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Stella 5.0 released


stephena

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This issues with keypad controllers is now fixed, thanks to DirtyHairy. This also affects several other controllers, notably the Genesis. The fix will be in the next point release, which we hope to do soon, after fixing up a few other minor issues.

 

It turns out that the actual issue was more complicated than I though and connected to differences between the paddle circuit and the keyboard circuit. You can find a (lenghty) explanation here if you're curious: https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/issues/17

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The wife pointed out that most games or all games start with a delay of some sort like Air-Sea Battle or Cosmic Ark. Chosen as arbitrary examples and ease of making screenshots. She kept me up till I made screenshots and reported it. She thinks it breaks the illusion of the real VCS. I won't argue.

 

Air-Sea Battle starts normally on old Stella, but new Stella it is missing some 10 or 15 frames it seems. These screenies show immediate start, and delayed start. Notice how the planes are farther to the left on old, and on new they start later.

 

post-4806-0-73457200-1500800098_thumb.pngpost-4806-0-68982000-1500800097_thumb.png

 

And note in Cosmic Ark, on old Stella, we get to see the mothership rezz-up from the very first line like so. The first line, and then two more. And so on till it's complete.

 

post-4806-0-33060600-1500800218_thumb.pngpost-4806-0-44919500-1500800216_thumb.png

 

But with new 5.0 Stella the ship almost pops onto the screen, half-way completed already. This is the first image or very close to it +/- a frame or two. It doesn't start at the beginning like old stella.

 

post-4806-0-39940200-1500800217_thumb.png

 

Another example would be Demon Attack, the old Stella shows the plasma cannon actually firing out of the ship. On new Stella, the game image starts being drawn too late, and the cannon fire appears to begin mid-screen. So we're missing frames.

 

I don't know what's all going on in there. But I think if you guys are doing some sort of frame detection and analysis.. why not keep doing it as you are now. Keep the screen black, sound off, run the game, get the reading on YStart or whatever. Full stop. Turn on the screen and restart the rom "old-style" with the value just tested/discovered. Just plug it in. And this 2nd time, no need to hide the screen. No need to mess with the sound, it would work like versions 3 and 4 that didn't do that funky autodetecting stuff.

 

Cheating? Maybe. I call it taking a look, getting the lay of the land, setting things up. Unless a more elegant solution can be developed..?

 

And maybe it could be done in emulator time and not user time. We wouldn't even know it happened! So what do you think?

Edited by Keatah
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Change in behavior with save-states? #9 is the point in question. For example.

 

Old stella:

1- load game rom

2- play game

3- make a save state at some point, because it's an interesting point in the game

4- exit to rom selector

5- goto options>videosettings>framerate and adjust to 10 to study the action

6- load rom again

7- game is running slow at 10fps

8- load savestate to get to interesting point

9- game still continues to run at 10fps and we can study the action

 

New stella:

1- load game rom

2- play game

3- make a save state at some point, because it's an interesting point in the game

4- exit to rom selector

5- goto options>videosettings>framerate and adjust to 10 to study the action

6- load rom again

7- game is running slow at 10fps

8- load savestate to get to interesting point

9- game speeds up to the original speed in original savestate. Can't study the action

10- Game speed has to be adjusted, in-game, with the tab menu

 

..is this expected behavior in v5? A more complete set of options being saved?

 

 

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I tried the 64 bit version for Windows 10 and the games seem to be running at about 1/4 normal speed. Do I need to use a different version or change a setting?

Are you maybe using very old, now too slow hardware? What's the CPU load in the TaskManager?

 

Else, check the Video Settings, especially the Framerate.

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I'm just curious about this comment..

 

  • Several other ROMs that have never worked in any emulator are now emulated correctly

Could someone list some of those ROMs? I'm just curious what they are.

 

Thanks..

 

From the top of my head:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Meltdown is one of those crazy games where I find myself contorting and hanging upside down under my chair, while trying to get a look at the side of the monitor in hopes of getting a better view.

 

---

 

Hey now here's an idea! Why not someone hack it so that it works with a matrix controller, a keyboard controller like thing. And make it into a mat to jump on. Some kinda hyperspeed cyber version of Twister! Or we could build a FULL SIZE whac-a-mole controller. And instead of little monsters popping up we could have mushroom clouds or reactor rods..

Edited by Keatah
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Meltdown is one of those crazy games where I find myself contorting and hanging upside down under my chair, while trying to get a look at the side of the monitor in hopes of getting a better view.

 

---

 

Hey now here's an idea! Why not someone hack it so that it works with a matrix controller, a keyboard controller like thing. And make it into a mat to jump on. Some kinda hyperspeed cyber version of Twister! Or we could build a FULL SIZE whac-a-mole controller. And instead of little monsters popping up we could have mushroom clouds or reactor rods..

I did a dissambly of Meltdown a long time ago, but never completed it. Meltdown is one of the best protos IMHO.

 

I like the idea of whack-a-mole. A mat would be sweet. Two Atari keypad controllers could also be used:

 

con_AtariKeypad.jpg

 

They interlock as one unit IIRC. For ergonomics use the outermost columns on each controller to form the 4x4 grid. The only problem might be the cycles required to scan the controllers for presses. Not to sure about it unless I have a look. It also might get too easy.

 

Also a trackball might work well here too.

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I envision a people-sized array of switches in the driveway, with a 150" screen in place of the garage door. Or a projector. Each switch is a garbage can lid attached to a hinge. And under them are switches wired into the keyboard matrix.

 

If the action gets unplayably fast, then just use the framerate limiter to slow the game down.

Edited by Keatah
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:) We had a somewhat detailed discussion on this, and the consensus was that trapxxx should trap on all mirrors. A few people even said that "why wouldn't we want to trap on mirrors?"

 

So to answer your question, no, trap will always access mirrors too. This will need to be modified for a future release. Perhaps by adding a third parameter to indicate the bank.

 

BTW, this is what you get for being away, and not taking part in the discussion for new features :lolblue: :lolblue: :lolblue:

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