
It has cycle-exact emulation for the TIA chip (graphics and sound) the Stella Team estimates that current TIA emulation is nearing 100% completion. Support is included for NTSC, PAL and SECAM in 60 Hz/50 Hz varieties, including autodetection of those formats (based on the number of scanlines generated in each frame). The emulator supports all Atari 2600 cartridge bank switching schemes and has support for nearly all Atari 2600 titles. Stella is written in the C++ programming language and thus is highly portable. Mott, and is now maintained by Stephen Anthony. Stella was originally written in 1996 (and known as Stella 96) by Bradford W. It is open-source, and runs on most major modern platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Stella is an emulator of the Atari 2600 game console, and takes its name from the console's codename.

Tras el lanzamiento de la versión original, múltiples personas se han unido al equipo de desarrollo de Stella adaptándolo a otros sistemas operativos como AcornOS, AmigaOS, DOS, FreeBSD, IRIX, Linux, OS/2, MacOS, Unix, y Windows El systema Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS), creado en 1977, fue el sistema de videojuegos más popular hasta los años 80. Estela fue desarrollado en principio para Linux por Bradford W. Stella es un emulador multiplataforma de Atari 2600 VCS, desarrollado bajo licencia GNU GPL.
