aLynx - Atari Lynx emulator for Android

[+karri]

Again a nice example of how to use GPL to piss off a developer.

[obschan]

obschan,

You do not have Menu button, for open context menu? In the context menu you can select the button and move them.

If you select OpenGL or Native OpenGL, then the image will be smoothed by means of OpenGL. Also available in the paid version filters for smoothing on a Canvas mode.

 

Thank you for your answer, and thanks again for this nice port, simple, easy to use, very good.

I found out how to move the buttons, sorry for that

OpenGL does not seem to be working on my tablet, but actually that's fine getting used to the soft rendering.

 

Again may be me or my tablet but I am having difficulties with the "multi touch", playing California games, BMX for example is quite difficult.

Has somebody tried it and having(or not) issues ?

[rock88]

obschan,

If your GPU is PowerVR, it should be in the settings to enable "PowerVR Fix", as well it might work on other GPU.

 

Multitouch seems to work correctly, none of the testers it does not complained. A in other games / emulators multitouch normally works?

[Fr0st]

Purchased this about a week ago. Thanks man, it works great on my xperia play.

[rock88]

Today I updated aLynx. He is now based on the Handy 0.95.

List of changes (v1.02):

• Rewritten core using a source code Handy 0.95;
  
• Fixed control (You can hold your finger on a D-Pad and move it);
  
• Remove all filters and added HQ2X and 2xSAI;
  
• Many bug fixes;
  
• Added mips CPU support.
  

At the moment I only updated the paid version. Free version i can only update a few days.

At the time of writing the post in the market has not yet updated.

[LordKraken]

Hello rock88,

 

I've just tested the (free version of) emulator during a long flight and I just want to say : great job!

I consider buying the full version, to support your work and because it's far much better for me to play lynx game on a mobile device as on PC.

 

Nevertheless, I have encouter a few annoying bugs (my mobile is a samsung galaxy S and I have Android 2.2):

- The sound is pretty good emulated, but it simply breaks all performances. Even a "simple" game like chip's challenge (my favourite one ) do not run smoothly when the sound is activated (I tried with the lowest quality, the problem is still there).

- I cannot use the big pad with canvas video mode. If I select the big pad and then run the emulator, it simply crashes.

- If I try to maximize the window size (to avoid the two small little black border) the game screen simply disappears from the config window (it's like the screen is going at coordinate -16000, -16000 and if you run the emulator after that, then you got music and everything but a black screen.

 

Then there is two points you could eventually optimize:

- The two available pad size : the small one is far to small on a 3'5 screen. And the big one is... too big I think to have an intermediate one would be great.

- The pad ist not satisfying : it does not respond that good. So maybe its because of bad performances when sound is activated, or maybe it is the problem you describe and correct above.

 

Last but not least, a personal request, do you think it's possible to have a lynx-skin? For example a mode where the default lynx screen is doubled in size, and where all 4 black borders are skinned with a lynx-texture, like handy does?

 

Thank you very much, and keep up the great work!

[rock88]

The next update - v1.03, updated version of the free and paid.

List of changes (v1.03):

• 1.5x size of the pads (for 320x480 screens and more);
  
• Fixed various bugs.
  

LordKraken

Hello,

Sample Size (bytes) - this is not the sound quality is the size of the array to output sound. What is more than value, the less time it will be made copied (C -> Java) and, accordingly, the sound will not slow down emulation. But if a value of 4096 slows down, then maybe need to increase it yet. I'll try to do something about it.

 

The last update I have fixed a major bug related to the editor of the on-screen pads, now, there seems to be running as it should. And the screen is no longer flies off in an unknown direction

Also added was the size of 1.5x for the on-screen pads.

- The pad ist not satisfying : it does not respond that good. So maybe its because of bad performances when sound is activated, or maybe it is the problem you describe and correct above.

What do you use rendering? Probably need to measure the FPS, but until I turned off its output. But without sound the same way?

 

As for the skins - I thought about it and probably will do, just do not know how better to implement.

[GadgetUK]

Again a nice example of how to use GPL to piss off a developer.

 

LMAO!

 

Good point! I wouldnt worry about releasing source yet, as its just handy which wasnt GPL covered anyway. If the author complains just release the source then.

 

I know theres money involved but lets face it its not thousands and theres nothing to stop anyone here producing their own port of Handy on Android, Windows Phone or iPhone, and without that level of competition and financial reward its unlikely to ever move beyond windows, mac osx, and linux ports.

 

Eg, it cost me £1500 for macbook and iphone plus £60 per year to develop for iPhone , and I could port to iPhone with support to FTP rom images to it (it would likely be rejected by apple but thats another matter...), should i spend a month of my precious time porting to an arse of a platform (android is worse from what I hear), or produce a commercial or advert-ized version? If you release the source too early on you will see a combination of free versions and other commercial versions, which will dilute your efforts and make you wish you hadnt bothered.

