--- title: "Stella 2023 – Atari 2600 core for RetroArch" description: "RetroArch Stella 2023 core (Atari 2600): core options and controls. A port of Stella 6.6, the Atari 2600 VCS emulator, kept at its 2023 state." --- # Atari - 2600 (Stella 2023) ## Background A port of [Stella](https://stella-emu.github.io/) 6.6, the Atari 2600 VCS emulator, kept at its 2023 state. It has the high accuracy and wide compatibility of modern Stella; the up-to-date [Stella](stella.md) core follows current Stella and has more controller types and core options. The Stella 2023 core has been authored by - Stephen Anthony - Bradford Mott - Eckhard Stolberg - Brian Watson The Stella 2023 core is licensed under - [GPLv2](https://github.com/libretro/stella2023/blob/master/License.txt) A summary of the licenses behind RetroArch and its cores can be found [here](../development/licenses.md). ## Extensions Content that can be loaded by the Stella 2023 core have the following file extensions: - .a26 - .bin RetroArch database(s) that are associated with the Stella 2023 core: - [Atari - 2600](https://github.com/libretro/libretro-database/blob/master/rdb/Atari%20-%202600.rdb) ## Features Frontend-level settings or features that the Stella 2023 core respects. | Feature | Supported | |-------------------|:---------:| | Restart | ✔ | | Screenshots | ✔ | | Saves | ✕ | | States | ✔ | | Rewind | ✔ | | Netplay | ✔ | | Core Options | ✔ | | [Memory Monitoring (achievements)](../guides/memorymonitoring.md) | ✔ | | RetroArch Cheats | ✕ | | Native Cheats | ✕ | | Controls | ✔ | | Remapping | ✔ | | Multi-Mouse | ✕ | | Rumble | ✕ | | Sensors | ✕ | | Camera | ✕ | | Location | ✕ | | Subsystem | ✕ | | [Softpatching](../guides/softpatching.md) | ✕ | | Disk Control | ✕ | | Username | ✕ | | Language | ✕ | | Crop Overscan | ✕ | | LEDs | ✕ | ## Core options The Stella 2023 core has the following option(s) that can be tweaked from the core options menu. The default setting is bolded. - **Console display** [stella_console] (**auto**|ntsc|pal|secam|ntsc50|pal60|secam60) - **Palette colors** [stella_palette] (**standard**|z26|user|custom) - **TV effects** [stella_filter] (**OFF**|composite|s-video|rgb|badly adjusted) - **Crop horizontal overscan** [stella_crop_hoverscan] (**OFF**|ON) - **Crop vertical overscan** [stella_crop_voverscan] (**0**|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24) - **NTSC aspect %** [stella_ntsc_aspect] (**par**|100|101|102|103|104|105|106|107|108|109|110|111|112|113|114|115|116|117|118|119|120|121|122|123|124|125|75|76|77|78|79|80|81|82|83|84|85|86|87|88|89|90|91|92|93|94|95|96|97|98|99) - **PAL aspect %** [stella_pal_aspect] (**par**|100|101|102|103|104|105|106|107|108|109|110|111|112|113|114|115|116|117|118|119|120|121|122|123|124|125|75|76|77|78|79|80|81|82|83|84|85|86|87|88|89|90|91|92|93|94|95|96|97|98|99) - **Stereo sound** [stella_stereo] (**auto**|off|on) - **Phosphor mode** [stella_phosphor] (**auto**|off|on) - **Phosphor blend %** [stella_phosphor_blend] (**60**|65|70|75|80|85|90|95|100|0|5|10|15|20|25|30|35|40|45|50|55) - **Paddle mouse sensitivity** [stella_paddle_mouse_sensitivity] (**20**|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|44|45|46|47|48|49|50|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19) - **Paddle joypad sensitivity** [stella_paddle_joypad_sensitivity] (**3**|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|1|2) - **Paddle analog sensitivity** [stella_paddle_analog_sensitivity] (**20**|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19) - **Paddle analog deadzone** [stella_paddle_analog_deadzone] (**15**|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14) - **Paddle analog absolute** [stella_paddle_analog_absolute] (**OFF**|ON) - **Lightgun crosshair** [stella_lightgun_crosshair] (**OFF**|ON) ## Controllers Each port is **Automatic** - the controller the game needs is picked from Stella's ROM database - or **None**. ### Joypad | RetroPad Inputs | Stella 2023 | |---|---| | ![](../image/retropad/retro_dpad_up.png) | Up | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_dpad_down.png) | Down | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_dpad_left.png) | Left | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_dpad_right.png) | Right | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_b.png) | Fire | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_select.png) | Select | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_start.png) | Reset | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_a.png) | Trigger | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_y.png) | Booster | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_l1.png) | Left Difficulty A | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_l2.png) | Left Difficulty B | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_r1.png) | Right Difficulty A | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_r2.png) | Right Difficulty B | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_l3.png) | Color | | ![](../image/retropad/retro_r3.png) | Black/White | ## External Links - [Libretro Stella 2023 Core info file](https://github.com/libretro/libretro-super/blob/master/dist/info/stella2023_libretro.info) - [Libretro Stella 2023 Github Repository](https://github.com/libretro/stella2023) - [Report Libretro Stella 2023 Core Issues Here](https://github.com/libretro/stella2023/issues) ## Other Atari 2600 cores - [Atari - 2600 (Stella)](stella.md) - [Atari - 2600 (Stella 2014)](stella2014.md) - [Atari - 2600 (Tia)](tia.md)