The fastest Lynx game

[Cammy]

I have been wondering exactly how fast can the Lynx scroll backgrounds and sprites around the screen? Are there hardware limitations preventing the system from handling really fast-paced action games? Would the screen simply blur or ghost too much for the action to be visible, even if the system can handle moving the graphics around fast?

 

I started looking through my Lynx games to find the ones which seem to have the fastest scrolling. At first I thought Batman Returns might be as fast as it gets, but I think Gordo 106 might be even faster. Does anyone know of a Lynx game which scrolls backgrounds around as fast as Gordo?

[108 Stars]

I can tell you Viking Child definitely does not qualify.

Edited October 3, 2012 by 108 Stars

[obschan]

I don't really understand, 'speed' of background or sprites is very subjective to me

You have a max refresh rate of 75hz, then if you move your sprite by a quarter of the screen between 2 frames it will have more visible 'speed' than if you move it by 1 pixel although the hardware requirements are identicals.

Edited October 4, 2012 by obschan

[Michael David Morsette]

Well here is a very subjective vote. I just looked through what I have and for side scrollers, Marlboro go seems to have the fastest moving background, both Toki and Kung Food have a large number of sprites on the screen at a time, but over all I think that Zaku and the most going on. Zaku has multiple layers going at different speeds in the background, at times there are a large number of sprites on the screen, and over speed is pretty brisk.

[GadgetUK]

Yes, it is subjective and probably depends on the game itself. At 75hz refresh, if your game loop was lucky enough to do 75fps then scrolling would appear extremely smooth. In reality the main game loop eats a lot of cycles doing main game logic and from what ive read most Lynx games dont go much beyond several frames per second, despite being displayed at 50/60/75 hz.

 

Ive still not played with CC65 yet but I would guess the Lynx is going to have its own bottlenecks, possibly related to the way code and assets are accessed from ROM image, but graphics wise the Suzie is leaps and bounds above other handhelds of the time.

 

Edit: good point about ghosting and bluring. Thats likely on fast moving sprites, which might be a reason why a developer would slow movement down on the Lynx. Ive noticed this effect today on Road Rash on the GameGear - the scrolling messages on menu screen are blurry due to the LCD not coping with the speed of the text movement.

Edited October 4, 2012 by GadgetUK

[108 Stars]

I guess he (She?) wants to know if maybe something like Sonic the Hedgehog was possible on the Lynx, or if the screen would blur or anyhing. Sonic runs through the levels fast, so the entire background scrolls fast.

[obschan]

There is a challenge open there !

[Cammy]

I guess he (She?) wants to know if maybe something like Sonic the Hedgehog was possible on the Lynx, or if the screen would blur or anyhing. Sonic runs through the levels fast, so the entire background scrolls fast.

 

Yep, that's pretty much exactly what I meant. I'd like to know if a game like Sonic would be possible on the Lynx. Also, could a pinball game be faster and smoother than Pinball Jam, because I was surprised how slowly it scrolls. I assumed it could be to prevent blurring. I think it would be awesome to have another pinball game on the Lynx, like Obsession on the Atari STe and Amiga, which looks great in 16 colours (with palette slicing which the Lynx can handle) and would probably still look nice when scaled down to the Lynx's screen resolution.

[chris_lynx1989]

Well here is a very subjective vote. I just looked through what I have and for side scrollers, Marlboro go seems to have the fastest moving background, both Toki and Kung Food have a large number of sprites on the screen at a time, but over all I think that Zaku and the most going on. Zaku has multiple layers going at different speeds in the background, at times there are a large number of sprites on the screen, and over speed is pretty brisk.

Don't forget Gates,Todd,Alpine,and also S.T.U.N. Runner.Road Riot does pretty good too.

[roland p]

I remember Hydra having fast (fluid) moving sprites.

[LX.NET]

Sound like Windows 8 UI: Fast and fluid

[johannesmutlu]

Zaku is a fast side scroller shooter with lots of moving backgrounds and sprites,i can be on pair with r-type on genesis & snes, the only limitation is the Dram, it takes for seconds to load 64KB. Of data, so only 16KB. Of data per second can be loaded atonce,likely, the data can be small compressed to increase transfer speed, the decompressing chip insode the lynx can then decompress it quick, HOWEVER i think it's better to avoid compression and just load data in sections of 16KB to load & procces it quick enough for fast action.

[mvirtuale]

Gordo 106

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOtDvZi-T_Q