed 'uipalette' option, as the original palette is no longer supported.
  • Updated included PNG library to latest stable version.

New in Stella 3.9.3 (Jan 21, 2014)

  • Added bankswitch schemes BF, BFSC, DF, DFSC and 4KSC, thanks to RevEng and CPUWIZ of AtariAge.
  • Updated ROM properties for several ROMs, thanks to Omegamatrix of AtariAge.
  • Fixed program crash when specifying a bankswitch type that Stella didn't recognize; an error message is now displayed.

New in Stella 3.9.2 (Nov 13, 2013)

  • Improved parsing of the DASM lst file for the debugger disassembly; it sometimes missed constant declarations.
  • Changed 'usemouse' argument from a true/false option to accept 'always', 'analog' and 'never'. This allows to use the mouse as a controller under more specific circumstances. The default is 'analog', which means the mouse is only used to emulate analog-like devices (paddles, trackball, etc).
  • Added ability to use bold fonts within the debugger window, which can be set with the 'dbg.fontstyle' commandline argument as well as in the debugger UI Settings dialog. This is useful for those that find the current font too narrow.
  • Renamed 'debuggerres' argument to 'dbg.res'. All future debugger- specific options will start with 'dbg.'.
  • The TIA 'zoom' area in the debugger now supports scrolling the mouse wheel (currently up/down only, as I don't have a sideways scrolling mouse to test with).

New in Stella 3.9 (Jun 28, 2013)

  • This version includes many debugger/disassembly improvements, including the ability to save DASM-compatible source code to an external file.
  • Also included are improvements to the snapshot functionality, and an improved UI.

New in Stella 3.5.5 (Feb 5, 2012)

  • This version includes several improvements to the I/O debugger area, and greatly improves mouse controller functionality.

New in Stella 3.5 (Jan 1, 2012)

  • This version features many improvements to joystick and mouse handling and an internal logging system.
  • It also includes an updated OpenGL backend, fixes for certain sound issues, and several debugger improvements.
  • Finally, Stella is now DonationWare.

New in Stella 3.4 (May 30, 2011)

  • This version improves support for using the mouse in paddle games, adds support for the 2600-daptor device, and allows games to run using the DPC+ scheme that contains ARM code.

New in Stella 3.3 (Nov 17, 2010)

  • This version includes much improved disassembly output (by tracking accesses to ROM from the emulation core), and fixes for several video-related lockups and crashes.

New in Stella 3.2.1 (Aug 26, 2010)

  • This version fixes a major bug in debugger rewinding for bankswitched ROMs, and adds much improved joystick "hat" handling.

New in Stella 3.1.2 (May 10, 2010)

  • Modified 'showinfo' command to accept levels of output, where increasingly larger numbers provide more debug output. Related to this, added UI item to modify 'showinfo'.
  • Updated DPC+ bankswitch scheme to latest specifications, including support for 32K ROMs with ARM code (the ARM code is ignored for now).
  • Fixed bug in saving patched ROMs using DPC and DPC+ bankswitch schemes; the saved image didn't actually include any changes made by the user.
  • Removed 'uselauncher' from the UI, since disabling it will remove the ROM launcher on all future runs, and not allow one to enable it again. It's still available from the commandline, for those that have a need for it.

New in Stella 2.8.4 (Jul 5, 2009)

  • Fixed bug where Stella could lock up after running for ~71 minutes. Special thanks to Robert Tuccitto for bugtesting and feedback on this issue.
  • Updated UA bankswitch autodetection for Gingerbread Man ROM.
  • The smallest ROM that Stella can support is 64 bytes; this lower limit is now tested when loading Sub2K ROMs.

New in Stella 2.8.3 (Jun 26, 2009)

  • Fixed OpenGL bug which caused an immediate program crash if the available OpenGL version was less than 2.0.

