StellaDS Phoenix Edition

	StellaDS - PHOENIX EDITION
General
Author(s)	Dave Bernazzani (wavemotion)
Type	Console Emulator
Version	3.8 (18 July 2021)
Licence	Mixed
Links
	Download
	Website
	Source

Features

High level of compability to make games playable.
Paddle and Keypad emulation is included.
Improved emulator core for better performance:
- Most games you remember fondly run nearly full speed on a DSi in native 133MHz mode.
- For the older DS-LITE and DS-PHAT, only the more simple games are going to run close to full speed.

Installation

Note: To use this emulator, you must use compatibles rom with a26/bin format.

DIDL patch the StellaDS.nds file depending on the flash card (if it does not have auto-patching).

Copy it into a directory of your flash/(micro)SD/MMC card.

Put the a26/bin files where you want on your flashcard. If you are using Twilight Menu++, you may need to rename the .bin to .a26 in order to use.

User guide

When the emulator starts, click on the cartridge slot to choose a file.

Use Up/Down to select a file, then use A to load it.

Supported ROMS

See Comatiblity.txt for the list of the supported ROMS.

Generally these are going to be NTSC No-Intro roms (mostly developed for American market in the early days of video games).

PAL roms (that were later ported for Europe market) may cut off at the bottom of the screen and may not run at the right speed.

In other words while PAL is supported, you are generally going to get the most genuine Atari 2600 experience with NTSC roms.

Controls

D-Pad - Joystick

A/B/Y - Fire button

Select - Atari Select switch

Start - Atari Reset switch

X - Show FPS (Frames per Second)

L - Toggle Full Speed (no trottle to 60FPS)

R+D-Pad - Shift display offset in the D-PAD direction

L+D-Pad - Change Scaling of the Y-Screen (up/down scaling only)

Use Stylus on buttons for other actions on bottom screen.

Screenshots

Known issues

DPC+ games can't be emulated, that requires a coprocessor running at 70MHz (more than the speed of an original DS).

Changelog

V3.8 2021/07/18

Massive update to database to support 50+ of the best Atari Hacks.
Support for WD bankswitching - Pursuit of the Pink Panther playable.
Genesis Controller support for all the awesome games that take advantage of it.
120 Game Manuals.

V3.7 2021/07/12

100 Game Manuals.
Fix for Thwocker prototypes.
Minor screen tweaks to tighten up some displays.
New info graphic.

V3.6 2021/07/10

PAL Support. PAL games will render in proper 50Hz/312 Scanlines.
Database of known games expanded from 850 to 1900.
Long rom filenames now scroll when selecting a game.
Total instruction manuals: 80.

V3.5 2021/07/05

Up to 75 Instruction Manuals.
Quadrun sound improved.
Other minor fixes and improvements as time allowed.

V3.4 2021/06/28

Added new flicker reduction algorithms to help render games
like Frogger, Asteroids, Astroblast, Pac-Man, more accurate.
Defender II and Stargate have mapped buttons for Hyperspace, Inviso and Smart Bomb making them playable.
Total instruction manuals: 50.

V3.3b 2021/06/27

Now up to 50 instruction manuals. A few tweaks to add the last of the known homebrews to the compatibility table.
Defender II, Stargate and Defender Aracade (hack) have new button mappings that make them fully playable.

V3.3 2021/06/26

Added [TIME], [LOW] and [ALPHA] as high-score options.
Fixed small graphical glitches in F8, F6 and F4 games.
Another 8 instruction manuals added.

V3.2c 2021/06/26

Fixes glitches for F8, F6 and F4 carts.
High Scores can now be set to sort Low-to-High (for games like Miniature Golf) as well as an option to clear all scores for a game.
High Score can be set to [TIME] to allow time-based games (Dragster, Skiing, Barnstorming, etc).
High Score can be set to [ALPHA] to allow free-form entry and sorting alphabetically (Z > A > numbers).

V3.2 2021/06/24

Vastly improved high score internals to support future enhancements.
Cleanup of paddle handling - games like Tac-Scan now work.

Revision changelog.

Credits

Thanks to:

Bradford W. Mott for Stella.
Alekmaul for porting Stella to the DS.
Robz for Twilight-Menu++ which rekindled emulation on the classic handheld.

External links

GitHub - https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/StellaDS
GBAtemp - https://gbatemp.net/threads/stella-ds-improved.577691