Atari Lynx programming tutorial

[+karri]

I tried to collect the tools into one place at bitbucket.org/atarilynx.

 

There is a repository

 

lynx/tools/bll = the BLL repository. You need to add an environment variable BLL_ROOT to point to the right place.

 

lynx/tools/cc65 = the C compiler/linker

 

lynx/tools/lynxer = the tool for creating carts when using BLL or newcc65

 

lynx/tools/lyxass = the old assembler used with the BLL kit

 

lynx/tools/newcc65 = the very old C-compiler that wastes space and has bugs

 

If you want to set up everything for Ubuntu or Raspbian there is a simple way to do it.

 

cd lynx/tools

sudo make -f Makefile.deb

 

It will compile all tools and install them into proper places.

 

Actually this script generates installation packages that could be exported and later be installed by the standard installers. But the creation of the packages happen to leave the stuff installed. So as a side effect running the package creation script will also install everything.

 

What we still need to do is to make a simple installation script for other popular OS like Windows.

 

In addition to that there is user contributions in

 

lynx/contrib

 

lynx/contrib/multicart = contains code for using the SD multicart by SainT

 

lynx/contrib/ottelo = an Othello clone written in BLL that fits into 1024 bytes

there is also a version that is a few bytes larger that plays an old Finnish kantele tune in the background.

My daughter was practicing on this tune when I wrote Ottelo for a 1k competition years ago.

The tune is written using abcmusic.

 

I also hope to add lynx-snd.s there. It contains the Chipper run-time code.

Edited January 5, 2017 by karri

[hikachi]

Does anyone currently have an Atari Lynx programming environment set up on a Windows 7 64 bit computer?

 

I managed to set up my setup but on Windows 7 32 bit. Used files from first post of this topic. Also sprpck.exe 1.98 will be needed there.

 

I already tried to paint some graphics with custom color palette and attach that to game. Works fine and first sample screen of my text adventure game was made.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/gallery_ips/gallery/album_1819/gallery_49654_1819_1359.png

 

Now need to read next stages of tutorial, and try to figure out how joystick + selecting dialogue options will work.

Edited January 25, 2017 by hikachi

[Vidiot1981]

I appreciate all the helpful responses. I believe I've located all the tools I need. Now to see if I can get it all to work together.

That screenshot looks very nice. I've always enjoyed a good text adventure game.

[+karri]

 

I managed to set up my setup but on Windows 7 32 bit. Used files from first post of this topic. Also sprpck.exe 1.98 will be needed there.

 

I already tried to paint some graphics with custom color palette and attach that to game. Works fine and first sample screen of my text adventure game was made.

 

 

Now need to read next stages of tutorial, and try to figure out how joystick + selecting dialogue options will work.

 

I love the style. You could take a look at some of my denser fonts like Arial if you go for a text adventure.

 

https://bitbucket.org/karri/arial

 

Or the classic Atari font

 

https://bitbucket.org/karri/atari

[tonma]

Real good screenshot and love adventure text game.

[hikachi]

 

I love the style. You could take a look at some of my denser fonts like Arial if you go for a text adventure.

 

https://bitbucket.org/karri/arial

 

Or the classic Atari font

 

https://bitbucket.org/karri/atari

 

Thanks for help, will consider those fonts. Would it be memory heavy? Because i'm no sure yet how many graphics (and text lines) like on screenshot i can include to project.

 

Was there text adventure / graphics novel game released on lynx before?

 

Sorry for little off-topic, I will create a topic about my project when it will be on proper stage. Working on joystick functions -> trying to figure out how to include a lot of text and choices with the minimum of coding.

[+karri]

 

Thanks for help, will consider those fonts. Would it be memory heavy? Because i'm no sure yet how many graphics (and text lines) like on screenshot i can include to project.

 

Was there text adventure / graphics novel game released on lynx before?

 

Sorry for little off-topic, I will create a topic about my project when it will be on proper stage. Working on joystick functions -> trying to figure out how to include a lot of text and choices with the minimum of coding.

 

Sort of. One of my favourite writers.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/206681-a-novel-program-for-the-lynx/?p=2662167

 

And Dracula the Undead was cut down to fit 256k. But today making a 512 k cart is no problem.

