lbaeza Posted May 3, 2005 Share Posted May 3, 2005 Hi I recently purchased an EPROM burner, and have some EPROMs too. I want to burn some EPROMs with some Lynx games to play'em on my Lynx 2. To achieve this, I need some kind of Lynx cart were I can plug the EPROMs. Anybody knows where can I purchase one of these Lynx eprom-based carts? How much money does one of these carts costs? Regards PS: Take a look to the attachment to figure out what I'm looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted May 3, 2005 Share Posted May 3, 2005 Hi I recently purchased an EPROM burner, and have some EPROMs too. I want to burn some EPROMs with some Lynx games to play'em on my Lynx 2. To achieve this, I need some kind of Lynx cart were I can plug the EPROMs. Anybody knows where can I purchase one of these Lynx eprom-based carts? How much money does one of these carts costs? Regards PS: Take a look to the attachment to figure out what I'm looking for. 848292[/snapback] Check this thread. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memblers Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 I'm going to make a cartridge like that, like I mentioned in the other thread. I don't know how soon though. I'm kinda busy now, so it could be months away.. But if it works, I'd be willing to sell one of the prototypes for maybe $15. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 Memblers, In case you make the cart then please note that the Lynx 1 needs to have the connector part of the cart empty. Place the chip as far from the connector as possible. I have used normal thickness PCB's and then I glue a small strip of plastic on the component side to get the desired connector thickness. As glue I use super epoxy and as plastic I use a transparent cover material of a A4 folder. It is also a good thing to make a small slope on the edge of the cart so that you don't break the connector when you insert the cart. -- Cheers, Karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memblers Posted May 4, 2005 Share Posted May 4, 2005 (edited) Good point, as I only have the Lynx 2. I figured I would extend the PCB beyond the lynx by about .75" so the ROM is fully in the clear, or is that a bad idea also with the Lynx 1? Seems like soldering through-hole sockets would be a problem if it needs to be flat on the bottom, wouldn't it? I was hoping to use the right thickness PCB also, I need to find some calipers to see what it is exactly. Edited May 4, 2005 by Memblers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbaeza Posted May 4, 2005 Author Share Posted May 4, 2005 Hi Guys Thanks for the link, Mitch. Making one of these PCBs from scratch is very difficult. Mostly because of the lines on both sides of the board. Memblers, if you have success on this task, I'd be glad to hear from you. Anyway, B&C sells those prototype/demo carts for $39.95, and that's the cheapest EPROM-based cart I found on the net. Anybody knows if these carts have the EPROMs directly soldered onto the board, or there's a socket between the EPROM and the PCB? Regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted May 5, 2005 Share Posted May 5, 2005 Hi Guys Thanks for the link, Mitch. Making one of these PCBs from scratch is very difficult. Mostly because of the lines on both sides of the board. Memblers, if you have success on this task, I'd be glad to hear from you. Anyway, B&C sells those prototype/demo carts for $39.95, and that's the cheapest EPROM-based cart I found on the net. Anybody knows if these carts have the EPROMs directly soldered onto the board, or there's a socket between the EPROM and the PCB? Regards 849518[/snapback] B&C will sell you the plain board as well, I forget how much it cost. Email them and get a quote, it's a nice board, it can handle both 128K and 256K games. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memblers Posted May 5, 2005 Share Posted May 5, 2005 (edited) Making one of these PCBs from scratch is very difficult. Mostly because of the lines on both sides of the board. Yeah, definitely. I didn't clarify it in my post, but my plan is to have a professional PCB fab make it. Gold plated & beveled edge connector, all that nice stuff. I found a picture of the (or a) B&C lynx cart, it does look pretty nice. Edited May 5, 2005 by Memblers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted May 5, 2005 Share Posted May 5, 2005 Good point, as I only have the Lynx 2. I figured I would extend the PCB beyond the lynx by about .75" so the ROM is fully in the clear, or is that a bad idea also with the Lynx 1? Seems like soldering through-hole sockets would be a problem if it needs to be flat on the bottom, wouldn't it? I was hoping to use the right thickness PCB also, I need to find some calipers to see what it is exactly. 849118[/snapback] Extending the cart is bad for the Lynx 1. It has a small plastic door that encloses the cart completely. So it is completely inside the Lynx 1. Have a look at my devflash document. It has pictures of how it fits into Lynx 1. DevFlash Through soldered components is no problem really. Just cut the pins so that they don't come out on the solder side before you solder. -- Karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memblers Posted May 5, 2005 Share Posted May 5, 2005 Thanks Karri, I see now. Looks like that DIP switch on yours uses all the space available, heheh. I'm mostly used to soldering NES boards (.047"), I'd forgotten just how massive Lynx ones are, heh. I noticed a socket at Digikey with a lead length of .095", I bet that's just the size for it. But they are relatively expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Hi GuysAnyway, B&C sells those prototype/demo carts for $39.95, and that's the cheapest EPROM-based cart I found on the net. Anybody knows if these carts have the EPROMs directly soldered onto the board, or there's a socket between the EPROM and the PCB? Regards Very expensive if you compare it to priced for COMPLETE games (Alpine Games 40€). BTW: Every Flash/EPROM cart sold will decrease my interest in releasing another cartridge... