lvanett Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 Hi all, I'm new to the forum but not to the 2600. I have a small (but growing) collection of games - including some on CD from the Activision Action Packs. I recently got WinXP and DLed the new version of Stella. It works great, but for some reason there is a "bug". Since I'm not techno literate, I'm not sure if it has to do with my processor (a P4 2.2 ghz) or my sound card. There is a constant noise in the background every time I run a BIN file. I was wondering if any other XP users experienced problems with Stella 1.3, can it be fixed, and where can I report it? I've also tried DLing the 1.2 version of Stella, and the "noise" is not there but for some reason some games won't work, and on others the colors are wrong. Most ROMs will work on the newer Stella tho. Thanx for any help Lynda V.E. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 I don't know the reason for your problems, but you should try z26 (Windows version) instead. It's IMO the best Atari 2600 emulator and works perfect on newer Windows (NT, 2000, XP) too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCorcoran Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 I don't know the reason for your problems, but you should try z26 (Windows version) instead. It's IMO the best Atari 2600 emulator and works perfect on newer Windows (NT, 2000, XP) too. I would also add to Thomas' suggestion getting X26. This is a nice little front-end that gives you a graphical interface to Z26. That is unless you like CLI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 10, 2003 Share Posted November 10, 2003 I would also add to Thomas' suggestion getting X26. This is a nice little front-end that gives you a graphical interface to Z26. That is unless you like CLI. Why use an extra frontend if you already have a good file browser? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvanett Posted November 11, 2003 Author Share Posted November 11, 2003 I tried Z26, and it works much better, thanx! On some ROMs tho, I can't get the controls to work. I wish in some cases these came with a readme saying which joystick port to use, etc. etc. I tried Stella 1.3 on a PC with a Pentium II processor (450 mhz) and it was fine. Maybe it's better suited for the older PCs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 Development on Stella for Windows (Cyberstella) has been stalled for over a year. So maybe that's why it seems dated. Just FYI, there never was a 1.3 release of Stella for Windows, so the one you actually tried is version 1.2 (and the even older 1.1). I'm now the temporary maintainer for the Windows version of Stella, and I hope to have a new release out by Christmas. This will be Stella 1.4, and as such, there are *many* changes from the last publically available version of Stella for Windows. So I suggest you give this new version a try when it's released. I hope you will be pleasantly surprised. Steve A. Linux maintainer of Stella (Temporary) Windows maintainer of Stella Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 I'm now the temporary maintainer for the Windows version of Stella, and I hope to have a new release out by Christmas. This will be Stella 1.4, and as such, there are *many* changes from the last publically available version of Stella for Windows. That's good news! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 As a preview of things to come, I'll list the features that are guaranteed to be in Stella 1.4 (ie, they've already been written) in order of most requested: 1) Event remapping - almost every event possible in the emulation core can be remapped to the keyboard or joysticks (paddle remapping isn't yet supported, since I don't have any other hardware to test it on). 2) A simple in-game GUI to change the event remappings. 3) Multiple joysticks - the core supports up to 8 DirectInput joysticks, and events can be remapped to any of those. 4) Windowed and fullscreen modes, within the same program. No more recompiling to get different modes. 5) State loading and saving. 6) Snapshot support. 7) Pitfall2 accurate sound emulation. And the list goes on. Note that some of these have actually been present in the core for quite some time. It's just that we didn't have a developer to update the Windows port. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 Do you know anybody who could maintain the very outdated Mac version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted November 20, 2003 Share Posted November 20, 2003 Do you know anybody who could maintain the very outdated Mac version? Sorry, no I don't. We haven't had much luck in getting more *active* developers to sign on. I say *active* developers, since the project currently lists 8 members, but most of them have been inactive. And I won't be volunteering for that one I've never used a Mac before, and I don't have access to one. On a related note, it looks like the X11 version is DOA, as I need the time to work on Cyberstella. The DOS version will probably also be discontinued. But if I can get the Windows version up to speed, then that may not be much of a loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvanett Posted December 1, 2003 Author Share Posted December 1, 2003 that sounds great - I really like Stella the best - it seems the most compatible as well. Hopefully that "noise" I get on the old version will be gone on the new one. Hopefully it will be XP compatible too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 that sounds great - I really like Stella the best - it seems the most compatible as well. Hopefully that "noise" I get on the old version will be gone on the new one. Hopefully it will be XP compatible too. Nice to hear some words of encouragement And there will be a release before Christmas (although at this point, it will probably be Christmas day). The noise in the background may be sound-card dependent, as I don't notice it on my system. But it doesn't really matter, because the sound code has been completely rewritten, and hopefully that will fix it. And for the record, I do all Windows development on Windows XP Professional. