Stella Debugger Debounce Question

[+Karl G]

I am attempting to debug a joystick debounce issue. I put a break on the function that is called when a direction is hit that should only be called once until the joystick is released and then held again. The problem is when I e.g. set the break, return to the game, and hold the joystick one direction, it breaks on the function as expected, but when I exit the debugger, it no longer registers the held joystick direction upon exiting the debugger. I've tried to map the joystick directions to keys other than the arrow keys, but I get the same behavior.

 

Are there any clever tricks to avoid this issue, or effectively force the joystick to be held in a certain direction without holding down a key and losing that when entering the debugger?

 

Edit: I realize I can set a direction within the debugger from the I/O tab, but I don't know how to keep a "held" direction when exiting the debugger.