Stella 2023 is a libretro core that ports Stella 6.6, the Atari 2600 VCS emulator, and keeps it at its 2023 state. The official documentation describes it as retaining the accuracy and compatibility of modern Stella, while the up-to-date Stella core follows current Stella and offers more controller types and core options.
Content types and database
The Stella 2023 core can load content with the .a26 and .bin file extensions. The associated RetroArch database is the Atari - 2600 database.
Frontend feature support
According to the documentation, the Stella 2023 core supports frontend-level features including restart, screenshots, save states, rewind, netplay, core options, memory monitoring for achievements, controls, and remapping.
The documentation lists several frontend-level features as not supported by the Stella 2023 core, including saves (SRAM), RetroArch cheats, native cheats, multi-mouse, rumble, sensors, camera, location, subsystem, softpatching, disk control, username, language, crop overscan, and LEDs.
Core options
The following options can be adjusted from the core options menu. In the official documentation, the default setting is bolded: Console display defaults to auto, Palette colors defaults to standard, TV effects defaults to OFF, Crop horizontal overscan defaults to OFF, Crop vertical overscan defaults to 0, NTSC aspect % defaults to par, PAL aspect % defaults to par, Stereo sound defaults to auto, Phosphor mode defaults to auto, Phosphor blend % defaults to 60, Paddle mouse sensitivity defaults to 20, Paddle joypad sensitivity defaults to 3, Paddle analog sensitivity defaults to 20, Paddle analog deadzone defaults to 15, Paddle analog absolute defaults to OFF, and Lightgun crosshair defaults to OFF.
Controller mappings
Each port is set to Automatic, meaning the controller the game needs is picked from Stella's ROM database, or None. The joypad mapping documented for the RetroPad is: D-pad Up to Up, D-pad Down to Down, D-pad Left to Left, D-pad Right to Right, B to Fire, Select to Select, Start to Reset, A to Trigger, Y to Booster, L1 to Left Difficulty A, L2 to Left Difficulty B, R1 to Right Difficulty A, R2 to Right Difficulty B, L3 to Color, and R3 to Black/White.
Related cores
The documentation also references other Atari 2600 cores: Stella, Stella 2014, and Tia.
Reference table · Scroll horizontally to see all columns.
| Feature | Supported |
|---|---|
| Restart | Yes |
| Screenshots | Yes |
| Saves | No |
| States | Yes |
| Rewind | Yes |
| Netplay | Yes |
| Core Options | Yes |
| Memory Monitoring (achievements) | Yes |
| RetroArch Cheats | No |
| Native Cheats | No |
| Controls | Yes |
| Remapping | Yes |
| Multi-Mouse | No |
| Rumble | No |
| Sensors | No |
| Camera | No |
| Location | No |
| Subsystem | No |
| Softpatching | No |
| Disk Control | No |
| Username | No |
| Language | No |
| Crop Overscan | No |
| LEDs | No |
Reference table · Scroll horizontally to see all columns.
| Option | Identifier | Values (default in bold) |
|---|---|---|
| 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 through 24 |
| NTSC aspect % | stella_ntsc_aspect | par; 75 through 125 |
| PAL aspect % | stella_pal_aspect | par; 75 through 125 |
| Stereo sound | stella_stereo | auto, off, on |
| Phosphor mode | stella_phosphor | auto, off, on |
| Phosphor blend % | stella_phosphor_blend | 0 through 100 in steps of 5, plus 100 |
| Paddle mouse sensitivity | stella_paddle_mouse_sensitivity | 1 through 50 |
| Paddle joypad sensitivity | stella_paddle_joypad_sensitivity | 1 through 20 |
| Paddle analog sensitivity | stella_paddle_analog_sensitivity | 0 through 30 |
| Paddle analog deadzone | stella_paddle_analog_deadzone | 0 through 30 |
| Paddle analog absolute | stella_paddle_analog_absolute | OFF, ON |
| Lightgun crosshair | stella_lightgun_crosshair | OFF, ON |
Sources & references
Content responsibility: FrameTinker editorial desk. Source authors and software maintainers are credited separately below; this is not a claim of hands-on testing.
Published .
RetroArch: stella2023 — official gaming software documentation https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/docs/master/docs/library/stella2023.mdRetrieved Oct 14, 2026Something doesn’t match your setup?
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