Stella paddle support?

[potatohead]

I'm wanting to do some coding for paddles. Is this emulation working properly in Stella? I'm on Linux, so a secondary question is that version available for Linux as well?

[+stephena]

I'm wanting to do some coding for paddles. Is this emulation working properly in Stella?

I assume you mean is paddle emulation working in Stella? If so, the answer is yes. Also, Stella defaults to using joysticks, so you need to tell it when to use paddles. For current games, this info is included in the properties file (stella.pro).

 

In the past, one had to create a new md5sum/stella.pro entry each time a game was recompiled, since the md5sum would change each time. This has been fixed as of version 2.0, when the '-lc' commandline was added. Specifically, one would launch Stella from the commandline with 'stella -lc paddles ROM_NAME', and you wouldn't have to create a properties entry at all ('lc' stands for 'left controller'). The manual is your friend; read about more developer-related items there.

I'm on Linux, so a secondary question is that version available for Linux as well?

Do you mean is Stella available for Linux? If so, the answer is yes, and it always will be. That's where it was first developed, and what I use, so as long as I'm involved with the project, there will be a Linux port.

[+SpiceWare]

Doesn't seem to work under OS X. I tried the following to run a new compile of Medieval Mayhem.

 

./StellaOSX -lc paddles /Users/darrell/Atari/Medieval\ Mayhem/mm.bin

 

The game loads OK, but the paddle setting does not work.

[+stephena]

Doesn't seem to work under OS X. I tried the following to run a new compile of Medieval Mayhem.

 

./StellaOSX -lc paddles /Users/darrell/Atari/Medieval\ Mayhem/mm.bin

 

The game loads OK, but the paddle setting does not work.

I'm pretty sure that has something to do with how OSX handles commandline options, or maybe how the Stella OSX port deals with it. Since most apps in OSX aren't really commandline friendly, we may not have paid attention to it. I'll look into it, but I know for sure it works in the Linux and Win32 ports (I just tried it with your last binary of Medieval Mayhem).

[+SpiceWare]

If it does works differently, then it's odd that Stella was able to load the game. No biggie though - the new debugger has proven invaluable in my coding

 

I also had a bug in Medieval Mayhem that showed up when I used my Krok Cart.

stx WSYNC		 
stx HMOVE; 3  
stx PF0	; 3  6
stx PF1	; 3  9
stx PF2	; 3 12
stx HMM0; 3 15
stx HMM1; 3 18
stx HMBL; 3 21

 

I added the HMxx code yesterday when I added the dragon and lower shield positioning so that the fireballs wouldn't "shift again" on the 2 additional HMOVES. On Stella everything looked fine - on the real Atari the fireballs were shifting around pretty weird like.

 

I found this note in the HMxx section of Stella Programmer's Guide

WARNING : These motion registers should not be modified during the 24 computer cycles immediately following an HMOVE command. Unpredictable motion values may result.

I shifted the stx HMxx to occur later and the problem cleared up. Edited April 3, 2006 by SpiceWare