Trebor

The huge and ultimately winning factor to me for perferred emulator is the fact that Stella allows you to re-map every function. From console, controller, to exiting and saving, screenshots and more. I love it. The OpenGL support in Stella, unfortunately means little to none as I have a ATi Radeon 9800 card, and if I try to utilize the OpenGL support the emulator does anything from extreme slowness to crashing. Not Stella's fault though, poor OpenGL drivers from ATi. Nvidia users and other brand video cards appear to work fine with it. -Trebor

H.E.R.O. on various screens in levels 5-7 (Perhaps other levels as well): A red lines appears like the laser that you shoot on the left side of the screen, and follows the vertical movement of your character within a certain range of scanlines. -Trebor

Pitfall II extra sound chip improvements perhaps (?) I don't know how else to phrase it. Neither Z26 nor Stella sound like the real cart playing on an actual 2600. Both Stella and Z26 sound different from each other too. Can this be improved? Who's more accurate? -Trebor

Cart Number 12 - No magnet included Ha...And they say 13 is unlucky... -Trebot

Phoenix, as seen here: No background music/melody. Same ROM (Offline list verified) has background music/melody in Z26. ***UPDATE EDIT: Please ignore. I forgot the difficulty switches affect whether the melody plays or not. ROM works fine. -Trebor

#12 Arrived today for me. Thanks to all involved in the production of this cart - Al and kenfused especially! -Trebor

http://home.cfl.rr.com/jberlin/kat5200/index.html kat5200 v0.4.1 released From the above website: "This contains the following bug fixes for 0.4.1: * Fixed Back to GUI not working with some keyboards (Trebor, Paranoid reported) * Fixed lag with going back to center with digital stick (Paranoid reported) * Fixed mappping UI keys to joystick buttons (Trebor reported) If updating, all you need is the executable, the configuration and cart files will be updated automatically (as needed). Please let me know of any bugs or suggestions". -Trebor

This calls for another thread...

Ok, that will work when I release this, or just use this. -Brian It does work! Perfect. Cool. Now joystick buttons mapped to the user interface works as well. Thanks! -Trebor

Nope. In fact, I had the same problem with two different types of PS2 keybaords on the same machine. 1. Default Dell keyboard that game with my system. 2. Microsoft Natural Keyboard (Original Plain Version). I'm so glad that Brian fixed the problem though...I like using 'Esc' as the exit key for my emulators. -Trebor

I use a PS2 port keyboard. Nonetheless, issue is now fixed for me. This exe you posted fixed it. Mapping 'Esc', 'Tab', or any other key, works beautifully once again. Thanks, Brian! Great work! -Trebor P.S. No dice on mapping joystick buttons to the user interface options though. That still does not respond when mapped accordingly.

Hi stephena, I believe the screenshots provide all the details you need: -Trebor

Well, seeing that it appears I am the only one with this problem, I had to figure out what the heck is going on. So after playing around with different options for Exiting, Back to Gui, and the Full Screen toggle, this is what I discovered is the case for me... ...I *have* to use ALT and a key combination for going back to to GUI. If I leave going back to GUI, at its default (Esc) or try mapping to another key (I tried Tab, E, G, L, F12) it does not work. However, mapping to ALT-G or ALT-E, or ALT and "any other key" works beautifully. So I definitely have a work around (Brian, thanks for the CTRL-ALT-DEL, 'kill the app' work around too, that work as well). Another issue I discovered to be a problem (At least for me), if I tried mapping any of the user interface controls to joystick/gamepad buttons, it does not respond. It saves the settings, but just does not respond while in game - not a thing happends if say I map exit to button 10, or back to gui to button 11 - no response. All of the above tests and issues, never produced any errors in the log file. -Trebor

Recently, I was inquiring the same thing here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...c=91014&hl= -Trebor

Radeon 9800 Pro. Same results. I stick with software rendering. Taking this in another direction, I'm using Stella 2.1, as Stella 2.2 seems to have problems with gamepad remapping or/and keyboard remapping (I believe specifically with using the Num Pad - I have a HotRod SE). I'm not a 100% sure and will have to check again what the exact issue is with remapping. I know I had numerous problems with it (Clean install 2.2), just not recognizing the button or key mapping I was trying to select. Nonetheless, the OpenGL hardware video choice has always caused problems as far as I can remember. However, I do not believe Stella is the problem...I think it has to do with ATi's OpenGL drivers. Many developers/programmers I have come across in the past stated their OpenGL drivers stink...Maybe that's changed. However, it could also be that I use 'older' drivers (Believe Dec 2005 Cats aka 5.12). They yield best results for my Radeon 9800 for everything but OpenGL. New drivers appear to optimize their X-line of cards/PCI Express bus. -Trebor

Hi Eduardo, Any progress on this better Donkey Kong port? I haven't forgotten about this one -Trebor

