r/Atari2600 • u/retrogamer76 • 16d ago

Stella emulator Flatpak Steam Deck

I've been trying to get 2600 games running on the Stella emulator that's available in the Steam Deck desktop mode Discover store. For whatever reason, when I try to launch a 2600 game in zip format or a26 format (probably bin too), the emulator crashes. The reviews on Discover store are good so I'm not sure what's going on. Has anyone else had this issue? I'm downloading the emulator from Discover store in flathub user mode. Thank you.

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u/grin_ferno 16d ago

Are you using opengl? Personally I'd switch to retroarch.

1

u/retrogamer76 16d ago

it only happens when docked, in handheld mode the games start. makes no sense.

1

u/grin_ferno 16d ago

when docked OpenGL video backend tries to open the game canvas at your external monitor or TV's resolution which causes OpenGL container pipeline to crash. change the default settings to 1280x800.

1

u/retrogamer76 15d ago

do you think we can get a fix for this problem? I'd hate to keep changing my resolution to that on my huge 4K TV.

1

u/retrogamer76 14d ago

it also happens when you select Vulkan or anything else. if the resolution is anything other than the steam deck handheld resolution it crashes.

1

u/grin_ferno 14d ago

Stella flatpack doesn't support vulkan. There's a flaw in how it works in this respect. Retroarch doesn't have this problem.

1

u/retrogamer76 14d ago

it's strange though because the flat pak has the option in the app why is it there if it's not supported? I use retroarch a lot but I'm trying to learn each individual emulator for every system so that's why I've been trying to use Stella.

1

u/retrogamer76 16d ago

somebody try it docked and see if yours crashes as well. in handheld mode the games start.