Cammy

I'd be very interested to know what can be accessed through a cartridge as well, I always thought it would be really cool to add a rumble pack to a Lynx game cartridge, like the one in DrillDozer for Game Boy Advance.

My Amiga A1200! It has more games than just about any other system, runs plenty of emulators and I can make my own games easily with it.

I can play Commodore 64, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, Sega Master System and old DOS games on my Amiga, as well as have thousands of Amiga games (and the emulated ones) all available from a menu which I can have come up as soon as the computer is switched on, so I think the Amiga is better for games. Of course you can do all that on a modern PC too, I guess...

You can use it but it will only work as a 2-button controller in most Amiga games. There are only a few that support the extra buttons, such as Fightin' Spirit, but since the A500 only has Kickstart 1.3 in the ROM it may not be able to recognize the extra buttons at all, unless a game is hard-coded to read the pad, because most games that support it use lowlevel.library which wasn't included until Kickstart 3.x, which is an OS component for reading and interpreting the signals from a CD32 pad. Really, you are better off just using a Genesis pad, preferably the 3-button one since only B and C will work anyway, and a 6-button pad doesn't feel as good and has more useless buttons. Any controller designed for the Sega Master System, Genesis/Mega Drive, Atari or commodore 64 will work on the Amiga. 90% of games only use a single button, of the remaining ones probably only 1% use the extra buttons on a CD32/Competition Pro pad, and Sega made the best feeling control pad ever anyway.

It says Lemmings is worth $32 anyway!

Why would I need to lie? Obviously the lot I bought for $50 (Lemmings, Joust and Ishido) wouldn't show up in your searches since I already made the purchase. I'm not interested in acquiring a second copy, but I'm warning other people that they can find the game cheaper, from friendlier dealers if they have a little patience. I don't think anyone will be foolish enough to pay $40 for such poor condition Lynx consoles either. I don't think there's any need for aggression, but it seems your true colours are showing.

It's a great game for the Lynx too! I got my copy recently on eBay with two other games, paid $50 for the lot but I was a bit impulsive. I've since seen it sell for around $30 but I'm just happy to own this incredible game for my favourite hand-held system.

If you want a game that's purely addictive, arcade-style fun, try Downhill Domination, a game where you race other riders down the side of a mountain on a bicycle.

Pressing Option 1 and 2 together should make their trousers fall down like the T key in IK+

I guess you could keep the keyboard inside the A500 case, maybe cut off everything behind the C= badge and fill it in. Then paint it dark grey to match the CD32!

I'm working on a simple tileset for a Lynx game, so I quickly whipped this up a minute ago:

CD32 is much better for homebrew, there are loads of languages and development tools to choose from. If you get an Indivision AGA expansion for a PAL CD32 it'll plug into the VGA or DVI connector of a monitor and have no issues with PAL or NTSC titles, plus it has the advantage of being configurable so the image is centered and fits the full screen without any black borders. CD32 has the most advanced operating system of the 80s and 90s built into it, so that might be fun for someone to play with when they're bored with the games, there is a lot of software you can try on them if you get a bunch of magazine cover CDs or burn your own Workbench setup from UAE on a PC. The 3DO hardware is superior, and it had a lot more dedicated games made for it rather than being a dumping ground of quick Amiga 500 ports like the CD32 was, so if you just want more early 3D games get a 3DO. If you want to experience most of what the Amiga had to offer, if there aren't CD32-specific version there are always compilation discs full of Amiga games that boot up and run on the CD32, so you will have thousands of games to choose from even if they're a bit more oldschool looking.

Hi Karri, I'm sorry but we have made an important last-minute adjustment. The palette should now be: $011 $34D $9AF $9B8 $777 $335 $448 $75E $D5F $C53 $822 $223 $484 $8E5 $CF5 $FFF I'll make an image to explain the use of this, sorry for the mucking about.

