Hello, and lynx questions

sirlynxalot · February 8, 2014

Hi folks. I'm an old lynx fan who's been busy with other stuff for the last 13 or so years. I recently rekindled my former extreme interest in the lynx and am pleasantly checking out the happenings that I missed over the last decade plus AKA Zaku and other impressive homebrew titles, and new homebrew development tools and documentation:

One of my hobbies is music, so I'm really interested in learning how to use "chipper", and figuring out a good workflow to make some lynxish tunes. I always liked the sounds the lynx could make, and would be happy to share or collaborate for anything I wind up making.

Another hobby of mine is sprite art, so I'm interested in researching the lynx's palette limitations and maybe translating some of my prior work/making new stuff for the lynx's resolution, with the goal of displaying it on a lynx screen one day. Actually, circa 2002 I made a ton of sprite art for an unofficial "zarlor mercenaries 2" fangame idea I had, and I recently found the bulk of the art assets for this, which I thought were lost forever.

I'm also looking at expanding my currently non-existent lynx collection - buying back some of the stuff I used to have. Along those lines, I wanted to ask a few questions

1) I have seen versions of the Lynx 1 with a simple cross shaped D-pad, and others such as the one I used to own, had a more round one with the cross shaped raised on a round piece of black plastic (think sega genesis controller). I'm not sure if that is just a different color of plastic, or if the cross shaped d-pad is a different design.

2) With the lynx about 25 or so years old, is it pretty common to have blown capacitors? Things look a little ominous on ebay, with the majority of lynx systems I see for sale listed as "for parts/not working". I also had 2 3DOs this last year, another early 90s console, which flaked out due to bad caps - and sega CDs and other early 90s systems are having cap related issues these days. I know best electronics has refurbished lynxes available with a short warranty, but it seems unlikely this refurbishment would extend to recapping them.

And as long as I'm saying hello, let me say that I think Stun Runner on the lynx, a title I only recently played for the first time via emulation, is absolutely ridiculous in terms of the translation from the arcade, with most of the speech and text warnings, and even the feel of the gameplay intact. In fact, I might even say, that this translation to the Lynx is "stunning" :grin:

GadgetUK · February 8, 2014

Hi folks. I'm an old lynx fan who's been busy with other stuff for the last 13 or so years. I recently rekindled my former extreme interest in the lynx and am pleasantly checking out the happenings that I missed over the last decade plus AKA Zaku and other impressive homebrew titles, and new homebrew development tools and documentation:

One of my hobbies is music, so I'm really interested in learning how to use "chipper", and figuring out a good workflow to make some lynxish tunes. I always liked the sounds the lynx could make, and would be happy to share or collaborate for anything I wind up making.

Another hobby of mine is sprite art, so I'm interested in researching the lynx's palette limitations and maybe translating some of my prior work/making new stuff for the lynx's resolution, with the goal of displaying it on a lynx screen one day. Actually, circa 2002 I made a ton of sprite art for an unofficial "zarlor mercenaries 2" fangame idea I had, and I recently found the bulk of the art assets for this, which I thought were lost forever.

I'm also looking at expanding my currently non-existent lynx collection - buying back some of the stuff I used to have. Along those lines, I wanted to ask a few questions

1) I have seen versions of the Lynx 1 with a simple cross shaped D-pad, and others such as the one I used to own, had a more round one with the cross shaped raised on a round piece of black plastic (think sega genesis controller). I'm not sure if that is just a different color of plastic, or if the cross shaped d-pad is a different design.

2) With the lynx about 25 or so years old, is it pretty common to have blown capacitors? Things look a little ominous on ebay, with the majority of lynx systems I see for sale listed as "for parts/not working". I also had 2 3DOs this last year, another early 90s console, which flaked out due to bad caps - and sega CDs and other early 90s systems are having cap related issues these days. I know best electronics has refurbished lynxes available with a short warranty, but it seems unlikely this refurbishment would extend to recapping them.

And as long as I'm saying hello, let me say that I think Stun Runner on the lynx, a title I only recently played for the first time via emulation, is absolutely ridiculous in terms of the translation from the arcade, with most of the speech and text warnings, and even the feel of the gameplay intact. In fact, I might even say, that this translation to the Lynx is "stunning"

Great news about Zarlor 2 sprite and your interest in both graphics and sound =) Best person to speak to about chipper is DerLuchs or Sage. Maybe DerLuchs could do a tutorial or something that would be ace.

Regards your questions - there are 2 different D-pads on Lynx 1's, they feel a little different to use I think. Capacitors tend not to be a failure point on the Lynx, although occasionally you might find that there's no sound and the 220uF cap there has failed due to someone sticking power into the headphone connector. Some of the ones that are sold as not working (dead) will be due to the MOSFET transistor failed - you can bypass that with a wire so that's relatively easy to sort (better to replace the transistor really). The screens are a typical failure point on Lynxes as well, so it's worth making sure there are no 'lines' or dead pixels etc on anything described as fully working. Candle is working on a replacement LCD screen but it could be a while before he gets around to finishing that, and there's no clue at the moment on whether it will get past prototype stage.

Agreed on Stun Runner, it's a fantastic port - done by D. Scott Williamson, check out Road Blasters if you get chance, he did that one as well and that's awesome. Xenophone is another of my fav Lynx arcade conversions - done by Gil Colgate.