Stella 7.0 released

A new major release of Stella is now available; first time in over two years! Here are some of the changes:

• Enhanced ROM launcher to allow multiple images per ROM.

• Made heaps of additional images available for the ROM launcher.

• Added searching by filename for ROM launcher images.

• Added option to start random ROM.

• Added automatically enabled phosphor modes.

• Enhanced Game Properties dialog for multigame ROMs.

• Added 2nd UI theme and hotkey for toggling UI theme.

• Added bezel support (incl. Sinden Lightgun).

• Added optional type format detection based on colors used.

• Added Joy2B+ controller support.

• Added auto detection for QuadTari attached controllers.

• Enhanced Kid Vid support to play tape audio.

• Added port selection, used for controller default mapping.

• Added missing PlusROM support for E7 bankswitching.

• Enhanced movie cart (MVC) support.

• Accelerated emulation up to ~15% (ARM).

• Added limited GameLine Master Module bankswitching support.

• Added 03E0 bankswitching for Brazilian Parker Bros ROMs.

• Added WF8 bankswitching used by some certain Coleco white carts.

• Added JANE bankswitching used by Coleco's Tarzan prototype.

• Added ELF mapper for Mattress Monkeys.

• Added BUS bankswitching support for some older demos.

• Fixed broken 7800 pause key support.

• Added developer option for random hotspot peek values.

• Added user defined CPU cycle timers to debugger.

• Removed 'launcherroms' option, since it was causing some issues.

• Codebase now uses C++20 features, which means a minimum of gcc-11
  or clang-10 for Linux/Mac, and Visual Studio 2022 for Windows.

-Have fun!

Stella 6.7.1 released

Just a minor bugfix release; the big 7.0 release is coming soon in 2024:

• Fixed broken mouse and Stelladaptor input for Driving Controller.

• For UNIX systems: Now defaults to using system-installed libsqlite3 when available, and fixes delay on exiting app experienced on some systems.

Stella 6.7 released

This is a new semi-major release, with the following changes:

• IMPORTANT NOTES:

  • Because of fixes to JSON handling, all remappings will be reset to defaults; if you had custom mappings, they will need to be re-entered again.
  • Because of internal changes, all state files are now invalid.

• Completely reworked the file launcher:

  • Redesigned user interface
  • Added tracking of user favorites, recently played and most popular games
  • Added virtual directories for selecting tracked games
  • Added quick path navigation
  • Added navigation history
  • Added icons for files and directories
  • Added option to show/hide file extensions
  • Extended context menu and shortcuts
  • Fixed sluggish behaviour when reading large and/or invalid files

• Added hotkey display to tooltips.

• Added option to automatically pause emulation when focus is lost.

• Added option to toggle autofire mode.

• Improved controller mappings for Paddles.

• Improved controller mappings for Driving controllers.

• Improved Mindlink support.

• Added another oddball TIA glitch option for score mode color.

• Enhanced TV jitter emulation.

• Enhanced support for CDFJ+ bankswitching type.

• Added 0FA0 bankswitching for Fotomania ROMs.

• Added ARM chip auto detection.

• Extended support for older BUS (experimental) ROMs that worked with an older, obsolete version of the BUS scheme; special thanks to SpiceWare for the code.

• Fixed Stella crash due to invalid ZIP files.

• Fixed TV mode auto detection in some ARM ROMs.

• Fixed color loss when switching TV mode from/to PAL.

• Fixed score mode glitch emulation corner case.

• Fixed state messages staying on screen forever.

• Added M1 support for the macOS build.

• Debugger improvements:

  • added PlusROM information
  • fixed patching code in ZP-RAM
  • improved bank origin detection

• Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 17 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area). Related to this, updated the snapshot collection.

Stella 6.6 released

This is a new semi-major release, with the following changes:

• Added preliminary PlusROM support for saving high scores.

• Added preliminary support for 'MVC' bankswitching scheme by Rob Bairos.

• Added web links for many games.

• Added dead zone and linearity settings for analog controllers.

• Added 'Check for Update' button to Help dialog.

• Added different mask patterns for scanline emulation.

• Fixed MindLink controller.

• Fixed SaveKey not working with QuadTari.

• Added TIA randomization on startup option.

• Added different debug color luminances for player and missile copies.

• Added hotkeys for TV roll speed and toggling 'Developer settings' sets.

• Debugger: enhanced prompt's auto complete and history.

• Debugger: added optional logging of breaks and traps.

• Debugger: added Thumb cycle counting.

Stella 6.5.3 released

Just another quick bugfix release for the 6.5 series. Changes as follows:

• Added context-sensitive help.

• Improved support of multiple monitors with different resolutions.

• Improved analog input reading (Paddles, Keyboards...).

• Fixed QuadTari support for controller types other than Joysticks.

