[SOLVED] Stella (Atari 2600) Emulation

[Prometheus]

Also, if it's a brand new Pandora running the experimental kernel, it's known that some applications may not work correctly unless you boot into the older kernel. This is done by holding (if memory serves) the right shoulder button as you power the machine on - this should give you a boot menu from which you can choose the relevant option. I don't know how or if this applies to running the OS from an SD Card, though...

 

[Kosmos]

Thank you, Redownloading the PND solved the Stella issue but the other still will not run and so I suspect the kernel. Stella and the NES emu were the most important to me.


Although I WOULD like to get mame going.


Yes, new rebirth model #312. And very happy with it. It is what i wanted my old Libretto 50 to be. USB and at least 500mhz.


I am finding that I enjoy XFCE as I am one who normally prefers gnome over kde. This is a close cousin. And better than gnome 3. It may become my default desktop on my netbook also when gnome 2 of my favorite distro disappears.


Still slowly wading through the tips tricks tweaks and things.....


Now I want to get gcc installed as I am learning programming as well.


thanks y'all.

 

[Asmo]

Once I guessed and created a directory in pandora/appdata- all went well.


I have a problem where the pnd simply does not appear to start. This also goes for SDLMame and PandaBAS. I am running the OS from an SD and everything else works fine. I have tried creating various sub-directories in pandora/appdata such as 2600 and stella. but the apps still simply do not appear to start.?

Apologies if I'm reading you wrong, but from what you describe this may be relevant:


Pnds (apps) don't go in the appdata folder, they go in any one of;


pandora/apps/ (app will appear in menu and on desktop)


pandora/desktop/ (app will appear on desktop)


pandora/menu/ (app will appear only in the menu)


You shouldn't need to create any folders yourself in the appdata directory - when you first run any of the Pnds, they will create their own folder structure there, so sometimes you need to run an app and quit it before you try to add bios or rom files on your SD, so that all the correct folders are generated.


FYI, you mention SDLMame - it was overtaken by Mame4all, and now 'PanMAME' is the most up to date version, you'll have a lot more success with those.


If trying to run the 'Fuse' Spectrum emulator, be advised that it requires the community codec pack is installed, and users report that it generates a 'clicking' sound continuously on OS releases from HF7 onward.

 

[Kosmos]

Thanks again, I will check out PanMame. And my Stella problem was ultimately that I had two SD cards. the Left is my boot OS and the right is media like docs and audio/video. Somehow I must've inserted the right card alone and it had a /Pandora directory on it. This was conflicting with the /Pandora directory on the left (OS card.).


Dont have a /Pandora on both cards....


I also had placed a backup copy of Stella on the root of the card as I was copying around. WELL I just read that the OS now also looks for Apps there as well. So I had two Appdata directories and the OS found two Stella.pnd's.


I think the OS is as confused as I was!


I notice on the boot that it says Angstrom 1.5 beta2. I had used the firmware "pandora-rootfs.tar.bz2" and SD_Pandora.pnd.


This is the firmware I found from the recommended link to "http://www.openpandora.org/firmware/"


I thought this would be the latest FW but I guess it is really the last STABLE version and that 1.6 and 1.7 are considered 'unstable'? Funny as they all are called beta!


Is this true or is there another way to decide and pick firmware.


thanks again

 

[Asmo]

I believe that is correct.


As I like to dip into Fuse (ZX Spectrum) emulator a bit, I keep an SD with HF6a4 firmware (Hotfix 6 Alpha 4) as it seems to be the last release that didn't present any sound issues with that, and works well all round for all the pre-existing software.


Best to pop into the Beta Testing part of the forum to see the links to and discussions about the latest firmwares, it can change pretty quickly!