Question about stella

[GeekDragon]

OK, I have stella with all the 2600 games. I bought an adaptor so I can use original controllers to play the games(I plan on streaming on twitch). Now, my question is, and if this has been asked before, forgive me, what are the hot keys to get the games started? I'm sure this is easy, but when it comes to this type of stuff, I have brain farts.

Edited July 16, 2018 by GeekDragon

[Flojomojo]

RTFM

https://stella-emu.github.io/docs/index.html

[atarifan88]

Google is your friend...

 

https://stella-emu.github.io/docs/index.html#Hotkeys

[mr_me]

What's the default difficulty level; is there a database of default difficulty settings?

Edited July 16, 2018 by mr_me

[+stephena]

Default is 'B' (beginner), unless a game specifically has a need for something else. Very few do, but some don't start or run correctly unless they use 'A'.

 

See https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/blob/master/src/emucore/stella.pro. This file is the ROM properties database built into Stella. Search for "Difficulty" in that file to see which ones differ from the default.

[mr_me]

And it's F2 "reset" to start most games; for those not familiar with the Atari 2600.

[+SpiceWare]

Did you try accessing the Help Menu when you ran Stella? It'll open up the documentation. Click on Playing a Game, start reading, and you'll soon find this:

 

[mr_me]

Default is 'B' (beginner), unless a game specifically has a need for something else. Very few do, but some don't start or run correctly unless they use 'A'.

 

See https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/blob/master/src/emucore/stella.pro. This file is the ROM properties database built into Stella. Search for "Difficulty" in that file to see which ones differ from the default.

Thanks.

So if I want to globally set difficulty to A, "Power-on options" are temporary, so I add "-ld A -rd A" to the command line. Is that correct? And the game properties don't override the global setting.

 

Is there any way to tell what the current state of the switches are during the game?

Edited July 16, 2018 by mr_me

[+stephena]

"Power-on options" are temporary, as you say. The commandline will force it to be whatever you tell it, regardless of what's in the properties database.

 

I guess the only way to tell which is active is to toggle it and see what it changes to, or enter the debugger and look at the "I/O" tab.

[+SpiceWare]

I guess the only way to tell which is active is to toggle it and see what it changes to, or enter the debugger and look at the "I/O" tab.

 

While my programmer graphics^* were cheesy, the indicators are one of the things I still miss from my OS/2 port. From version 1.1:

 

 

Across the top, the first 6 are the console switches:

• Power (Stack of Cartridges, to select a new game)
• TV Type
• Left Difficulty
• Right Difficulty
• Select
• Reset
• Options
• Game Specific help (integrated game manual support)
• Stella Help

Across the bottom:

• Left controller
• Status (frame rate, frames being skipped or performance being Throttled, how close speed is to accurate, display size)
• Right controller

 

The Status section wouldn't be useful now, but it was back then as the systems were so slow that Stella often had to skip frames to achieve 100% speed. That can be seen in an earlier version (think its 0.7) where Pac-man needed to skip every-other frame to achieve 100% speed.

 

while Space Invaders only need to skip 7^* out of 60 frames for 100%

 

If I recall correctly the tA meant: t=target # of frames to show out of 60, A = automatically calculated. In the later version the capital T meant throttling as by then the systems were starting to get faster.

 

^* I did not make the controller graphics, which look quite good.

 

^* the 53tA means show 53 of every 60 frames, so 7 frames are skipped. That's done by alternating between displaying 7 or 8 consecutive frames, then skipping 1:

• (display 7 + skip 1) times 7 = 56
• (display 8 + skip1) times 7 = 63

[iesposta]

Oh how I miss the days when screens were small yet every option was presented at a a glance.
I am so glad we have large area screens and have to drill down through menus to set an option - only then to find you have missed a setting, when the small screens used to present everything at a glance!

 

Especially for printing. It used to be one dialog box. You could see everything was set right or catch something that was wrong. Now with large screens we check down this drop down for paper size, over the other drop down to check if the correct printer is set. Then it prints from the wrong paper tray!

Thats one of my biggest pet peeves.

Edited July 19, 2018 by iesposta

[+stephena]

Something like this could be added to Stella, but I personally don't remember ever seeing a request for it over the years. If any feels strongly about it, consider adding an enhancement request on the Stella Github page.

[GeekDragon]

Thanks for the replies. I'll get it all up and running.

[GeekDragon]

Yes!!!! I figured out how to get the games started. Thanks for the help guys. Like I said, I have an 2600-daptor II coming so I can play the games easier. Now all I need is a kids controller and I'll be all set.

[+SpiceWare]

Something like this could be added to Stella, but I personally don't remember ever seeing a request for it over the years. If any feels strongly about it, consider adding an enhancement request on the Stella Github page.

 

 

I brought it up with Brad back in the 90s but it didn't go anywhere. Been so long I don't recall why. I've gotten used to the keyboard shortcuts, plus do most of my Atari gaming on actual hardware, so never revisited it.

 

That said - what might make more sense than window trim is to revise this pop-up:

 

So each pair of TV and Difficulty buttons are merged and show state somehow, like my OS/2 buttons did. Maybe also rearrange the layout so that across the top you get the 6 console switches switches in order as on a Sixer, using Exit Game for Power.