Edited January 7, 2017 by karri

[tonma]

 

Thanks for help, will consider those fonts. Would it be memory heavy? Because i'm no sure yet how many graphics (and text lines) like on screenshot i can include to project.

 

Was there text adventure / graphics novel game released on lynx before?

 

Sorry for little off-topic, I will create a topic about my project when it will be on proper stage. Working on joystick functions -> trying to figure out how to include a lot of text and choices with the minimum of coding.

 

Personally, I like this kind of interface with a cursor and submenu

 

Somethings like this :

[+karri]

My absolute all time favourite of this genre is "Simon the Sourcerer". They have an absolutely delightful re-make of this old Amiga game for the Android phone. I have played it through twice since I bought it for the phone.

 

[hikachi]

 

Personally, I like this kind of interface with a cursor and submenu

 

Somethings like this :

 

Yea that was my idea there too. I already made working choice menu and just added square pointer

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/gallery_ips/gallery/album_1819/gallery_49654_1819_6007.png

 

"Simon the Sorcerer" - i don't know this one but it looks good. I like the pixel art there. I liked "Teenagent" (it's free on gog nowadays https://www.gog.com/game/teenagent) My game will be text based i think.

Edited January 25, 2017 by hikachi

[tonma]

Nice.

 

Simon the sorcerer was a good one with good humor like discworld. I play a lot maniac mansion, zak mckracken and other lucas arts game.

[mvirtuale]

I downloaded the "Tutorials26082016.zip" file
"Encryption" you can check the folder. the "tutorial.c" file is wrong.

Not match the file "Tutorial-encryption.lnx"

[LX.NET]

I downloaded the "Tutorials26082016.zip" file

"Encryption" you can check the folder. the "tutorial.c" file is wrong.

Not match the file "Tutorial-encryption.lnx"

 

Let me have a look. Could be that the encryption had some "non-public" things that i removed.

[+karri]

The Lynx encryption is not relevant as the private key is revealed. The cc65 builds a minimal encrypted loader before the directory automatically so unless you are interested in encryption as part of the Lynx history there is no need to dig into encryption anymore.

[Der Luchs]

Wrong topic. Damn mobile phone ^^

Edited May 29, 2017 by Der Luchs

[SlidellMan]

So, I know that the Lynx can display 16 out of 4,096 colors. However, how many colors can be used in a tile, sprite, or metasprite? Truth be told, I always wanted to make my own Lynx game, but still look forward to more chapters in your tutorial.

[+karri]

A sprite can have a sprite depth of 1, 2, 3 or 4 bits. This corresponds to 2, 4, 8 or 16 colors. Color 0 can be used as transparent if you choose the sprite type to NORMAL.

 

All these tricks to get more colors than 16 on the screen at the same time has to be done by modifying the mapping from the 4 pits per pixel in the frame buffer to the 4096 colors the LCD can display. I don't know how the flicker-free high res images were created. But they look really nice.

[SlidellMan]

Thanks for clarifying that, Karri.

[rmzalbar]

Hi! I'm having a little trouble with sp65 for Windows. It crashes on all input (8x8 4-bitplane BMP and PCX files.) Screenshot attached (please note version number as well.) If anyone knows how to get this going, would you mind chiming in?

Thank you,

 

 

[sage]

Yeah, sending to microsoft can help

 

This error message does not help at all. sorry.

[LordKraken]

Have you tried other options or different option for the .bmp format (i.e. encoding)?

[+karri]

sp65 deals with indexed pcx files only. You need to convert the images to 16 colours or less indexes files.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

If that would happen to be the issue, some programs that are good for creating pixel art with indexed colours are for example gimp, aseprite or you could try this: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/273118-tiny-sprite-editor-for-lynx/

[rmzalbar]

sp65 deals with indexed pcx files only. You need to convert the images to 16 colours or less indexes files.

 

Drat, I thought I gave GIMP the correct incantations when I exported as PCX, but sure enough, it's 8-bit. Thank you!

Edited March 28, 2018 by rmzalbar

[rmzalbar]

Have you tried other options or different option for the .bmp format (i.e. encoding)?

 

I've been using sprpck 1.98, and that worked well enough with BMP files. I just wanted to try making transparent (shaped) sprites, a feature of sp65. I'm still looking for a way to export a PCX with a 4-bit index before that can happen.

Edited March 28, 2018 by rmzalbar