Stella Versions Save

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A quick bugfix release for 6.2. Changelog as follows:

• Fixed Pitfall II ROM not working correctly.

• Fixed crashes when using some combinations of bankswitching schemes on incorrect ROMs, or when using invalid ROM file sizes, etc.

• Fixed RIOT timer behaviour on reading/writing at the wraparound cycle.

• Fixed incorrectly setting D6 bit on TIA reads in some cases. Related to this, improve 'tiadriven' option to randomize only D5..D0 bits.

• Fixed custom palette and TV effects adjustable slider rounding issue.

• Fixed some bugs in 3E+ scheme when using non-standard ROM sizes.

• Fixed crash in Audio & Video dialog when opened from debugger, and the debugger window sometimes being resized when using the Options dialog.

• Make NTSC custom phase shift not affect Yellow anymore.

• Fixed '1x' snapshot mode; TV effects are now disabled. This mode now generates a clean, pixel-exact image.

• Fixed mappings sometimes not being saved in the Retron77 port.

• A ROM properties file may now be placed next to the ROM (with the same name as the ROM, except ending in .pro), and Stella will automatically apply the properties to the ROM. [NOTE: this was present in 6.2, but was mistakenly left out of the changelog]

• Added button to Game Info dialog to save properties of the currently loaded ROM to a separate properties file (in the default save directory). This is useful in conjunction with the previous item.

• Allow changing custom palette and TV effects adjustables in 1% steps again.

• Updated documentation for changes in ROM properties key names.

• The codebase now compiles under gcc6 again. Future versions will require gcc7, though.