New in Stella 2.8.2 (Jun 23, 2009)

  • Fixed OpenGL detection bug which could disable OpenGL support entirely if TV effects are not available (version < 2.0), when in fact only the effects should have been disabled.
  • The '' character can now be entered in UI text fields again. Related to this, strings containing '' are now properly loaded and saved to various config files.

New in Stella 2.8.1 (Jun 19, 2009)

  • NOTE: Windows users will have to reset their options or manually move their config folder in this release, since the location of the config files has changed.
  • Fixed OpenGL issue for some Windows users whereby the OpenGL TV effects weren't available, even if the available version of OpenGL was sufficient. Related to this, the OpenGL version found by Stella is now reported in the TV effects dialog.
  • Added fallback to software rendering when OpenGL rendering has been requested, but for whatever reason fails to initialize.
  • Added native support for 4in1, 8in1 and 32in1 multicart bankswitching schemes. When using these schemes, the 'Reload ROM' action (by default, Control-r) will switch between each game in the ROM.
  • Added bankswitch support for ROMs smaller than 2K in size. These will be treated as 2K ROMs natively, without having to manually 'pad' them to 2048 bytes.
  • Added preliminary suppport for autodetection of X07 bankswitching.
  • Tweaked PAL autodetection; it was marking some PAL ROMs as NTSC.
  • Changed default location for Stella config files in Windows to the users' APPDATA folder (for XP and Vista, this is '~/Application Data/Stella'). The '~' symbol now represents the users PROFILE/home directory, matching its usage in Linux and OSX. The ability to override this with 'basedir.txt' is still available, but not advised.
  • Changed '-exitlauncher' commandline argument to '-uselauncher'. This works as before except the launcher is never used at all if the option is set to false.
  • Fixed crash when launching Stella from the commandline and giving a directory name instead of a rom filename.

New in Stella 2.7.7 (May 4, 2009)

  • Corrected emulation of CPU opcodes involving 'decimal' mode (ADC/RRA and SBC/ISB). Special thanks to SeaGtGruff and others on the Stella mailing list for in-depth discussion and creation of test ROMs.
  • Fixed bug in F4SC bankswitching mode; writes to bankswitch addresses weren't triggering a bank switch.
  • Changed internal sound frequency of Pitfall 2 from 15.75KHz to 20KHz, as this sounds much more authentic when compared to a real cartridge.

New in Stella 2.7.6 (Apr 15, 2009)

  • Added support for 'EF' bankswitching (Paul Slocum Homestar Runner), as well as auto-detection of this format.
  • Added support for 'EFSC' bankswitching, as well as auto-detection of this format. This is similar to the 'EF' scheme, but also includes 128 bytes SuperChip RAM.
  • Added autodetection for '0840' and 'SB' bankswitching formats.
  • Improved autodetection for 'UA' bankswitching format.
  • Fixed bug in selecting video modes larger than the current screen; the resulting video mode will now be the largest one available (previously it selected the smallest one available).
  • The currently selected CPU register now displays its value in decimal and binary (in addition to hex) in the debugger.

New in Stella 2.7.5 (Mar 27, 2009)

  • After about 2 years, finally fixed the infamous 'red screen' issue when using ATI video cards in OpenGL mode in Windows. In the end, it was determined to be a bug in the ATI drivers. Special thanks go to Phillip Pi for bugtesting and constant feedback wrt this bug.
  • Fixed bug in TIA SCORE mode emulation when the Priority bit is also set. This fixes a very noticable graphical glitch in 'Swordquest Waterworld', as well as minor glitches in several other ROMs such as 'Space Shuttle'.
  • Treat spaces as normal characters in the ROM launcher. This means that ROMs with spaces can be located with quick selection (ie, typing characters will automatically jump to a ROM with that name, and typing 'space' won't cause the launcher to jump back to the top of the list).
  • The debugger window can now have a minimum height of 620 lines (previously the minimum was 690), but you lose access to the TIA 'RAM' bytes when using this resolution. This should allow it to work better on devices with small displays.

