Igor Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 (edited) Hi All, After a few weeks of work and collaboration with RetroHQ and a few others from this forum, the all new Menu Loader is finally available for download. I've written up an article/user guide on it here - https://atarigamer.com/articles/introducing-lynx-sd-menu-loader-version-2 Download link: https://github.com/ikromin/atarilynx/releases/download/lynxsd-menu-2-v1.0.2/aglnxmenu2.zip Source code: https://github.com/ikromin/atarilynx/tree/lynxsd-menu-2/lynxsd-menu Here are a bunch of screenshots... Try it out, see what you think. It's a drop-in replacement for the v1.8/v1.9 menu. RetroHQ should also have a long file name creation tool for it soon. Main features: Atari Lynx ROM loading - LNX, LYX, O, and COM files Game previews via LSD files (with backward compatibility for _PREVIEW directory in the original Lynx SD Menu) Configurable preferences Redesigned user interface Colour theme support Auto-launch ROM on startup option Long ROM name support Support for EEPROM on SD Cart via LNX file header "INSERT GAME" screen is removed quicker on boot Update (6-Mar-2019): SainT has sent in a few bug fixes that address the EEPROM on SD cart and low power mode that affected some revisions of the Lynx. Also some minor UI improvements were made. The above download link has been updated. Enjoy! Edited March 16, 2019 by necrocia 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitari Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Very nice! I like the Insert Game screen speed (although there are other new screens to get through!) and I really like the fast scroll, although as I mentioned previously it would be best to have Z looping to A i.e once the end is reached you keep holding down to get immediately to the start. However the recede screen option gets you there pretty much instantly anyway. I don't think I'll have the patience to add the full filenames to each ROM although it would be better to see the full name. Especially with all the weird homebrew/demo titles and different versions with nearly the same title. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 Z-A looping makes sense, maybe that can be added as a feature for the next version. Incidentally have you had any problems loading any ROMs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitari Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Great! No problem loading ROMs! I would say this seems even better still on lynx model 1. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefred Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 (edited) Z-A looping makes sense, maybe that can be added as a feature for the next version. Incidentally have you had any problems loading any ROMs? It looks like there is a bug with the games that suport save files, they freeze when they try to save. is there a temp way to prevent it? reiko robot run, flappy birds, and lumberjack freeze when the game is over. Only ones i have tested so far with save i think. Also if anyone wants to make up the long names baised on the preview names would be great. I already renamed my roms to the same as the lsd files. Edited March 5, 2019 by thefred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 There will be updated versions of my games available shortly with proper saves on the SD cart. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nop90 Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Very nice. Can't wait to have my cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+eebuckeye Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Looks terrific! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattsoft Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Looks really nice. Gonna install it this weekend. Thanks for supporting the Lynx SD cart!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UGB Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Any update on the waiting list for this? I've heard that some orders were taken recently, but I haven't ready anything about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 SainT should be sending out orders this week, I suggest you message him if you have questions, he's the one in charge of the actual hardware Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 It looks like there is a bug with the games that suport save files, they freeze when they try to save. is there a temp way to prevent it? reiko robot run, flappy birds, and lumberjack freeze when the game is over. Only ones i have tested so far with save i think. Also if anyone wants to make up the long names baised on the preview names would be great. I already renamed my roms to the same as the lsd files. We discovered this bug after release yesterday. It's fixed in the code now (with a few other minor changes), I need to build the new version today. Update will be done by tomorrow, till then sit tight. Thanks for checking it out and reporting this problem! There will be updated versions of my games available shortly with proper saves on the SD cart. Awesome Karri! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 6, 2019 Author Share Posted March 6, 2019 It looks like there is a bug with the games that suport save files, they freeze when they try to save. is there a temp way to prevent it? reiko robot run, flappy birds, and lumberjack freeze when the game is over. Only ones i have tested so far with save i think. Also if anyone wants to make up the long names baised on the preview names would be great. I already renamed my roms to the same as the lsd files. Here's a new version that should fix these issues: https://github.com/ikromin/atarilynx/releases/download/lynxsd-menu-2-v1.0.1/aglnxmenu2.zip Could you please try that and see how you go? I've asked admin to update the OP with this new link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefred Posted March 6, 2019 Share Posted March 6, 2019 Here's a new version that should fix these issues: https://github.com/ikromin/atarilynx/releases/download/lynxsd-menu-2-v1.0.1/aglnxmenu2.zip Could you please try that and see how you go? I've asked admin to update the OP with this new link. That took care of the freezing on those 3 games. Thanks for the update. Will all games that have save options have to be patched to be able to save on the SD? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted March 6, 2019 Share Posted March 6, 2019 If you want games that can save on the SD cart then the game needs to be coded that way. You also need to provide a correctly sized save file on the cart. The Lynx can not create files, re-size files or re-name them. I was planning to make a separate directory for saves. /saves/flappy.sav/saves/awreiko.sav /saves/shaken.sav ... All the sav-files are 128 byte long at startup and the content is full of 0xff as a real eeprom. Patching old games may be difficult. But at least this opens up a new option for making new games. You could easily code a game to use eeprom or SD if they are available. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 6, 2019 Author Share Posted March 6, 2019 Maybe one day we'll have a real EEPROM on a SD style cart, but until then games have to be written specifically to save to the SD cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagpuss Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 (edited) Many thanks for the great work on this new menu. I've had my Lynx SD for ages (got one from the second batch made), but only just got around to fixing my Lynx, and then installing the McWill screen. My SD card is formatted as FAT16, I've copied across the new menu files, and then copied my games in a folder called ROMS. I can't copy them into the root directory, due to FAT16 limitations. I've also used the MakeRomList tool to create the romlist.txt in the ROMS directory. However, when I power up the Lynx, the game titles still show as the shortname in menu. I've checked the prefs, and long names are selected. I was just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction, as I'm not sure what I've done wrong. Also, I seem unable to use FAT32. If I format the card this way, then all I see is 'INSERT GAME' when it's inserted. Should FAT32 work? Any help would be much appreciated. Andy. Edited March 17, 2019 by Bagpuss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 Hey Andy, you need to have the romlist.txt file in the same directory as the ROMs, did you do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagpuss Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 Yes. romlist.txt is in the same folder as the ROMs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 18, 2019 Author Share Posted March 18, 2019 Send me a message together with your romlist.txt file and the directory listing on the SD card and I'll have a look. I didn't write the MakeRomList tool so it's possible it could be doing something unexpected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg2600 Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 (edited) All Roms have to be in the same folder? Doesn't that result in slower menu loading? Can anyone upload a romslist.txt full file? Edited March 19, 2019 by Greg2600 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 19, 2019 Author Share Posted March 19, 2019 That's not what I said...the romlist.txt file has to be in the same folder as the ROMs. You can have as many folders as you like and in fact there is a limit of 256 files per folder (due to memory restrictions). It's probably a better idea to not have more than about a 100 files in a directory though. The case with Bagpuss was that there were over 300 files in a directory and they all had long names, which caused Lynx memory to run out. I'd also suggest crafting your own specific romlist.txt just for the ROMs you want long names for. If you use a 'generic' romlist.txt with all possible ROM names then that will also cause in slower loading times. There's only so much a Lynx can pump out unfortunately Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg2600 Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 Okay, but if I have ROMS in multiple folders, I need to have a romlist.txt in each of those folders, for the roms in those folders? Right now I don't have that TXT file but still have short file names and I'm just stuck on the menu loading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share Posted March 20, 2019 That's right. The romlist.txt file must be in the folder where the ROMs are. If you have multiple folders then you need multiple romlist.txt files. There is no requirement to have the romlist.txt file at all, it's only used for displaying long names. What do you mean you're stuck on menu loading? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg2600 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 I'm stuck on the Lynx SD Menu Loader 2 screen. The only way I get through that is to remove the roms and the folders they are in. Do they need to be in a sub-directory called ROMS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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