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Consolized Atari Lynx 1 with McWill, VGA & Controller


StarForcePilot

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The Atari Lynx 1-UP

from: starforcepi.wordpress.com

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What’s the greatest handheld of the 1980s and 1990s? Why, the 16-bit arcade juggernaut named Atari Lynx, of course! I was a kid when the original Lynx 1 came out for us here in the old country in 1990, and was blown away. The Game Boy was a monochrome moron in comparison, and the Game Gear was all about converting Mega Drive and Master System games to pocket version – the Lynx, with its hardware-driven zooming and distortion of sprites, was going for Arcade experiences. BOOYA!

Sadly, as with everthing Atari, this too turned to dust. BUT, fast-forward to 2018 and look at the love for this loveable giant! So much so, that McWill, a name you must’ve heard of by now, released one of the most impressive upgrades for a system I’ve ever seen – LCD replacement for the waning washed-out Lynx screen, with VGA output.

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The VGA output was a great addition, but the way I’ve seen people utilize it online seemed rather silly to me; you would have to use the Lynx as the controller when playing on the VGA. No sir, I don’t like it. So I decided to use the spacious room behind the screen to build an interface to: 1) securely place the Lynx on a stand; 2) output VGA; 3) connect a standard DB9 compatible controller (Mega Drive, Master System, Atari).

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It’s a tight squeeze, but the VGA, Controller port and Stand all fit neatly in the small 3x4cm interface window. This was an absolute pleasure to build, everything went smooth and simple, all the measurements were direct hits, hell even the stand only took me 10 minutes to design (8 hours to print, but hey). So let’s see it in full VGA action:

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It’s perhaps the best handheld to consolize: the GameGear has most games on Master System or Mega Drive, the GameBoy looks rather silly and clunky on a monitor, and TurboExpress is pointless, because it’s a 1-to-1 conversion of the actual console. I am glad I did it, I hope you will too, and stop placing those ugly connectors on the top of your handheld.

Building the Lynx 1-UP

I bought a pristine looking junked Lynx 1 for 20 euros – seemed a good place to start, let’s see if we can bring it alive! I replaced all the capacitors, power input socket, MOSFET, but finally it was the two 3906 transistors that were the issue.

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In order to do these replacements, you need a fine-point soldering iron and some tweezers, but everything on the board is quite spacious, so there’s no mistaking what’s what. This part is cheap: 7 dollars on console5.com. They have links and tutorials on that site, very complete. I also bought the McWill for 120 dollars, I was gonna do this mod regardless if this particular system was junked. So far everything together cost me ~150 dollars.

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After bringing the console back to live, it was time for McWillification! I followed the 1 page diagram that came with it, but it’s a little information dense, so I followed the following video instead:

This worked better than I could have ever imagined, I know everyone says they’re gobsmacked when they see the difference, but it really is very true – I get why it’s such an expensive mod now.

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I was gonna leave it with that, honestly that’s just everything one could ever want from an upgrade… but, of course, me being the way I am, things escalated. You see, the mod came with the VGA socket, and I saw how people were placing these at the top of their handhelds, and you know what – it looked ugly. I want the facade of the handheld to be untouched. While I was adding the McWill mod I noticed the enormous space left behind the screen, which is when I had the idea: make the Lynx into a hybrid, with the connector ports at the back with a stand for console gaming via VGA, and all the ports hidden behing a minimal cover during handheld gaming.

I first ordered DB9 sockets for a controller, and placed this together with the VGA socket on the inside of the battery cover. I made a little window in the battery cover, 3D printed a frame and cover for the ports, and there we have our interface.

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For the controller ports I had to solder 6 wires on the button pads of the Lynx PCB. Luckily most of these have soldered extension traces, so you can avoid blocking the normal button-to-pad press, but for two I had to solder directly onto the pad: be mindfull to be as flat as possible.