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highinfidelity Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 I'll add that I still keep old versions of Stella, and the newer they are, the worse is the sound emulation. If with the older it is quite accurate (though very far from reality), with the newer one all I can hear is just a bunch of crappy harsh noises (with some low-volume sounds not audible at all), and even the color is worse than ever. How can this be? And more technical the computer is, more the sound sucks. Emulation is almost perfect on my entry-level laptop, and desperatedly awful on my best computer... Is there any technical reason??? I like Stella a lot too, and I'd like to have it working properly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 I'll add that I still keep old versions of Stella, and the newer they are, the worse is the sound emulation. If with the older it is quite accurate (though very far from reality), with the newer one all I can hear is just a bunch of crappy harsh noises (with some low-volume sounds not audible at all), and even the color is worse than ever. How can this be? I don't know Seriously, I will try to test the sound code on a few different systems, but I'm limited by what hardware I have available. As for the colors, the palette did change in the latest release. This seems to be a common complaint. Maybe I should add user-definable palette files ... And more technical the computer is, more the sound sucks. Emulation is almost perfect on my entry-level laptop, and desperatedly awful on my best computer... Is there any technical reason??? I like Stella a lot too, and I'd like to have it working properly... It seems that most people have problems on newer, faster systems. But my main development system is a P4-2.4GHz, GeForce4MX video, and SBLive! audio, so I would consider that somewhat high end, and I have no problems. Maybe it's the sound card used? Anyway, the next release will hopefully have better sound. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Famicoman Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 Same thing happend to me, then I got that emulator, like a week ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highinfidelity Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 then I got that emulator I don't get you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highinfidelity Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 @ stephena: another problem I've noticed is that newer versions have more problems with with prototypes, hacks etc. While the older Stella I have digests almost everything I put into it, the newer one gets stuck with almost everything not plain ordinary... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 @ stephena: another problem I've noticed is that newer versions have more problems with with prototypes, hacks etc. While the older Stella I have digests almost everything I put into it, the newer one gets stuck with almost everything not plain ordinary... Games/prototypes that worked with old Stella but do not work with the new version or just new games/prototypes that don't work with any Stella? Examples? BTW: Have you checked http://www.wideopenwest.com/~voch/atari.html for the latest property file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highinfidelity Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Garfield and Elevator Action are the first that come in my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highinfidelity Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Garfield and Elevator Action are the first that come in my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 And those really work with older Stella? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highinfidelity Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Yes; I mean: they "play" in regard to the completeness status of the two games. Let's say: you have control and they do what they should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Yes; I mean: they "play" in regard to the completeness status of the two games. Let's say: you have control and they do what they should. I'm checking this out right now. All tests are being done in Linux. The 1.1 version is using an old binary, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 were just compiled. Stella for Windows was based on 1.1 and 1.2. Stella for DOS had releases for 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. Elevator Action - screwy graphics in 1.1 and 1.2, seems to look fine in 1.3 and 1.4. There doesn't seem to be a regression. Garfield - causes 'Illegal Instruction X' sometimes, and other times it doesn't. Since it has the same problems in 1.1, this isn't a regression either. So this indicates a problem in the core that has been there all along. So in both cases, it looks like the emulation hasn't gotten worse with each release. I will look into it when I get home and test with different Windows binaries. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highinfidelity Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 That's good, as I wonder how many people plays Stella on a Linux platform. I will check the versions I have in the meanwhile: I'll be more specific. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 I use pcae because it lets you go full screen up to 600x800. Whenever I tried stella or z26 the screen is always like 320X200 (not the exact size, but too small to play on) Do stella and z26 allow a full screen or screen streaching? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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