Thanks for the videos of the palettes, MrBland! I wonder, if I sent you some mockup screenshots from my game, could you take a video of how they look on the Lynx screen? We need to remember the Lynx has 12bit colour, which is 4,096 colours, 16 shades instead of 256. Therefor the RGB values you use in any Lynx game should only be ones the Lynx can actually display. These values are: 0, 17, 34, 51, 68, 85, 102, 119, 136, 153, 170, 187, 204, 221, 238, 255. There is no need to translate the palette into code, display it in an emulator, then pick the values up again from a screenshot. These should be the exact colours Lynx developers used back in the 80s and 90s when they were developing their games on Amiga hardware which shared the same 4,096 colour 12bit palette. The only adjustments needed would be to lighten or darken some shades if they're not appearing on a real Lynx LCD screen properly due to the backlight, which we have attempted to correct now after seeing the videos and reading the posts here, and much experimentation with a bunch of sprites and tiles using our palette. So the Lynx colour values of these numbers are: 0 = 0 1 = 17 2 = 34 3 = 51 4 = 68 5 = 85 6 = 102 7 = 119 8 = 136 9 = 153 A = 170 B = 187 C = 204 D = 221 E = 238 F = 255 My palette using Lynx GBR values (interesting that it's arranged this way instead of RGB) is: $011 $34D $9AF $9B8 $777 $334 $448 $75E $D5F $C53 $822 $223 $5A6 $8E5 $CF5 $FFF I have re-uploaded the original image using our adjusted palette now, and here it is again so there's no need to go to the previous page: I'll try and whip up a tutorial image explaining the use of each pen in the palette for games so people can start using it for themselves if they want to.

Karri, I'm curious about where you got these RGB values from: 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 135, 150, 165, 180, 210, 225, 240, 255 ?

I don't mind if anyone uses the palette I uploaded, they can change the shades if they like to match their own game, just remember to use the 12bit colour values I posted above when you're adjusting the RGB sliders. That means you need to skip from 0 to 17 to 34 and so on, not using any numbers in between or the Lynx won't be able to display the colours properly. As an example of the idea I had of using some graphics from OpenGameArt.org at least as placeholder graphics until a pixel artist comes along, I took some of the tiles from this sheet and adjusted them from the old EGA palette to the base palette I'm using: http://opengameart.org/sites/default/files/monsterboy_assets.png

Obviously, which is why it's a 15 colour palette, with 0 being transparent... That is exactly how my palette is arranged. Oh, and here's an adjusted palette for Little Green Quak-Quak using 12bit colour values instead of 24bit. I don't know why the palette uses 24bit colour values if the game is intended for a system with 12bit colour.

Could you show us a photo of how my base palette looks on the Lynx screen? Which colours exactly don't show up properly? I don't have a Flashcart yet so we haven't been able to see how it looks on a real Lynx screen. The idea of a base palette is that all the graphics can be pixelled using it, and the palette itself can be brightened or tinted afterwards, perhaps from level to level. It's based on a combination of Arne's and DawnBringer's palette but with black as 0, "white" as 15, with one pen used as an extra black, slightly lighter than the 0 black. Transparent pens are something Arne and DawnBringer didn't take into account when designing their 16 colour palettes, but this revised palette does.

Here's the 16/15 colour base palette we've been using for a Lynx game I'm helping with. The 0 colour is black and should still be usable for background objects, and there's a very dark purple/brown for use as a black in sprites which will still stand out on top of the background black. This is a 12bit palette made on an Amiga, the original Lynx development hardware.

Arne's Palette Dawnbringer's Palette Also remember when making a palette for the Lynx to use 12bit colour values. That means the 24bit RGB values need to be: 0 17 34 51 68 85 102 119 136 153 170 187 204 221 238 255

I think you guys really need to read through this thread here - http://www.wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=4306.0;all Magenta is the most useless colour you can have in a limited palette, you can use a more useful red with a dark brown for the shadow and pink for the highlight which are more useful colours. Unless your game specifically features pink and purple graphics, you should focus on making more useful colours for a palette intended to be used for a variety of games. Here is an excellent example of a 16 colour palette for use in games - http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/64505.htm