Some Homebrew games do not work, e.g. "Nutmeg"

[Blademan2]

Hi there,

since a few weeks I own a Lynx game drive. All "official" ROMs and lots of other home-brew or self compiled ROMs work, but I cannot get certain ROMs working. Examples for this are "Nutmeg" and "xump4lynx". I downloaded the ROMs from various websites, including Retroguru, but I just get a black screen. Anyone facing the same issue or has an idea whats the problem? I'm using a Lynx II with LCD mod and also tested it on 2 further original Lynx II and an original Lynx I that I own. The SD card in the GameDrive is 32 GB, FAT23 formatted on OSX. GameDrive firmware is V1.84 (latest one).

 

Best regards,

Blademan.

 

PS.: If any admin is reading this: I'm trying to get my account to be approved for weeks/months now and wrote several emails regarding this - unfortunately did not receive any info, yet...

[Nop90]

That roms handles both cases of saves on EEPROM and saves on SD for the old version of the SD card, but this is not working anymore with the new card where you have to select only one of this two options, while the hybrid mode hangs the code.

 

I asked in another thread of this section to upgrade the LynxGD driver to be compatible with the old card, but I suppose it requires time.

 

Since the new LynxGD card has Eeprom emulation, it doesn't require the SD access anymore to save the Hi scores, so for my games I can provide a version that has only the Eeprom save so to work on the new card.

 

I think you can ask to the other developer to do the same.

 

Please let me know all the roms of mine (included the Retroguru ones and the OCEO coded by me) that you need. I'll post some fixed roms of mine here in a few days.

[+jgkspsx]

Both Yastuna 1 & 2 hang with a black screen at times for me, with both the lnx and lyx files. Space Shot on Yastuna 2, in particular, and other games on Yastuna 1. I have an official copy of Yastuna 2 but I was really looking forward to playing Yastuna 1. On the other hand maybe I should make sure the batteries are not running down...

[thefred]

Isn't the latest firmware still 1.03? That is what I have on mine, When I open the QR code, it says I already have the latest.

Are you sure you aren't using the files from Game Drive Classic? The older card? If you are using the older card, the latest is version 2 by Igor, that is the one that supports the eproms.

Edited January 15, 2021 by thefred

[Fadest]

On 1/15/2021 at 8:40 AM, jgkspsx said:

Both Yastuna 1 & 2 hang with a black screen at times for me, with both the lnx and lyx files. Space Shot on Yastuna 2, in particular, and other games on Yastuna 1. I have an official copy of Yastuna 2 but I was really looking forward to playing Yastuna 1. On the other hand maybe I should make sure the batteries are not running down...

These ROm are very old, and I'm not aware of any problems with flashcards.

As I have a GD card, I will put it in function and check. Do you use a Lynx 1 or Lynx 2 ?

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Fadest

[Blademan2]

On 1/14/2021 at 4:43 PM, Nop90 said:

That roms handles both cases of saves on EEPROM and saves on SD for the old version of the SD card, but this is not working anymore with the new card where you have to select only one of this two options, while the hybrid mode hangs the code.

 

I asked in another thread of this section to upgrade the LynxGD driver to be compatible with the old card, but I suppose it requires time.

 

Since the new LynxGD card has Eeprom emulation, it doesn't require the SD access anymore to save the Hi scores, so for my games I can provide a version that has only the Eeprom save so to work on the new card.

 

I think you can ask to the other developer to do the same.

 

Please let me know all the roms of mine (included the Retroguru ones and the OCEO coded by me) that you need. I'll post some fixed roms of mine here in a few days.

Hi Nop,

 

thanks for your reply! Actually, I also found your thread describing the EEPROM issue afterwards, too. 

Thanks and regards,

Andreas

[+jgkspsx]

6 hours ago, Fadest said:

These ROm are very old, and I'm not aware of any problems with flashcards.

As I have a GD card, I will put it in function and check. Do you use a Lynx 1 or Lynx 2 ?

 

I have been using the GD with the Lynx 1 but I can try it in my 2 too.

[+jgkspsx]

So, I don’t know what was going on last night, but I confirmed all of the Yastuna 1 games in both the lyx and lnx files work on both of my Lynxes. On Yastuna 2 Space Shot never works on my Lynx 1, and Space Lock doesn’t work (maybe intermittently?) from the lyx file. Go figure. Everything works perfectly on my Lynx 2. I wonder if my Lynx 1 has an issue...

[Fadest]

Thanks, I will make tests on both Lynx 1 & 2

Space Shoot and Space Lock are the only games that rely on loading extra assets from ROM. I know I didn't use the same code on these games for doing this than on me recent games. Maybe there is something that does not comply with Lynx 1 (but IIRC, the first released version of YAstuna 2 had a similar problem but I changed code to correct it, so available ROMs should not be affected)

[Fadest]

Made some changes to the loading from ROM code, and it seems to work on Lynx 1 now.

There was also a problem on Yastuna 1 with Merlain adventure (text was not loading).

