Stella 4.0, Black Screen?

[AtariMonogatari]

Hello, I'm new here in these forums and recently I downloaded the newest version of the Stella emulator, problems is all I'm getting is a black screen :/ I tried both the installer and the zip files btw, nothing works

[Thomas Jentzsch]

A few more details would help. What did you do exactly?

[AtariMonogatari]

Nothing....I just downloaded stella, clicked the .exe file and nothing happens...just a black screen with no options...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Which OS are you using? Is this the first time you installed Stella or are you updating from an older version?

[AtariMonogatari]

Windows XP and this is the first time I'm using Stella. Later on I tried the previous version and it worked fine, but I'd rather have the newest version work since it has added content.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

IIRC Stella now defaults to DirectX. Have you installed that?

[+iesposta]

Do you have ATI video hardware? Problems have been reported.

Also DirectX / Direct3D.

Also DirectX 9c and or DirectX 10

This may help: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/227179-stella-40-released/?p=3023178

[+Trebor]

Windows XP and this is the first time I'm using Stella. Later on I tried the previous version and it worked fine, but I'd rather have the newest version work since it has added content.

 

The latest version of Stella (4.0), has been completely ported over to SDL2 support and includes native hardware acceleration support for Windows (Direct3D) as default. It means true hardware acceleration support is a requirement now.

 

Stella runs fine under Windows Vista, despite the OS being over 7 years old. If your drivers, system, hardware is significantly older though - and evidently it likely is if it's still running Windows XP (In which Microsoft completely dropped support for a few of months ago) with the OS being over 12 years old, likely you're going to have problems running the latest and greatest version of Stella.

 

As you already mentioned, the previous version(s) work fine and that is likely what you will have to utilize as it is probably hardware/driver compatibility or/and (lack of) support issue(s) which are causing your system dilemma with Stella 4.0 trying to run. Not stating it is completely hopeless, but you're going to have to provide more information, at the very least the make and model of your graphics card and the driver version.

 

Ensure you have installed Service Pack 3 for Windows XP too - although it may be difficult to obtain a legit/clean download at this point in time. Nonetheless, you're are also going to want to ensure you have a full/complete installation of Direct X available here.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

At least on my old Netbook, Stella 4.0 works fine with XP.

[+Trebor]

At least on my old Netbook, Stella 4.0 works fine with XP.

Alas, as mentioned, still perhaps some hope for AtariMonogatari...The key is hardware and drivers. That is why stating "old" is too ambiguous.

 

For example, running XP on a 15 year old desktop, or XP on a 5 year old desktop. Depending who you ask, either (or both) may be "old". Also, having an internal (crappy) built in Intel graphics chipset from 10 years ago is also worlds different from say a ATi Radeon from the same time period.