Changes since v0.35.3
This release is a bit different than normal. I've been sitting on some major changes to the code and I haven't been wanting to release them until it was done. However, I think the project will benefit from people seeing it and having the opportunity to give feedback but with the understanding that some of these changes are not final.
Colour
The major change in this release relates to how colour is created. Surprisingly, colour on the 2600 is a controversial topic. For this reason the default range of colours in this version of Gopher2600 is by no means the final article. The default range is something that is likely to change in future versions.
If you want to change the colours then you can do so by pressing F10
and selecting the Television
tab(...)
Rendering, TV Bevel and Audio
Other changes in this release include a much improved rendering pipeline. This should result in less glitching for ROMs that use "flicker kernels" and in particular, when using a compositing window manager on X11.
There is now also a real TV "bevel" as opposed to the goofy option that existed before. It's enabled by default but you can disable it from the CRT
tab of the preferences window (press F10
for the preferences window). (...)
Configuration Files
One of the planned changes for the project is an improved handling of user preferences. I've not implemented this yet, so in the meantime I recommend that you delete your existing configuration files and start over. It should be okay if you don't, but I can't guarantee that the settings you have now will look okay in conjunction with the above changes.
Information about configuration files and where to find them is in the project wiki
Blog
I've also started a blog which you may be interested in following. https://jetsetilly.github.io/Gopher2600-Blog/ I plan to update it with development discussion from time to time. My next article will be on colour generation: how I've implemented it and why it's such a big issue.
Other Changes
In addition to the major changes described above, this release also has some smaller maintenance changes.
- TIA Corrections
- the moment when NUSIZx is handled during the TIA sub-cycle
- reset condition for ball
- Keypad
- Corrected behaviour of the '3' key for the right keypad peripheral
- Added CHANGED option to WATCH command
- Improved feedback messaging for the PERIPHERAL command