TailChao

Do these "peak patterns" just appear lighter than the surrounding pixels, or are they completely different colors, if they are just lighter, the lynx is putting pressure on the screen in that area

yes, but I cant remember which pins =P

I immediately rushed to see the schematics after this. And you are correct! How on earth have I not undestood this before. The Lynx has an unlimited expansion of cart memory by just adding one cheap chip on the cart! You can simply add a shift register that you clock with the switched power line just as you do inside the Lynx. The reset of the shifter is done using AUDIO_IN. This means that you can easily use 16MB StrataFlash chips and give the Lynx total access to 16MBytes while still being compatible with every game produced so far... Time to dig out my soldering iron. By adding an analog switch chip and a big capacitor I can even create a system that will replace the dip-switches on my developers cart and allow soft control over block sizes,. It may even solve the L-SOUND problem. Once you have a flash-based design there is no reason to limit the cart to Zonic only. You can flash several games on it. So why not include a FPGA with ARM and a HW-sound synthesizer on it. With a little HW-magic we could use the second data-port in the Lynx for passing the sounds directly to the speaker system like: SOUND interrupt routine at 4kHz lda 2nd_data_port sta sound_channel_0 rts This would use very little CPU time and would be compatible with every Lynx. The ARM could even emulate EEPROM access and AUDIO_IN bank switching. It could even have an USB-port to show up as a removable disk for dropping new *.lnx files and sound files in it. The total design would have just 4 components: - an FPGA that interfaces to the Lynx cartridge-port - a 16MB StrataFlash - a clock chip - a capacitor I'm interested. -- Karri I never thought of including a synth on the L-SOUND but it sounds like a good idea (I was thinking of having only software sound) and I see now that you have all figured out this could not only be of just sound use =P As for having more than one thing on the Zonik cart, I am usure, but will consider it . Also, I was considering not having the sound data run through the lynx, but instead have the Lynx sound output run through the L-SOUND (so it may have higher quality, and put less stress on the CPU, plus it would be neat to mix the lynx harware sound with this) Perhaps this could turn into quite an interesting Dev. tool... However, I would prefer to keep my original design with all of the actual software on the cartridge instead of in the L-SOUND itself (reduced cost, updates), and keep the L-SOUND embedded in the lynx itself, instead of in a cart (also reudced cost).. And thankies sage for offering the various versions of lynxer, I'll be sure to contact you as they are needed.

I don't believe space on the card slot will be an issue, I actually want the cart to stay in place here's a rough sample of where the port will be located, along with the unit itself (Sorry about bad quality, rushed) As you can see, there are no protruding pins from the left side of the cart port (the L-SOUND's own port sketch) rather, it has holes like a PCMCIA card. The cartridges will have a similar port, although the pins can be inserted by sliding over the expose/retract key when the cart is in its slot. These sketches are just to show how the unit will look to the player, I will make some more detailed sketches soon, to show how it will be located inside the lynx. I don't think expense will be a huge issiue, and the unit should be easy enough to install (should just require soldering a few lines and securing the unit in place, easy for most of the members here =P ) Although perhaps an installation service can be offered

Hmm, so I may need to modify lynxer, or find a new utility... But at least the AUDIO_IN line is free, as I don't expect to use EEPROM. Thanks!

Okay, so there seems to be a dispute about things... I'm using all ASM and the BLL kit here, and all I need to know is if the BLL lynxer can assemble a large game (over 512k) and if it requires the AUDIO_IN for bankswitching or not... the thing is that, I'm not really editing anything internally in the lynx, its more along the lines of, say a sega CD. Things are just added, not changed completely.

You do have a point! The only reason I was trying to keep it under 512k was because of price. With the extra rom for the L-SOUND upgrade containing the music data, things might get a tad pricey, but you're right. I should worry about making a good game rather than saving space, we dont want another 2600 era arcade port, do we . 5 Levels sounds reasonable to me though, but perhaps I'll try and add mini-bosses like in Air Zonk instead of just one big boss like I had planned. However, I'm curious as to whether the BLL kit will support things over 256k without some sort of bankswitching, and I need the AUDIO_IN port to be free... Anybody have any info on this (I know I might have asked before, but I believe it was a tad different question) Edit: and to all of you who are curious about what the L-SOUND is, I've decided to spread the word- I have always considered the sound of a game to be one of the most imprtant aspects of it, after all, which do you find yourself doing drawing mario or humming some of his familiar tunes. The 16-bit era had some incredible sound improvements in video games, and I wanted to bring that power and more, to the lynx. The L-SOUND upgrade is a small unit containing an ARM processor, RAM and a small bootup ROM. It shall not be placed inside each individual cartridge say, as Super FX chips were on the SNES, but inside the lynx (I believe there is enough room in the lynx II to accomodate it). The L-SOUND unit will have a small compact flash alike adapter along the left ridge of the lynx's cartridge port, and games using the technology will connect to it through pins protruding from the left side of the cartridge (the pins can be pulled back into the cart via a lever, to ensure safe storage). When inserted, the cart will make contact with the lynx cart port as well as the L-SOUND port, which will feature detection on whether a specialised cart is inserted (think lynx cart port, if there is no cart, no current passes through) and will not start up if one is unpresent, saving battery power. However, if the cart does make use of the technology, the L-SOUND unit will start up, and wait for a conformation signal from a wire internally attached to the AUDIO_IN port. If the correct signal is not recieved, the unit will become inactive. When the unit recieves an "all go" through the AUDIO_IN, it will load its software sound routines from the sound rom on the cart (though its own port of course) and wait untill it receives and instruction through the AUDIO_IN line to, perhaps play a song. The unit's audio output will be mixed with the lynx's own to allow freedom of sound production. All developers can write their own sound routines for the device, and will be free to access information on it (when completed) I am looking to assemble a team to create the device (i'm only a beginner at hardware =P ), so contact me or post here if you are interested. I know its a huge undertaking because of my limited knowledge, but, WHY NOT?! *Shot*

I'm aiming for 5 levels, each with varying lengths (the last level will be absurdly huge, as in Air Zonk) And thankies, SpaceAce, for the complement! Hopefully I should be able to get the new screens out soon.

