Dionoid

If you mainly play on the 2600+, then I understand that the NTSC version of the game is basically all you want, as it plays exactly like the developer intended (correct speed, colors, etc.) I know that Stella uses property files which allows you to preset specific settings based on the MD5 hash of the game. But I'm not sure if the version of Stella which runs on the 2600+ supports these, see the discussion here: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/358935-2600-homebrewers-stellas-properties/

I personally prefer PAL (50Hz) for a number of reasons: Traditionally, all European and Australian 2600 PAL cartridges were 50Hz. Only since 2600 homebrews, PAL 60 (a.k.a. quasi-PAL) became popular because of the easy conversion from NTSC. Note that the PAL version of Circus Convoy (the recent game by David Crane and Garry Kitchen) is using the traditional 50Hz PAL standard, just like all Atari and Activision PAL games in the '70s and '80s. PAL (50Hz) cartridges are recognized automatically by the Atari 2600+ (and Stella) and display in the correct colors. PAL-60 homebrew cartridges however will display wrong colors on the 2600+. I'm using an old PAL CRT TV that doesn't support 60Hz, but only 50Hz. I'm aware that the more recent PAL CRT TVs do support both 50Hz and 60Hz, but I like the retro feeling of my old TV The game speed, colors and screen-size of PAL vs NTSC 2600 games will be (slightly) different in most cases. For instance, in the PAL version of Mr. Run and Jump, the main character moves slightly slower (50 pixels per second instead of 60 pixels per second), but the animation is very smooth and I personally hardly notice the difference. The music in the title screen is exactly at the same tempo as the NTSC version, so that is accounted for in the code.

I did indeed contact @Ben from Plaion and he arranged to swap my NTSC Berzerk Enhanced + Mr. Run and Jump carts for PAL 50Hz versions. That means that I can now play these carts both on my Atari 2600+ and on my original 6-switch Woodgrain PAL Atari VCS (connected to a 50Hz-only PAL TV) in the correct colors! And the cool thing is that they even put a little "P" sticker on the back of the cartridges, just like Atari did back in the days to indicate P(AL) versions; I love these kind of details!

@ZeroPage Homebrew I just watched the latest ZPH recording and that Pac-Line game looks really good for your first game, James! I would be interested in a special episode of ZPH where you dive into the technical details, e.g. using Stella with debug colors to show which objects you used, etc

In my case it was Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Windows 11 which has flagged the latest Stella 6.7.1 version as "potentially unwanted app" because it supposedly detected the 'PUAMiner:Win32/RedbyrepMiner' virus. It must have been be a preconceived plan by the Stella team to spread this bitcoin-miner software to all our machines, make loads of money and then take over the world! I should have known, as Stella is just too good to give away for free... As a workaround, I installed Stella 6.7, which isn't blocked by Microsoft Defender!

Hi, I'm trying to install the latest version of Stella (6.7.1) but I get a "Virus detected" warning when trying to download using Google Chrome and the .zip is removed automatically. I also tried the .exe installer, which I can download and run, but a few seconds after installing the stella.exe file is removed from the install folder. I'm running Windows 11 (latest version 23H2) with no additional anti-virus software. Anyone else had this issue?

Ah, ok. Maybe the first notes get lost while switching from 60Hz to 50Hz?

I think this is caused by the Stella emulator, because I get that same behavior (i.e. sometimes first music notes are missing) when running Stella on my PC. Maybe this is even correct emulation of a 2600?

Thanks for the suggestion. I just adjusted the 7800 color pot and now the colors indeed match Set A. Much better!!! It was just a very tiny counter-clockwise rotation of the color pot; I guess over the years, it needed a slight correction.

The colors on my French 7800 with Péritel (RGB-output) look close to Set E, but I like the colors of Set A better. E.g. on my machine when playing Choplifter, the red stripes in the US flag aren't red but more light brown.

Really looking forward to the update with the video driver fix. Will that update also bring back the 50Hz video output for PAL games?

I bought these from Amazon, which worked for me: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B00EJP5XR2 https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0B8PBDZS9

Yes, correct. This is a video of my PAL version of California Games playing on the 2600+. Notice the stuttering sound and vertical scrolling of the text:

Yes, normally PAL would run slower, but I guess they (Epix) changed the PAL version to run the intro screen faster without breaking the music. I've got both the PAL and NTSC version of California Games. This is how my NTSC version is running (sorry for the low audio volume):

In the PAL version of California Games, the intro screen and music is running faster than in the NTSC version.