[Significant Improvement] Stella

[SvOlli]

Hi there,

here's my humble submission to the Alive and Kicking Coding Competition: a long overdue update to the Atari 2600 VCS emulator "Stella". Already uploaded to the repo.

Most significant improvement: PAL roms don't crash the emulator anymore, so you can enjoy all the cool demos available at pouet.net for the Atari VCS.

Documentation is now also included, which displays surprisingly well in links. And it's updated to the current stable version 3.9.2 as well.

It's not complete yet, the logo is missing (where do I get it?), I want to provide a link for ROM download in the readme.html, and there are some other topics, I concider right now.

Greetings,

SvOlli

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

I wish I had that first post!

Greetings!

 

[ekianjo]

It's not complete yet, the logo is missing (where do I get it?), I want to provide a link for ROM download in the readme.html, and there are some other topics, I concider right now.

No need for a logo, as long as you mention somewhere in the software that it's a candidate for the Alive and Kicking Coding Competition

Thanks for your entry  

 

[SvOlli]

It might be worth noting that the version from Jan 12th also will pop up a ROM downloader if no rom directory is specified.

Not complete yet, but already downloading the big ROM pack containing ~3000 ROMs from the original 1977-1992 aera and all demos available from pouet.net's Atari VCS section.

Alive and Kicking Coding Competition is now mentioned in PXML and Readme.

 

[ekianjo]

It might be worth noting that the version from Jan 12th also will pop up a ROM downloader if no rom directory is specified.  

super cool feature  

 

[EvilDragon]

Hmm, hows the legal status with VCS ROMs?

 

[SvOlli]

As far as I know they're abandonware, as the ROM pack only covers the time of original production (1977-1992). About two years ago the lawyers of the remains of Atari (which is now dead completely) have gone through the net with the request of taking down mainly modified ROMs. Both AtariAge.com and AtariMania.com are very well known sites distributing ROMs for more than a decade. Both have not been asked to take down they ROM images in this time. So they're at least tolerated, but if you like I can take this question to the forum there for a more detailed answer.

As for the second ROM pack with the scene demos, they're public domain, of cause.

 

[sebt3]

As far as I know they're abandonware,

There is nothing like abandonware. This have no legal basis.the abandonware sites bet that nobody will make dmca notices as most of theses company have struck. Yet the copyright law apply...

 

[SvOlli]

There is no legal term "abandonware", but abandonware definately exists, since some stuff I released is abandoned as well. ;-)

Since with AtariAge and AtariMania, two central sites of the "retro Atari scene" contain ROM dumps for download, I'm pretty sure no one cares.

Anyway, I've posted the question about the legal situation of ROM dumps/packs on the AtariAge forum: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/220702-rom-packs-for-inclusion-in-stella-port/#entry2906718