Shawn Jefferson Posted May 23, 2003 Share Posted May 23, 2003 I keep thinking about the comlynx port and what may be possible with it. Do you think the following things are possible? 1. Connection through a PC to play comlynxed with the Handy emulator. 2. Connection through a PC via Internet to other people to play comlynxed. A client/server that keeps track of everybody and sends the right packets to each person's PC (to then be sent via comlynx to the actual Lynx) would be required. 3. New games that could detect whether they are plugged into a PC via comlynx port, and if so, would send the high score or any other stats to a website where Top Ten lists could be kept for that game. 4. Downloadable levels for games from PC. This already exists I think. It would be nice if those levels were able to be written to a flash rom or battery backed RAM on the lynx PCB so that you don't have to continually download the new levels every time. Certainly some of these things are either unfeasible, or not worth the effort required to get them working. I'd really like to see #2 come to fruition though (and for the Atari 8-bit with GameLink!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted May 23, 2003 Share Posted May 23, 2003 1. Connection through a PC to play comlynxed with the Handy emulator. A connection to a (standard) PC is only possible with 9600 baud. Using higher rates (which comlynx games mostly use) require hardware modifications (on lynx or pc side). Besides, comlynx isnt implemented very well in handy :-( 2. Connection through a PC via Internet to other people to play comlynxed. A client/server that keeps track of everybody and sends the right packets to each person's PC (to then be sent via comlynx to the actual Lynx) would be required. See 1) Also I think it is too slow, games will time out. 3. New games that could detect whether they are plugged into a PC via comlynx port, and if so, would send the high score or any other stats to a website where Top Ten lists could be kept for that game. This would require a program running on the PC which answere the request. But yes, this shouldnt be a problem. 4. Downloadable levels for games from PC. This already exists I think. It would be nice if those levels were able to be written to a flash rom or battery backed RAM on the lynx PCB so that you don't have to continually download the new levels every time. Not a problem, but would require Flash-Rom or SRAM. This is expensive. Tschau, Sage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted May 23, 2003 Author Share Posted May 23, 2003 A connection to a (standard) PC is only possible with 9600 baud. Using higher rates (which comlynx games mostly use) require hardware modifications (on lynx or pc side). Could you explain why that is? The comlynx to PC adapter looks to me almost exactly like the SIO2PC cable I use on my Atari 8-bit and that does speeds of 57600 (happy speeds, or at least 19200.) How fast does the lynx usually communicate to other lynxes on the comlynx cable? Re: Internet comlynx connection Also I think it is too slow, games will time out. Perhaps, but quite a few people have fast internet connectons (at least here in NA) and the client/server could be designed in such a way as to keep the connection up (I think) and maybe even to interpolate packets depending on the game... I want to think it may be possible, although I may just be dreaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_lynx1989 Posted May 23, 2003 Share Posted May 23, 2003 supposedly,the lynx can handle midi or an external joystick.atari never did anything with the stuff that epyx and r.j. mical and dave needle gave the little unit that could.too bad,too.sounded real good back in 1989/90 to us lynxers/lynxers to be.oh,the possibilties!! makes you drool,doesn't it?the "uart"(universal asyncronous receiver transmitter) or comlynx port was an interesting thingy deep within the lynx,too.atari never really did push the limits(or other developers either) of the comlynx port.a few games did try some,i guess.slimeworld in one of a few that did,i guess.also battlewheels.others??hmmmm.---the lynxer of lynxland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herr professor Posted May 24, 2003 Share Posted May 24, 2003 DAMN Someone got to my midi suggestion first It would make such a nice companion to synth cart, dontcha think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 A connection to a (standard) PC is only possible with 9600 baud. Using higher rates (which comlynx games mostly use) require hardware modifications (on lynx or pc side). Could you explain why that is? The comlynx to PC adapter looks to me almost exactly like the SIO2PC cable I use on my Atari 8-bit and that does speeds of 57600 (happy speeds, or at least 19200.) A normal PC can handle 9600 19200 38400 57600 ... The Lynx can handle 9600 31000 62000 This means you need to make some hardware changes or lynx OR PC side... The Atari Falcon has a better programmable serial connection, here you can use 62kbaud connections with the lynx. I think Midi should work also, but I never got it running. How fast does the lynx usually communicate to other lynxes on the comlynx cable? 31 or 62 kb I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 I have been playing around a bit with different speeds for serial ports and there is actually also a possibility to request odd speeds from some Linux drivers if you add your special speeds in the source: static int baud_table[] = { 0, 50, 75, 110, 134, 150, 200, 300, 600, 1200, 1800, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 62500, /* Lynx special */ 57600, 115200, 230400, 460800, 0 }; If your card supports arbitrary baud rates, (e.g. CD1400 or 16550 based cards) then everything will be very easy... port->baud = baudrate; In Windows you can call SetCommState. From the description I found that "Baud rate at which the communications device operates. This member can be an actual baud rate value, or one of the following indexes: CBR_110 CBR_19200 CBR_300 CBR_38400 CBR_600 CBR_56000 CBR_1200 CBR_57600 CBR_2400 CBR_115200 CBR_4800 CBR_128000 CBR_9600 CBR_256000 CBR_14400 " Has anybody tried to just give a Lynx-baudrate to see if Windows can handle this? If nobody has tried this I could try to modify my downloader to include a hex-monitor for displaying high-speed ComLynx-traffic for debugging purposes. -- Karri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Can PC serial ports not do MIDI baud rates? What about using the MIDI connection on most sound cards? Wouldn't that be a full serial port? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthias Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Hello, when i am remembering right the BLL-card of Bastian Schick offers 4 or 5 different baudrates, but only the 96xx bauds work with standard serial ports of PCs. But i think the highest baudrate offered is the MIDI-baudrate (perhaps i am mixing this up with the MIDI-connection of hie BJL-Jaguar-DevKit). Matthias Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 I have been playing around a bit with different speeds for serial ports and there is actually also a possibility to request odd speeds from some Linux drivers if you add your special speeds in the source: Driver source or transfer prog source? If your card supports arbitrary baud rates, (e.g. CD1400 or 16550 based cards) then everything will be very easy... In Windows you can call SetCommState. From the description I found that "Baud rate at which the communications device operates. This member can be an actual baud rate value, or one of the following indexes: Has anybody tried to just give a Lynx-baudrate to see if Windows can handle this? If nobody has tried this I could try to modify my downloader to include a hex-monitor for displaying high-speed ComLynx-traffic for debugging purposes. I tried, but it failed. Windows took the nearest standard baud rate. Tschau, Sage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 For Linux I have recompiled the kernel drivers. Actually my CPU was a MPC 8260 and I used 1.4 megabaud for streaming music to a small 16-bit stereo D/A converter, but it should work on Intel as well... What a pity that Windows cannot accept arbitrary rates with the standard drivers. -- Karri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted May 30, 2003 Author Share Posted May 30, 2003 I did some searching and it looks like the 16550 cannot do the wierd speeds of 31000 and 62000, nor midi (31200?) because of the clock speeds used to derive the baud rate (??) There are some midi-to-serial port projects and products out there which convert the midi baud rate to the 38400 on the PC side. This is what we need to get comlynx signals to the PC, I think. Could you somehow use the midi port on most PCs sound cards to talk to the lynx? I couldn't find any information on how you may do this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.