Lynx dev. boxes

[SuperDork3000]

What is the difference between the Pinky dev box and the Howard dev box? What do you need to develope lynx games?

[Shawn Jefferson]

Thanks to Bastian Schick and friends you don't need any of that crap to develop for the lynx.

 

You can develop with a custom version of cc65 or with Lyxass (? an assembler) on the PC and use a PC-lynx interface to get your code into the lynx for testing. I think you can even burn larger programs onto a ROM for testing on a real lynx, but you are probably better served doing most of the initial testing with Handy (emulator.)

 

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Byte/4242/lynx/

[Harry_Dodgson]

*ignoring the previous post - which ignored the first question*

 

The Pinky/Mandy combination is basically a RAM cartridge board with a Lynx I.

There is just enough hardware to allow RAM or cartridge data transfers from a

PC or Amiga. Debugging support is minimal and tied to the NMI line (which is

not available on a Lynx II).

 

The Howard board contains sophisticated (for its time) circuitry that captures

all bus accesses, provides transparent breakpoints, RAM/cartridge emulation

with editing, and symbolic debugging. If your program crashes, you can step

back thousands of instructions to see what went wrong. While the "Howdy"

part looks like a Lynx I, it is just the display and buttons.

 

To develop Lynx games, you need the Lynx documentation, available online, and

one of the many 6502 assemblers or compilers. Ones customized for the Lynx

tend to make the learning experience less painful. I prefer the Epyx/Atari dev

system for the Amiga as it has the best ComLynx libraries.

 

I admit that I run it on a laptop PC (Piece of Crap) using the UAE emulator and

feed the output into the Handy emulator for initial testing as the Amiga 2000/

Howard board setup takes up a huge amount of deskspace. I recently managed

to get the HMS dev suite (PC-based) working with a Pinky/Mandy which is making

testing even easier than with the Handy emulator.

 

Harry

[Tempest]

I recently managed  

to get the HMS dev suite (PC-based) working with a Pinky/Mandy which is making testing even easier than with the Handy emulator.

 

Does this mean you're developing a new Lynx title?

 

Tempest

[Harry_Dodgson]

I recently managed  

to get the HMS dev suite (PC-based) working with a Pinky/Mandy which is making testing even easier than with the Handy emulator.

 

Does this mean you're developing a new Lynx title?

 

Tempest

 

Yes - but it takes time and creativity - both of which are in short supply for me these days.

 

Harry