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Then we wire up the VGA socket to the pads on the McWill screen, this is shown in the accompanied diagram of the screen. We then place the DB9 and VGA socket in the space between the batteries, where the little light tube of the old screen sat (ignore the loose wires, they’re from the battery input, I cut them for ease of access).

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In the left picture, top connector is the VGA socket you can see running to the McWill screen. The lower connector go to the front of the PCB to the button pads. When assembled the VGA socket is lower, and DB9 is upper. Next to these I added screw connectors, so that I may fix the system to a stand, as shown in the next pictures:

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Unlike the Nintendo Snack Pack, this was a joy to make. I did it to unwind and relax, I didn’t want to build something from the ground up, but this just gave enough inspiration to just slightly 1-up it. The Lynx Stand and little VGA cover in particular really clean the mod up nicely, and makes this thing into a fully consolized system. I must admit though, I’ve been mostly playing it with the stand and controller via the McWill screen, not via VGA, but hey, it’s there. Finally, it all cost me a substantial 150 euro, but it was worth it.

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The Atari Lynx is a very strange and powerful handheld, spanning 7 years with 72 games, it’s still enjoying new homebrew releases every year, with a small but dedicated following. I’m very happy to be one of them.

Upgrades:

  • Full capacitor replacement
  • MOSFET replacement
  • 3906 Transistor replacement
  • Power input socket replacement
  • McWill Screen upgrade
  • VGA output port
  • DB9 input port
  • Custom interface window & stand
Edited by StarForcePilot
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This is amazing, I always wanted to have a consolized lynx with external controller and video out. Awesome to see someone do this project through to completion. Incidentally, would you consider building another and selling it to me ;)

 

Cheers my man, it was really a pleasure to build! I'm not building systems for other people I'm afraid, there just isn't enough time in the day to pack everything in, but I did share how I did it on the blog (and above), all you need is a dremel and soldering iron, and off you go. Happy to give the .gcode files if you want them to print your own port cover + stand, no problem.

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Not sure there is enough room behind the screen on the model II lynx like you see listed here. That is why we have the VGA outs on the top because of the battery compartment all across the bottom and again, little to no room behind the screen since the cart port is there.

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Sorry for the late reply, holidays.

 

 

This is awesome! How applicable would this series of steps be for the Lynx II? I know you said you're not offering this as a service but I do have a Lynx II already McWill'ed that I'd love to have console-ized if you'd like to try out performing this on a Lynx II

 

I'm actually going to give this a try at the end of the month, and I think I know how to do it on te Lynx 2 actually. It's a bit tougher as the cartridge slot is in the way, and the pcb is at the back rather than the front, but I believe I have a solution. I'm sorry, but there isn't enough time to do comissions I'm afraid, I'm not getting around to my projects as it is. I'm doing one mod for a friend who's paying me in rare Atari Lynx CIB games, so if you've got anything enticing, I might consider it :P

 

Not sure there is enough room behind the screen on the model II lynx like you see listed here. That is why we have the VGA outs on the top because of the battery compartment all across the bottom and again, little to no room behind the screen since the cart port is there.

 

Yep, that's what I encountered, but I've got away around it I think, I wanna avoid sticking them at the top or bottom, in order to keep the facade intact.

 

That is wonderful!

 

I'd just posted about alternative ideas for the VGA placement, then saw this. Will definitely be giving it a try, and if you get a chance, sharing the .gcode files would be much appreciated -- the cover for the ports is a really nice touch.

 

You're welcome to them! I have to find a place to put them, but I'll put the link here as soon as I do.

 

nice, but the lynx needs 5 buttons.
In your controller I see only 2.
How do you play Blue Lightning or Ninja Gaiden?

 

I kept it simple for my first attempt, just the D-pad and 2 buttons, I will upgrade to more buttons with my next build.

