Upstream changes:
2.8.4 to 3.0: (September 11, 2009)
* Huge updates to the TIA emulation system. Illegal HMOVEs are now
handled correctly, resulting in improvements to many ROMs (thanks
to Wilbert Pol for many ideas and code for these improvements). All
HMOVE emulation 'cheats' were removed; the emulation is now cycle-exact
in this area.
* Improved emulation of the Cosmic Ark 'starfield effect', also used in
Stay Frosty; the emulation now looks very accurate.
* Many improvements to the normal TIA rendering code, fixing problems
when disabling certain graphical objects (certain objects were
being misdrawn when others were enabled/disabled).
* Improved TIA collision handling in the non-displayable area of the
screen; this fixes problems in RAMRacer ROM.
* Improved TIA redraw problems/graphical garbage when ROMs generate
many more scanlines than a real TV would allow; this fixes problems
in Q-Bert and the recent Playaround demo.
* Added 'Fixed Debug Colors' option similar to the no$26k emulator.
This allows each graphical object to be drawn in a fixed color,
more clearly showing how the objects interact. HMOVE blanks are
also shown in a different color. The TIA now emulates a 7-color
register model, allowing even shared objects to show different
colors. This is toggled with the 'Alt Comma' key.
* Related to 'Fixed Debug Colors', HMOVE blanks can now toggled during
TIA display with the 'Alt-m' key.
* Added rewind functionality to the debugger, where states are saved
after each step/trace/scanline/frame advance. Pressing 'Alt-r' or
clicking the new rewind button will undo up to 100 previous
operations.
* Added 'electron beam indicator' to the debugger TIA output. Basically,
this is a visual pointer indicating the position of the electron gun
when scanning the display.
* Added ability to completely disable fullscreen mode, which fixes
problems for some people where fullscreen mode was being entered
even if it wasn't enabled.
* Added '-joyallow4' commandline argument and associated UI item to
allow all 4 directions to be pressed simultaneously on a joystick.
* Improvements made to the ROM launcher: the backspace key now goes
to the parent directory (this key can be remapped), and previously
selected directories are now automatically selected.
* Added support for 2IN1 bankswitching scheme, where two ROMs are
present in one binary. Currently supported are 2, 4, 8, and 16K
ROMs.
* Added bankswitch support for the 6K version of Starpath/Supercharger
ROMS. This allows the 6K version of Cubis to run.
* Updated bankswitching schemes FASC and MB; they are now known as
FA and F0, respectively. This naming brings Stella in line with
other emulators and programming utilities.
* Fixed editing of cheats in the Cheat Dialog; the old cheat wasn't
being removed.
* system properties file was never used.
Changes in 1.4.1:
* Fixed PAL sound issues.
* Cleaned up the SDL event gathering loop.
* Control/Alt can now be used for any event.
* Updated stella.pro file to work with the latest Good2600 ROMset release
(Thanks go to Voch for helping to maintain the stella.pro file).
Changes:
* Codebase ported to SDL. X11/OSS ports have been discontinued.
* Added OpenGL rendering support. (not enabled in pkgsrc)
* Added more refined in-game GUI.
* Added event remapping. Emulation keys can now be remapped to the
keyboard or up to 4 joysticks.
* Added native Stelladaptor support. Joysticks, paddles, and driving
controllers have been tested.
* Digital sound support has been greatly improved.
* Added support for switchable palettes.
* Added support for UA Limited style bankswitching (Funky Fish and Pleiades).
* Switched to using high compatibility M6502 mode by default. This
means old state saves from previous Stella versions will no longer
work.
Changes since 1.1:
* Improved TIA sound system so that games with digitized audio work
* Added saving and loading of game state to the core; X11, SDL,
and DOS versions current support saving and loading game state
* Added support for F4 bankswitching method
* Pitfall II DPC sound emulation completed
* Support added for the Commavid (CV) bankswitching method.
* Support added for the Megaboy cartridge.
* Improved Supercharger emulation including a new BIOS that shows
the vertical blue progress bars like the real thing.
* Added snapshot support to the X11 and SDL versions. Pressing F12
saves the current screen in PNG format. Requires PNG library.
* Added pause functionality to the core. Implemented in DOS, X11,
and SDL versions for now.