• Fixed palette and TV effects saving for Retron77.

• Fixed immediate disassembling when switching options in debugger.

Stella 6.5.2 released

Another quick bugfix release for the 6.5 series. Changes as follows:

• Fixed broken Driving Controller support for Stelladaptor/2600-daptor devices.

• Fixed missing QuadTari option in UI.

• Improved QuadTari timing.

• Added CPU usage stats to ARM cart classes debug widgets.

Stella 6.5.1 released

Just a quick bugfix release, addressing issues on the Retron77 port:

• Fixed paddle button bug for jittering controllers.

• Improve switching between joysticks and paddles on Retron77 port.

• Improve memory usage on Retron77 port.

Stella 6.5 released

Our 'Christmas' release was a little delayed; real life got in the way. Anyway, better late than never. Changes as follows:

• Added high scores saving.

• Improved text editing functionality (except PromptWidget):

  • Enhanced selection and cut/copy/paste from keyboard.
  • Added undo and redo support.
  • Added mouse support (selection, cut/copy/paste).
  • All actions have keyboard shortcuts.

• Various improvements to the ROM launcher:

  • Added wildcard support to the dialog filter
  • Added option to search subdirectories

• Added static tooltips to some UI items.

• Added dynamic tooltips to most debugger items.

• Added sound to Time Machine playback.

• Added browser dialogs for user saved files.

• Extended global hotkeys for input devices & ports settings.

• Moved to using an SQLite database for storing user settings, properties and highscores. More work will follow in future releases.

• Increased sample size for CDFJ+.

• Fixed autofire bug for trackball controllers.

• Fixed bug in TV autodetection in filenames; a filename containing 'PAL' inside a word would sometimes misdetect as a PAL ROM.

• Fixed Stelladaptor/2600'daptor devices sometimes not being assigned correct default mappings.

• Codebase now uses C++17 features, which means a minimum of gcc7 or clang5 for Linux/Mac, and Visual Studio 2019 for Windows.

Stella 6.4 released

Time for a new release of Stella. This one included quite a few new features over 6.3, so we decided to bump the version number more quickly than usual. Changelog as follows:

• Added basic (entire and single line only) text cut/copy and paste.

• Added color parameters to 'Custom' palette.

• Some improvements to AtariVox-USB adaptor functionality:

  • Made serial port used for an AtariVox-USB adaptor editable.
  • Autodetection of serial ports no longer messes up devices plugged into other serial ports.

• Added CPU load stats to debugger. Related to this, added debugger pseudo-registers '_ftimreadcycles' and '_fwsynccycles' to show the number of cycles since the start of frame under certain circumstances (see manual for more details).

• Fixed bug with aspect correction and fullscreen mode; snapshots from such a mode are now pixel-exact.

• Fixed a bug that caused CDF ROMs to crash on the Retron77 and reduced ARM emulation performance for CDF ROMs on other platforms.

• Fixed crash with missing or incorrectly sized SaveKey data file, and with certain functions not working (erase pages, erase entire EEPROM).

• Fixed Atari mouse autodetection.

• Fixed bug in ROM launcher, with last ROM selected not being remembered when exiting and re-entering a directory.

Stella 6.3 released

Time for a new release of Stella. Changelog as follows:

• Added adjustable autofire.

• Added 'Dark' UI theme.

• Extended global hotkeys for debug options.

• Added option to playback a game using the Time Machine.

• Allow taking snapshots from within the Time Machine dialog.

• Added the ability to access most files that Stella uses from within a ZIP file. This includes the following:

  • Per-ROM properties file (so one can distribute a ROM and its associated properties).
  • Debugger symbol (.sym) and list (.lst) files, etc.
  • Several others, as we extend the support.
    Basically, you are now able to put many files that Stella uses inside one ZIP file, and distribute just that file.

• Extended AtariVox support to handle flow control, so that long phrases are no longer corrupted/cut off. This includes properly supporting the 2600-daptor II, which is flashable to an AVox-USB converter.

• Added auto-detection of the serial port used for an AtariVox-USB adaptor.

• Added QuadTari controller support.

• Added option to select the audio device.

• Added support for CDFJ+ bankswitching type.

• Further enhanced UA bankswitching to support more Brazilian carts.

• Added option to display detected settings info when a ROM is loaded.

• Added another oddball TIA glitch option for delayed background color.

• Added option to disable aspect ratio correct scaling.

• Added debugger pseudo-registers '_timwrapread' and '_timwrapwrite', which are set when the RIOT timer is read/written on timer wraparound, respectively.

• Bankswitching schemes BUS, DPC+ and CDFx now work when startup bank randomization is enabled (these schemes now ignore that setting).

• Replaced "Re-disassemble" with "Disassemble @ current line" in debugger.

• Fixed bug when taking fullscreen snapshots; the dimensions were sometimes cut off.