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Hi, StarForcePilot:

 

Thoroughly enjoyed your blog about consolizing the Lynx I. Kudos to you not only for completing the project but also for documenting it so well. Do you mind if I mention the project and your blog in the Lynxed In segment of the next episode of The Atari Lynx HandyCast podcast? Just let me know. Cheers, and congrats on such a cool mod!

 

Eat. Sleep. LYNX. Repeat.

-MillipedeMan

a.k.a. Mark

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Thoroughly enjoyed your blog about consolizing the Lynx I. Kudos to you not only for completing the project but also for documenting it so well. Do you mind if I mention the project and your blog in the Lynxed In segment of the next episode of The Atari Lynx HandyCast podcast? Just let me know. Cheers, and congrats on such a cool mod!

 

Cheers! Sure thing, feature away :) In fact, I've upgraded it slightly to now also include a 3000mAh rechargeable li-ion battery (added just now to my blog, I'll make a seperate post on it below this one). Yeah, I was gonna use eneloop batteries, but then the battery spring was so far gone, I decided to just go ahead and -really- finish the job. Works like a charm.

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SO, tonight I found out the battery spring was shot to hell, which meant I can’t use the Lynx via batteries. Bummer. BUT, on the plus side, Now I could do the final mod I wanted to do: rechargeable battery! I looked online and just saw overcomplicated solutions, so here’s what I installed: generic €10 li-ion battery (12v, 3000mAh) + generic €2 variable step-down converter, set to 9v. Dremel out the batteryholder, crammed’m in, works like a champ.

 

Check it out!

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Edited by StarForcePilot
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  • 2 weeks later...

I wanted to report this video:

 

If it were possible, I would prefer to use a USB controller

example:

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B071ZHBCJG/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_8?smid=AWMHP4OZ0SMFE&psc=1

 

but as a solution I do not mind.

 

I've seen that one, it's partially why I went with the configuration I did, I did not find this very appealing, The nice thing about this though, is the retention of the start/select button!

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  • 4 months later...

I've done a comparison of the 3 consolised Lynx projects I've come across, it's good to see so many different approaches. Here's the article - https://atarigamer.com/articles/consolised-atari-lynx-face-off--who-did-it-better-

 

I like the StarForcePilot's positioning of the connectors and on the Lynx 2 version of his mod the positioning is even better. I actually copied his approach for a Lynx 2 mod I did this weekend.

 

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 month later...

I just ran across this thread, very nicely done.  I also had McWill do a couple of conversions for me, and had used one of those to later make a console.  People here are talking about needing more buttons, I found that the USB version of the Sega Saturn controller was cheap and a perfect fit for the Lynx.  It is all boxed up and in storage, and I don't have any pictures of it I can find, but I took the guts out and put them in a Blu-Ray player to make my console.  Specific to the controller, I made my own reverse engineered from flexible plastic controller sheet inside the lynx.   Here is my first playtest with it a few years back, and while it was still far from finished at this point you can see it working.  The extra buttons also allowed the reset and everything to be on the controller as well as the console.  The board i made did require a couple of jumpers on the backside to make the triggers work.  I didn't keep everything, but I'll upload what I can find so someone can use it to recreate if they like.

 

Note- please forgive if these files are not perfect.  I'm not sure any of them were the "final" versions, just uploading what I had in case someone else found them useful.

 

Edit- pretty sure this is the controller I bought for this, $15: https://www.google.com/shopping/product/4643817993612157661?q=usb+sega+saturn+controller&biw=1440&bih=789&prds=epd:7495807617379911472,prmr:3&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtlsaC5dvoAhUQG80KHXU0C78Q8wII-AM

 

Saturn Lynx Controller.png

IMG_2863.jpg

Saturn Board 6.blend

Edited by MayDay
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  • 5 months later...

I’m currently looking into the logistics of doing this with a McWill Modded Atari Lynx Model II unit using an Atari Jaguar controller port & re-wires Jag controller for uniformity with modder Ben “iFixitRetro” Fong. 
 

Any insight on how challenging the wiring layout would be for that?

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