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 BTW: Every Flash/EPROM cart sold will decrease my interest in releasing another cartridge... 852000[/snapback] I was a bit worried about this aspect too. But so far I have only seen 3 flash carts go to people who have not yet contributed by either publishing a game or participating in developers forums. So I am not too worried about this anymore. Some people have even started to learn to program just to be able to show their friends that they can do a games cart for the Lynx by themselves. I really hope that the new compiler with cheap carts gives more to the Lynx community than it takes. The much bigger threat for running images of your software will be on emulated platforms where you have no choice to use the original cart. If some super-cool platform like PSP works better than the original Lynx for playing Lynx games then there is a big demand to get the recent game images copied. Besides the majority of Lynx ethusiasts are collecors by nature. Even I have bought 2 copies of Championship Rally and one of Alpine Games just to get the real thing. As a beta tester I had the games all the time. -- Cheers, Karri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memblers Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 BTW: Every Flash/EPROM cart sold will decrease my interest in releasing another cartridge... 852000[/snapback] Well, I was hoping another Lynx cart would have the opposite effect. Hypothetically, if it was available cheaper than whatever PCB one would use otherwise, that should make it easier for independant developers (or at least be an alternative). When I put my name/logo or something on it, you can be sure I wouldn't be willing to sell it to pirate cart makers or anything like that, heheh. I actually have experienced something like what Karri mentioned. I wrote a couple NES games (not really good ones though, heh), and I found a company that was selling them on pirate GBA carts. It went "out of stock" after I emailed them, though really I told them I was amused and wanted one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 Well, I was hoping another Lynx cart would have the opposite effect. Hypothetically, if it was available cheaper than whatever PCB one would use otherwise, that should make it easier for independant developers (or at least be an alternative). The point is: You can develop 90% of the game without testing it on a lynx. The emulation is really very good nowadays. The only things which are hard to test are sound, special sprite scaling/tilting abilities and comlynx. PS: as long as EPROM burning or Flashing takes >10 min for one ROM, its really a pain to use it in development. When I put my name/logo or something on it, you can be sure I wouldn't be willing to sell it to pirate cart makers or anything like that, heheh.I actually have experienced something like what Karri mentioned. I wrote a couple NES games (not really good ones though, heh), and I found a company that was selling them on pirate GBA carts. It went "out of stock" after I emailed them, though really I told them I was amused and wanted one. Well, I only say "PD" Disks / CDROMs. Some of my software endet up on a PD CDROM. The people who compiled these CDROM, did not even read the manual or looked in the info dialog of the software. Some of my lynx preview/beta versions ended up on a ROM site, which took money for downloading... This is really spoiling the fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memblers Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 The point is: You can develop 90% of the game without testing it on a lynx. The emulation is really very good nowadays. The only things which are hard to test are sound, special sprite scaling/tilting abilities and comlynx.PS: as long as EPROM burning or Flashing takes >10 min for one ROM, its really a pain to use it in development. I use an EPROM emulator (connected to a parallel port), uploading is closer to 10 seconds. It has to always stay connected to the PC though. I actually got one long before getting a chip programmer, it's definitely a recommended tool if you need to do a lot of testing with eproms. Music and sound programming is definitely one of the things I want to try when I get this working. Anyways, I doubt I'd make any more carts beyond the prototypes since I can't expect much beyond doing some experimenting. About the "PD" stuff, yeah I find that very annoying as well. It seems that any rom that's newly released for an old system ends up renamed with "PD" in the filename even though it's almost always not public domain. And even says so on the title screen, heh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raydog Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 It just so happens I made a few of these. I have about 25 left out of about 250 that I had made. Let me know how many you want. -- raydog@gmail.com I have no idea if the picture will show up. email me and I will send the picture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raydog Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 Woops, almost forgot. The current board only uses the 128k and 256k ROMS. I have a board that used the 512k ROMS with battery backup. (if anyone has seen the Atari battery prototype board, well mine is the same) But I never had them produced. -- raydog@gmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.