Stella 2.4 released

[Robert]

Atari 2600 emulator

 

August 20, 2007

 

Stella release 2.4 for Linux, Mac OSX and Windows is now available. Ports to other operating systems will be released as they become available. A partial list of features is:

 

* Added new video sub-system where fullscreen and windowed modes are treated differently. Windowed modes now use '-zoom_tia' and '-zoom_ui' arguments, while fullscreen modes can be specified by resolution using the new '-fullres' argument.

* Widescreen video modes are now supported; Stella will simply center the image with surrounding black borders.

* Many UI-related changes, including resizable ROM launcher and debugger windows, and a new UI palette (the previous 'classic' palette is still available). This is still a work in progress.

* The locations of all major config files (statedir, palette file, cheat file, properties file, etc) are now configurable from the commandline and within the UI.

* Updates to TIA palette support. Added SECAM support, and removed the built-in 'original' palette. Standard, z26, and user are still available.

* Various bugfixes to some debugger commands. The 'run' command no longer causes a crash, and several others have better error-checking.

* Added more complete cartridge auto-detection for Commavid (CV), 3E, 3F and Activision (FE) formats.

* Removed XStart and Width ROM properties, since the forthcoming TIA rework won't be using them.

* Reworked internal storage of ROM properties to be faster and take up less space.

* Added several different ways of stretching the OpenGL image to the '-gl_fsmax' argument, for more flexibility.

* Removed OpenGL aspect ratio setting favour of the previously mentioned video changes. We'll see how this goes.

* Removed dirty-rect support from software rendering, since it was actually sub-optimal in Windows and OSX and defaulted to off in previous versions.

* Added support for gzipped ROMs.

* Re-added pause support.

* Re-added support for Windows 98.

* Removed support for 'STELLA_BASEDIR' environment variable, since each config file can be now configured separately.

* Removed '-fastscbios' argument, since it must always be turned on.

* Removed PSP support, since it hasn't been updated in over a year, and someone else is maintaining another port elsewhere.

* For the Unix/Linux port; fixed 'make install' issues, and changed icon to PNG format.

 

Have Fun!

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