New in Stella 2.7.3 (Feb 9, 2009)

  • Problems with software rendering in 24-bit color mode were fixed.
  • The ability to relocate the base directory for the configuration files was added to the Win32 port.
  • The TIA info stats area was reworked to take up less space on screen.

New in Stella 2.7 (Jan 19, 2009)

  • Totally reworked the built-in UI to be font-sensitive and use higher- resolution fonts. Stella now requires a minimum screen size of 640x480. If used in a resolution smaller than that, the fonts will be reduced accordingly. Related to this, switching between software and OpenGL rendering now requires an application restart.
  • Added three different sized fonts (small, medium, large) which can be used in the ROM launcher.
  • Added ability to temporarily override ROM properties from the UI. This is tied to a right mouse button context menu in the ROM launcher, and is very useful when you want to use a set of properties for all subsequent ROMs without having to manually change each one.
  • Added ability to filter the files shown in the ROM launcher. Currently, the choices are 'all files', 'all roms', or 'roms ending with a certain extension'. This functionality is tied to a right mouse button context menu in the ROM launcher. Extensions can also be set with the '-launcherexts' commandline argument.
  • Added ability to reload the listing in the ROM launcher, either from a right mouse button context menu or pressing the Control/Cmd-R key.
  • Made the ROM info viewer in the ROM launcher configurable to show snapshots in 1x or 2x mode.
  • Made the delay between consecutive keys being recognized as one word configurable in the ROM launcher. This is useful if you find that you have to press keys too quickly to jump to a specific ROM. This can be set in the UI or using the '-listdelay' commandline argument.
  • Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 4 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area).
  • Expanded the statistics overlay for the TIA image to also show Display Format and Bankswitch type information.
  • Added '-ss1x' commandline argument and associated UI item, used to generate snapshots in 1x mode, independent of the filtering/scaling currently in use.
  • Various path textboxes in the UI now recognize './' (or '.') to mean the current directory and '~/' (or '~') to mean your home directory (for Windows, home directory will be your 'My Documents' folder).
  • Large speedup in loading directories with many files in the ROM launcher.
  • Fixed reset issue in 3E, 4A50, AR, CV, E7, F4SC, F6SC, F8SC, FASC and MC ROMs; the internal RAM wasn't being randomized after the initial reset.
  • M6532/RIOT RAM is now randomized at every reset, not just when the emulation starts.
  • Fixed bug in _diff pseudo-registers in the debugger; they were actually defined backwards.
  • Added fix for 'Challenge/Surfers Delight' ROM; the startup bank was incorrect. Combined with the new 'Override Properties' functionality, you can now play both games directly from the UI (no need to use the commandline).
  • Fixed paddle issue with Activision Casino ROM; the last card in game 4 can now be reached.
  • Added new pseudo-registers to the debugger, useful for conditional breakpoints (_fcount, _cclocks, _vsync, _vblank).
  • Added 'timing' commandline argument functionality to the UI, so you no longer need to use the commandline to set it.
  • Size restrictions on the TIA image are now strictly enforced. The maximum height of a 1x TIA image is now 256 lines.
  • Added a new setting to the 'fullres' option named 'auto'. Using 'auto' will let Stella decide the best videomode to use in fullscreen.
  • Changed 'gl_fsmax' option to mean 'scale TIA image in fullscreen'. It will have no effect on UI modes.
  • Changed 'gl_aspect' option to range 80-100 (previously, it was 50-100).
  • Removed 'ui_zoom' and 'tia_zoom' options, replacing them with 'tia_filter' (which can be zoom1x, zoom2x, etc). There is no equivalent for ui_zoom, since the UI can no longer be scaled.
  • Added experimental 64-bit version for Vista64 (may also work on WinXP64). This hasn't been extensively tested, and is probably quite a bit slower than the 32-bit version.
  • OSX port now requires at least 10.3 and XCode 3.0 to compile. Sorry, but I no longer have access to older systems to compile for 10.2.
  • Huge updates to the documentation, particularly concerning the debugger. Many features that have been in Stella for a while are now documented for the first time.