Stella
An 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!

     
Chopper Command, Grand Prix, Ms. Pac-Man, and Space Invaders running under Stella
Click on images to enlarge

Stella is a multi-platform Atari 2600 emulator for Linux, DOS, OS/2, Power Macs, Unix/X, and Windows 95 & NT.  The original code is being developed by Bradford W. Mott for Linux while the various operating system ports are done by Aaron Giles, Jeff Miller and Darrell Spice Jr.  The development team, working hard to perfect the emulator, makes new releases every three or four months.

Some of the features of this emulator include joystick support, sound support, and a built in scripting language for custom settings for the games.  The program also supports the old "Supercharger" games.  The Windows 95/NT versions are completely menu driven, while the DOS version is controlled through command line entry.  A "front end" program is available to simplify the DOS version, but I suggest using the 95/NT version if you can.

Stella is a portable emulator of the old Atari 2600 video-game console written in C++. Most games for the Atari 2600, like many game systems, were stored on cartridges.   These cartridges usually contained a single ROM chip (Read Only Memory) which had the program for the game stored on it.  When you plugged the cartridge into the 2600 it allowed the 2600's microprocessor, a 6507 which is very similar to a 6502, to execute the program stored on the cartridge.

Just like a cartridge had to be plugged into the 2600 you also have to supply Stella with a copy of the cartridge you want to play. This is done by having a ROM image (.BIN file) of the cartridge.  ROM images are files which contain the actual data off the cartridge (basically it contains 6507 machine code).

There are several ways to get a ROM image:

• It's possible to build a device that plugs into the printer port of a PC and reads the data off the cartridge
  (See the Stella home page for more information)

• Purchase any of the Activision Atari 2600 Action Packs and use the ROM images (.BIN files) from it

• Search around the net and find some ROM images (.BIN files) to download
  
  

In addition to the ROM image you may need to supply some properties for the game.   These properties inform Stella of the "best" settings for a game.   When Stella doesn't have properties for a game it tries to guess the settings and uses defaults for settings it can't guess.  For most games you will NOT need to add properties to Stella since it contains setting for a lot of games and can guess the settings for most of the others, however, for best results you may decide you want to specify the properties yourself.  If you do you should read the "Adding Properties" section of the Stella manual.

Supercharger games were not stored on cartridges instead they were stored on cassette tapes.  The Supercharger, which plugged into the Atari 2600's cartridge slot, loaded games into it's 6K of RAM using a tape player.  The Supercharger also supported multiloading which allowed games to be broken into several 6K pieces and loaded at different times.  This was useful for long games that had distinct parts (i.e. role playing type games).

Most Supercharger ROM images are stored as an 8448 byte file.  However, ROM images of multiload games are stored as a set of 8448 byte files.  The names of these files have a two character sequence number in them which indicate what load they are (the sequence always starts at zero but then skips a few numbers and then increments by one).

Stella supports multiload games, however. The set of ROM image files has to be combined into a single large ROM image file.   Then you can play the game with Stella using a single .BIN file.  Stella has properties built in for most of the Supercharger games, however, if you're developing your own Supercharger game you might need to add some properties to Stella.  See the "Adding Properties" section of the Stella manual for more information.

It is VERY important that the "M6507.Compatibility" property be set to "High" for Supercharger games.  If it isn't the game will not run correctly.  Stella automatically sets this property if it sees a ROM image who's size is a multiple of 8448.

Due to copyright restrictions, Atari ROM images are not included.

Go to the Stella homepage

This emulator can be downloaded directly from it's homepage.

NOTE: In order to run this emulator, you must have the emulator itself, and a copy of the ROM's from the original system.  The emulator itself is Freeware.  The ROM's are copyrighted by the programmer or the manufacturer. You are only legally entitled to do so if you own the actual game, or a PCB/ROM Cartridge from the game that you are emulating. If you decide to download ROM's to test out an emulator, you must delete the ROM's within 24 hours unless you own the equipment mentioned above.

ROM's may be found at many sites, including EMUCLASSICS.