I'd think that selling Donkey Kong 2600 cartridges should be pretty save business actually I'm not sure about that, but I would like for the game to be called "Champ Kong" since it was the title for johnnywc's excellent PC clone of DK. Agreed. There's a big difference between a long lost classic game like Ladybug, and Donkey Kong. The Donkey Kong name and characters have been used in every generation of consoles and handhelds with Nintendo. Nintendo has been known to be aggressive and protective of their properties/titles. IMHO, Champ Kong would be the absolutely perfect title. Heck, I'd love to see the whole line of Champ PC games brought over to the 2600... ...But that's most definitely easier said than done One thing's for sure, if "Champ Games" is involved with any release(s), you know it is of top quality. Ladybug is simply amazing, and whatever is next; I eagerly anticapte it. -Trebor

Well, tried another fresh install - Same results. Whatever I map (Or leave at the default 'Esc') does not matter. kat5200 does not go back to the GUI afer loading a cart and running it. Exiting, switiching between full screen and window mode, and even other Window shortcuts (I.E. Alt-Esc) work fine. It's really fustrating, and I wish I had more to give in ways of understanding why it is (not) responding the way it should to 'Return to GUI' shortcut. -Trebor P.S. Sorry for taking so long with this follow-up. I got wrapped up in a couple of things. EDIT: Forgot to mention, there are no errors or problems in the log file: Starting kat5200 Emulator... Loading ROM... D:\RNI\Atari 5200 ROMS\Centipede (1982) (Atari) (U).bin ...SUCCESS ROM crc32.... 536a70fe Loading BIOS... bios\5200.BIN ...SUCCESS Sound Initialized: Freq=44100, Samples=1024 Joystick 0 : Microsoft PC-joystick driver Initialized Joystick 1 : Microsoft PC-joystick driver Initialized frames/sec = 58.823529

How many other games of the era managed a single-line kernel with an assymetric playfield, a multi-colored player, and a single-color player? And also, on a few scan lines, a missile and the Ball (used together to form the hammer)? I'd say that's pretty darned impressive for being the guy's second 2600 game. I agree. I was very impressed back in the 80's when I first played DK for the 2600. It looked very good (except for Kong). Unfortunately, after I played a few rounds I got bored with it very quickly. Very repetitive, difficultly didn't seem to ramp up. I would imagine that expanding this game with more ROM, adding a few other levels, putting in good music, allowing for 30hz flicker for a more challenging game would go a long way. This would most likely be a hack than a rewrite. Please do! I would love to see a Donkey Kong "ChampGames" improvement. -Trebor

Fantastic! I can hardly wait...This is the best thing that's happened for the 7800 in a *long* time.

Payment Sent! [robert tuccitto AT hotmail com] Excellent Kenfused! To be honest I may have been on the fence to purchase this if there was no Pokey Chip support. However, having this excellent game with Pokey Chip support, made this buy unstoppable for me! Thanks to Kenfused and Albert for getting this release on cart! -Trebor

Hi Brian, Thanks for the follow-up. No need to say you're sorry for a late response. Any response is appreciated :-) The lack of feedback is probably due to it being Summer, and people on vacation and such. Anyway, to answer your questions: 1. Yes, I see the GUI on a fresh install. When I first start up it is present. After I have my setting in place and actually load and play a game, it will not go back to the GUI at that point. Each launch of the emulator after exiting after that, if I do not specify a different ROM, will just load the game and run the rom previous. No way of setting back into the GUI. If I load a different ROM, it will load and run that ROM. Loading/Exiting and playing ROMs is fine. It's just getting back to the GUI that does not work. 2. I'll have to check the log file when I get home. I am at work now. I'll also try a fresh install again. Thanks, Trebor

Excellent. Thanks for the info. -Trebor

Hey kenfused - A question (Okay request)... Any possiblity of adding a sound effect/noise for when Ugg and/or WrongWay enter the screen? I was going to ask the same about Sam and Slick's appearence; however, I don't believe they make 'noise' entering, just when they 'touch' the cubes. Just thought the above additions/features would be a nice touch to polish this excellent port in mimicing an arcade classic. -Trebor

Hmmm...odd. Still does not work. Even with a fresh install. Here's the first portion of the configuration file, everything appears to be fine: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <cfg> <os_file>bios\5200.BIN</os_file> <rom_file>D:\RNI\Atari 5200 ROMS\River Raid (1983) (Activision) (U).bin</rom_file> <state_file/> <palette_file>palettes/default.xml</palette_file> <font_file>fonts/default.bmp</font_file> <fullscreen>1</fullscreen> <video_mode>2</video_mode> <hires_artifacts>0</hires_artifacts> <sound>1</sound> <sound_freq>44100</sound_freq> <sound_samples>1024</sound_samples> <throttle>100</throttle> <mouse_speed>3</mouse_speed> <exit_status>0</exit_status> <exit_key> <device>DEV_KEYBOARD</device> <device_num>ALT</device_num> <button>F4</button> </exit_key> <back_key> <device>DEV_KEYBOARD</device> <device_num>0</device_num> <button>ESC</button> </back_key> <fullscreen_key> <device>DEV_KEYBOARD</device> <device_num>ALT</device_num> <button>RETURN</button> </fullscreen_key> No response when I hit 'Esc'. 'Alt-F4' exits the game, and 'Alt-f' swtiches between full and window screen. It just won't enter into the GUI; regardless, if I am in a window or full screen. Additionally, eariler I remapped GUI to Tab instead of Esc. Still it did not work. -Trebor