 

I am all in favour of the GPL and open source, but sometimes it can destroy any chances of follow on work - unless its done by people that dont need money to exist.

 

As far as I understand it you dont have to disclose your source anyway, it depends on how youve compiled GPL source and changes made.

 

Good job so far, keep up the good work keeping handy alive on android. If I can think of a way for people to use their own roms, or paid app purchases direct from the copyright owner (eg telegames), i will port handy to iphone.

 

One final point - keep us all informed of any bug fixes to core Handy changes, like LX NET has, its good to share and means better Lynx emulation all round.

Edited May 24, 2012 by GadgetUK

[rock88]

GadgetUK,

I am ready provide source code, which were licensed under the GPL, the first request. But it will be the source of the only native part.

In version 1.02 I deleted all the sources Handy/SDL, added sources from Handy 0.95 and made a refactoring. And now my project is not under the GPL.

Here is the text of the license Handy:

//

// Copyright © 2004 K. Wilkins

//

// This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty.

// In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from

// the use of this software.

//

// Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,

// including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it

// freely, subject to the following restrictions:

//

// 1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not

// claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software

// in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be

// appreciated but is not required.

//

// 2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not

// be misrepresented as being the original software.

//

// 3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

//

All points I have complied with.

 

Yeah, working under the IPhone is quite expensive, for example to start programming for Android does not cost me absolutely nothing (devices for testing, I do not have), pay only for registration in the Android market (Google play) $25.

 

The console is not really very popular, and what has not been posted yet emulator was only confirm this fact, though, would be to see how the market emulators Nes/GB/GBC, etc.

 

By the way the idea of the FTP I really liked and wanted implement this

Edited May 26, 2012 by rock88

[GadgetUK]

Excellent! FTP is one of the easiest ways to get files onto iphone (ive got no idea what file system security is like on android but its tough on iphone and ftp allows a secure way around the problem), ive seen comic book readers using the same idea - just hosting basic ftp server, you connect from pc using IE or cuteftp etc and upload book images or in this case .lnx files etc

 

Keep up the good stuff =)

 

[Shannon]

Stumbled across this a couple of weeks ago. Pretty nice. Now we just need 7800 emulation to close the Atari loop!

[Jay]

Great port, loving playing Lynx games on my Xperia Play!

Another great update and now Stun runner runs! Though Baseball Heroes still doesn't.

I don't know if you can get any speed ups in the code as its still not running as fast as Lynx emus on a PSP vs a 1ghz snapdragon CPU, can it be optimised somewhere?

Anyway Keep up the good work!

 

[Michael David Morsette]

I've been playing with this emulator for a couple of weeks now, love it. My only complaint it that the status bar at the bottom of my tablet covers most of the buttons along the bottom. I am using it on a Motorola Xoom running Wingray (a custom version of ICS 4.04)

[+bhall408]

Anyone know what happened to aLynx?

 

It is no longer on Google play, and the last references I see made to it are some YouTube videos from 2016. So it may have gone missing a year or two back.

 

(You can still find the APK via mirror sites -- I'm more wondering what happened to the author/app development)

[gambler172]

can someone post the apk file?

[Freez]

On 9/1/2019 at 11:01 AM, gambler172 said:

can someone post the apk file?

Here you go, found it on this Spanish language site (dowload where it says 'enlance').

https://pspstation.org/alynx-1-032-apk-emulador-de-atari-lynx-para-android-2018/

 

The buttons appear really small on my screen (LG V20) even when I resize them. Unfortunately, the max option is x2. Let me know if you're having this problem too, and if you found a solution. This is not playable for me since the buttons are so tiny

[Igor]

On 4/24/2018 at 10:18 AM, bhall408 said:

Anyone know what happened to aLynx?

 

It is no longer on Google play, and the last references I see made to it are some YouTube videos from 2016. So it may have gone missing a year or two back.

 

(You can still find the APK via mirror sites -- I'm more wondering what happened to the author/app development)

Did you check github?

https://github.com/rock88/aLynx-android-port

[+bhall408]

On 9/2/2019 at 9:27 AM, Freez said:

Here you go, found it on this Spanish language site (dowload where it says 'enlance').

https://pspstation.org/alynx-1-032-apk-emulador-de-atari-lynx-para-android-2018/

 

The buttons appear really small on my screen (LG V20) even when I resize them. Unfortunately, the max option is x2. Let me know if you're having this problem too, and if you found a solution. This is not playable for me since the buttons are so tiny

We're working on an Android (and Amazon) Lynx emulator... We'll be announcing/showing it at PRGE, and start a public beta at that time.

 

It supports phone, TV, tablet (chromebook coming too) and Amazon TV and Amazon Tablet.

 

If you are a homebrew developer, you can get on the alpha by sending me a PM with your google play or amazon email address (ie the one you use for the store on your devices)