2013-02-22

Stella v3.8

EmuCR: StellaStella v3.8 is released. Stella is a multi-platform Atari 2600 VCS emulator. The Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS), introduced in 1977, was the most popular home video game system of the early 1980's. Now you can enjoy all of your favorite Atari 2600 games on your PC thanks to Stella!

Stella v3.8 changelog:
3.7.5 to 3.8: (February 21, 2013)



* Huge changes to the sound system:

- The sound code now uses 16-bit signed samples instead of 8-bit

unsigned samples, making it more compatible with a wider variety of

systems.

- Improved sound output for several ROMs, including "Space Rocks"

(the 'heartbeat' sound can now be clearly heard).

- The 'volume clipping' option has been removed, since in 16-bit

mode it's no longer needed.

- The 'Tia freq' option has been removed.

- Selecting more common sample rates (other than 31400) now works

much better, but there are still a few ROMS (like Quadrun) where

31400Hz still works best.



* Many changes to handling ZIP archives:

- Files in multiple levels are now recognized. This fixes issues

in Windows where such files couldn't be loaded at all, and in all

systems where ROMs with the same name (but in different

directories) weren't being recognized.

- ZIP contents are now handled more intelligently. Archives

containing only one ROM are automatically loaded, whereas those

with multiple files are treated as directories.

- Opening an archive from the commandline now works as in the UI,

where opening a multi-ROM archive will pop up the UI and show the

archive contents (as a directory).

- The ZIP code behind the scenes is now much faster by making use

of caching (the old code was actually from 1998!).

- This new 'archive' infrastructure may eventually lead to 7-Zip

support, as well as 'virtual' formats (such as showing the list

of files for 2in1/4in1/8in1/etc within the UI).



* Improved bankswitch autodetection for FA2 ROMs; 29K and 32K versions

(meant for Harmony cart) are now recognized.



* Improved bankswitch autodetection for X07 ROMs (although there's only

two known ROMs in existence, so the detection probably isn't robust).



* Tweaked bankswitch autodetection for the 0840, F8 and FE schemes;

several homebrews that didn't run before now work correctly.



* Fixed regression in RIOT INTIM reads; at least one known ROM

(Mr. Roboto Berzerk hack) wasn't working properly.



* Fixed bug in the debugger with RIOT INTIM/TIMINT display; reads

were being done multiple times, changing the state of the

registers and resulting in incorrect emulation.



* Worked around bug in debugger disassembly of zero-page RAM; for now,

the resolving of address vs. data sections is turned off in such a

case. This fixes lockups in 'Meltdown' ROM.



* Added support for different directories for saving/loading PNG

files. These are set with the 'snapsavedir' and 'snaploaddir'

commandline arguments (which replace the old 'snapdir'), and are

also available within the UI.



* Changed 'eepromdir' commandline argument to 'nvramdir', and changed

the default location to BASEDIR/nvram (where BASEDIR depends on your

OS). This means all your EEPROM and Flash files will have to be

manually moved to this new directory. This affects developers, and

those people playing ROMs with AtariVox/SaveKey support as well as

the newer 'Star Castle' FA2 ROMs.



* Updated included PNG and ZLIB libraries to latest stable version.



-Have fun!

Download: Stella v3.8
Source: Here

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