Random update of the progress of things, just to let you know I'm not dead Some things that have been changed/being worked on- 1. Zonik now has a 5 seccond time after entering a level for the first time or losing a life when he is protected by a sheild, which starts to scale down at about the 3 seccond mark as a warning. 2. Raw animation has been started for the in-between level cutscenes (I love wasting space ) and some screenshots will be posted soon. 3. Optimised the score counter, saved about 1k of RAM space 4. Misc slowdown eliminated in bonus stages, some future stages planned, but may not be made (I'm trying not to go over 512k) I'll post some screenshots soon to show whats going on. Long live lynx, long live handy!

The demo's not mine, as far as I know

The game is not a sonic clone in the gameplay area, it only has similar characters. In the gameplay department it is very similar to Air Zonk (TG-16). The lynx is alot like the GG and is easy to hold, go pick one up if you have the chance, although, in my opinion, GG had better games during its commercial life (NOT INCLUDING LYNX HOMEBREWS!!!! Which are on par or better than some GG games)

unless you use the 1's place counter, it's possible, I used it in Zonik. this is actually better for the console, as it doesn't have to bother processing that number's value.

We should make a mini-lynx FAQ topic and kep it pinned, since so many of these seem to be popping up..

Sorry about the lack of updates, guys, I'm stuck in midterms next week, but dev should pick up again after. ZONIKKUUU!!!!

Disinformation is what makes the dev world fun *shot* Anyways, sorry for my noob-ness to the lynx-amiga world, I've only ever used BLL. Also, is it possible to transfer the routines over to the BLL kit, and execute them in Handy? I'll contact you as soon as I get the Amiga o' doom to live (need $ for keyboard... If anyone knows a good place to get one, please tell!). Thanks! ZONIIKKUUUU!!!!!!

As soon as I finish one full level, I'll release a little "teaser" demo. I have no idea how long it will take, all depends on how my mind and school projects will co-operate with me.

Updated the bonus pic from the revised build (I was getting slowdown from the 4 parallax layers, so I pulled one out and optimised things a bit) Edit: I actually think it looks better this way...

I think I've got a kickstart lying around somewhere, if I cant find it though it is possible to make one on a PC, there usually is software to allow reading and writing of un-native (non-fat) drive formats on PC, and I have plenty of 720k floppies around... I'll look into the external HDD, don't want to do back to swapping floppies =P

No, the GBA hardware is very different from the SNES. There have been a lot of SNES games that were ported to GBA, because it's the best match out of Nintendo's TV-based systems. The GBA can't handle good ports of most N64/GC games, and most of the worthwhile NES games were already ported to GB/GBC. You could port Genesis, TG-16, Amiga, or Atari ST games to the GBA and get about equally good results as you would with SNES games. Although the sound is much weaker on the GBA side, and because of its space wasting 8bpp sprite storage system, some things have to be removed (look at some of the SNES ports) which might cripple the port if it is one from genesis that uses the load-from the cart before each frame tactic, since the genesis had very fast cart access, plus the GBA's res is much lower than that of a genesis, which would mean the addition of scaling (bleah) or a smaller view of things... It would be tricky becuase of the extra 68k and huge amount of ram in the sega CD, but might be done.... although slowly..

I'm not looking for the howard board setup, only HSFX, the sound editor, which, I believe, the A1000 can handle.

NES and GG seem accomplishable, but Sega CD and GBA seem a tad out of reach...

I just picked up an Amiga 1000 recently, and would like to know if there is any way to get a copy of the original lynx dev kit (but only the software portion, since I am quite interested in the HSFX program). ANy help would be appreciated, thanks! -TailChao and, no this is not for zonik =P Edit: Also, the amiga is, erm, quite incomplete right now, there is no HDD to my knowledge, and I need a good monitor (or an adapter so It can share it with my PC, but through the Amiga's RGB port, since it came with the genlock, and I would like to use that) keyboard and mouse. If anyone has any suggestions of places to look for such accesories, please tell! Thanks!

Tis very real my friend, but the release may take awhile Here's a new pic of the bonus round in dev. Also, I am moving over to software collisions, I'm eating up all of suzy's time with my sprites, so I figured I'll try to stress the 65C02, tis not doing much right now anyway =P So the collisions should have just a bit of error to them, like in Air Zonk.[/img]

Not two lynx games, look at the pics I posted and maybe you'll see ..... As for publishing & packaging, as sage said awhile ago, not good to plan ahead to that but I'm probably gonna need help in the publishing area, (although I would prefer to do the art & design for the packaging myself). And thanks for the complements guys, I get encouraged to keep going each time time :wink:

I really have no idea when It'll be ready, I'm just trying to get it done at my own pace so things won't be rushed out the door full of bugs. Plus, the game's being released alongside something else.....