 

Can you check on your Lynx1 + GD, and if it is OK for you, I will push the ROM to itch.io

 

Also, I was wondering, are there some interest in some 2020 upgraded version of some games included in these compilation ?

Like what I did for Vince's birthday with original Attack from Yastuna 1 (but this one will remain a one of a kind, at least in this form, with graphs, music, special gameplay events...) :

Vince Attack - PeerTube (ti-fr.com)

 

Edit :

Also working on a new version of TetrisNoid, but this one will be for Nintendo NES (the video is an early prototype of special mode, where you play on 2 screens alternatively) :

 

yastuna1_v101.lnx yastuna2_v101.lnx

Edited January 17, 2021 by Fadest

[+jgkspsx]

Will do!

 

I really enjoy the games on both editions, so I would be really excited about new versions. I don't understand Buildings or Push, but I would like to understand them

 

Tetrisnoid is one of my favorite takeoffs on Tetris ever, in particular. You would think the ball would be helpful, but it's really not, heh.

 

This is off topic, but I'm not sure I understand how the shop works in Space Shot. Do you choose what you want to buy and then exit? I think that's what happens, but it took me a while to figure that out.

[Fadest]

The easy question :

In Space Shoot, you choose the weapon you want to equip your ship and you leave. You use the weapon when you want with B button. And it will cost you in points the price each time you use it. This is a pay per use system, if you do not have enough points, you can't use it. If you want to beak a record, you may be tempted to not use too powerful weapons.

 

Push :

Your goal is to stay alive (play new blocks) the longer you can. You play until your points reserve is positive.

Points reserve is the 1st number top left.

Number of moves (the score in fact), is the other one.

 

Each turn, you have a new block to put inside the grid (from 1 of the 4 side, you only select row or column), the block will push existing blocks until an empty space is cleared.

If the row is already full, then it will depends on the 2 last blocks. They will be sum up :

- if the sum is under 6, then they fusion into a new block, which value is the sum of the 2 blocks, 

Before :  After :

- if the sum is exactly 6 : then the 2 blocks disappears, creating a new empty space, and you gain 5 points (from 30 to 35 in the example)

Before :  After :

- if the sum is over 6, then the final black is destroyed, and you lose 10 points (from 35 to 25 in the example).

Before :  After :

 

 

Building :

This game came from a french mathematic magazine, when Sudoku was the big thing.

Your goal is to put on a grid buildings with different heights.

Like in Sudoku, you can only have 1 building of a kind in a row, or in a column.

The twist from sudoku is that the cluesare dependant on building's height. A higher building will hide every smaller buildings afterwards.

Each number around the grid tells you how many building you can see from this point of view.

For example, on a 5x5 grid, here are the key starting points .

If the clue is 5, then you will have only one solution for this row or columns : H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 . Every other combinaison will lead to a lower clue

If the clue is 1, then the first building is H5, hiding every other ones.

There can be more than 1 solution each time (the algorithm just randomise the grid, but do not test if more than 1 solution is available)

 

Example :

Starting grid

I can put every H5 building where clue is 1

 

I have put 4 H5 buildings, so I can guess where the 5th one is (the remaining row/column combinaison), and I put it

 

Look at 1 row, the value 2 up/left tells me that this building could be a H4, or a H3, with H1/H2 afterwards.

But in the first column, I have a clue 3 up/left. So if I put a H3 up/right, then the only option is to put H4 up/right, which is wrong because I could never have 3 visible buildings in this column. 

this is wrong :this is correct :

And so on...

Note that when the game see that a clue is correctly interpreted, it is now displayed in white instead of yellow. This does not means that values are correct, just that they reach the criteria awaited for this wlue.

 

 

Note: if you press Option 1, there is a Solution option, that show you 1 of the possible solutions (or the only 1 if there only 1), so you can figure a bit more what the game looks like :

[+jgkspsx]

Thank you very much! That helps a lot!

[+jgkspsx]

As far as I can tell, everything is working correctly on my Lynx 1 with both new files!

[Blademan2]

On 1/15/2021 at 5:52 PM, thefred said:

Isn't the latest firmware still 1.03? That is what I have on mine, When I open the QR code, it says I already have the latest.

Are you sure you aren't using the files from Game Drive Classic? The older card? If you are using the older card, the latest is version 2 by Igor, that is the one that supports the eproms.

Hi thefred,

that was a mistake from my side: Actually the firmware is the 1.04, which is the latest one. Even though I got a new LCD, I interpreted "0" as "8". This happened due to the font used. It is a current GameDrive.

[+remowilliams]

On 1/14/2021 at 10:43 AM, Nop90 said:

That roms handles both cases of saves on EEPROM and saves on SD for the old version of the SD card, but this is not working anymore with the new card where you have to select only one of this two options, while the hybrid mode hangs the code.

 

I just ran into this, at least I'm glad to find out it's not me or my card : )

[Indcsion]

Has anyone tried Binjax 2? It doesnt work for me.