Emulating the Atari Console (On Ubuntu)

What do you need to Emulate the Atari Computer

Under Linux the Atari Emulator is not very well supported even for Ubuntu, however it is possible to install but you will need to follow these steps to achieve it.

This version works pretty well under Linux follow these few steps and you can't go far wrong.

Select these options from Software Sources.

System > Administration > Software Sources

Community maintained Open Source Software (universe)
Software restricted by copyright or legal issues (multiverse)

Provided you have done the above you can now install the packages you need.

System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

You will be asked for your current password before you can use Synaptic so enter your password and press Ok.

You will need to mark for installation the following packages,

stella
zlib1g-dev
libsdl1.2-dev

To install selected packages press the apply button

We found it necessary to reboot the PC for the addition of Stella entry in the Application > Games section of the menu , however restarting the desktop may work just as well.

The best way we have found to run the Atari emulator is from the menu.

Applications > Games > Stella

Something akin to a dos window will appear showing the full list of the root disk directory, using the cursor keys maneuver to the location containing the location of the Atari game as you are using the cursor keys to select, their is no problem with paths or spelling.

Stella is really quite clever and will launch a game even if it is a zip file that is to say you select the game as a zip file and it plays.

We found an Atari game call "Asteroids.zip" and this works beautifully, but their are many many more.