New game Ideas... ?

[EricDeLee]

I was playing the Lynx last night for about 4 hours and decided to try out cyberball again. I simply do not like this game.

 

One of my favorite football games... still... is NES's Super Tecmo Bowl.

 

How hard would it be for someone to program that game for the Lynx? I think the playability would be wonderful if we can capture the same feel as the original. I love this game and love the 'modded' version on the internet that you can find. Stuff like the college version... that is simply awesome! I'm still waiting for someone to make me a Super Tecmo Bowl NES cart (of course I would want the one with college players names and teams).

 

Just wondering if any of you thought about this and if it would be possible on the Lynx. Baseball Stars is another great one.

 

Thanks for reading!

[cthulhu]

I would love to see a game like Alien Breed on the Lynx...I had Alien Breed on the Amiga and I loved it. This would be a great Lynx game if it could be done. The Lynx needs an action game like that one.

[davidcalgary29]

There are, by my count, roughly eight games/utilities that need only a little polishing in order to be considered "complete". I'd like to see at least some of these licensed and burned onto a cart as the next Lynx cart release.

[Elrond]

The biggest problem is that homebrew Lynx games can't be bigger than the RAM, which is a generous 64kb ,compared to about 2 on the Gameboy. It isn't too difficult, you can code in C on the Lynx. Still new games coming out though. Check songbirds website for something that's been sorely lacking.

[TailChao]

The biggest problem is that homebrew Lynx games can't be bigger than the RAM, which is a generous 64kb ,compared to about 2 on the Gameboy.  It isn't too difficult, you can code in C on the Lynx. Still new games coming out though. Check songbirds website for something that's been sorely lacking.

956460[/snapback]

That actually isn;t much of a problem, you can pull most things out of the cart quite quickly (most notably graphics, loading animations as needed is a very good method) as well as code. The GB isn't that limited either, 8KB for variables and nonrelocational code aswell as 8KB for 2bpp tile data and a visible cart space of 32KB? that's incredibly flexible with lots of room to work with, in a sense just as much as the lynx. After you pop in your double buffering on the lynx, you only have 48KB of RAM left, although it can be utilized much more efficiently (sprite compression).

[Lamer Deluxe tm]

I think the problem is if you're making a game larger than 64kB and want to test some effects that don't work on an emulator.

 

I'd really love to have a flash cart for the Lynx.

 

Is anyone using an eprom simulator for the Lynx? And if so, which one, where did you get it, how expensive is it?

 

A couple of years ago I programmed a number of small demos for the Lynx, in assembly, for a project of Ray Ryland. (After coming up with the high-color idea for the Lynx, which Bjoern went on to make).

 

Right now I'm thinking about making a game for the Lynx, so I'm also thinking which game I'd like to do the most.

 

Ray was also thinking about doing a flash cart back then, but I haven't heard anything about it anymore.

 

There are lots of classic arcade games that should work very well on the Lynx. You could even make Lynx versions of GBA games, though that would be a lot more work.

Edited October 30, 2005 by Lamer Deluxe tm

[TailChao]

I think the problem is if you're making a game larger than 64kB and want to test some effects that don't work on an emulator.

 

I'd really love to have a flash cart for the Lynx.

 

Is anyone using an eprom simulator for the Lynx? And if so, which one, where did you get it, how expensive is it?

 

A couple of years ago I programmed a number of small demos for the Lynx, in assembly, for a project of Ray Ryland. (After coming up with the high-color idea for the Lynx, which Bjoern went on to make).

 

Right now I'm thinking about making a game for the Lynx, so I'm also thinking which game I'd like to do the most.

 

Ray was also thinking about doing a flash cart back then, but I haven't heard anything about it anymore.

 

There are lots of classic arcade games that should work very well on the Lynx. You could even make Lynx versions of GBA games, though that would be a lot more work.

956681[/snapback]

 

I'm using a 16MB Flash cart from karri (Poke around on the Lynx section of AA and you'll find some info on it) IIRC it was 70 or 60 USD (Bought it two years ago). You could also buy a reproduction prototype cartridge and swap out the EPROM for one of your own.

 

GBA -> Lynx is not possible, there is no way the lynx could handle the CPU stress given by some GBA games at 60FPS. You can make a very graphically appealing game, but you're not going to be running Gunstar Super Heroes anytime soon.

[AGA]

I think the problem is if you're making a game larger than 64kB and want to test some effects that don't work on an emulator.

 

I'd really love to have a flash cart for the Lynx.

 

Is anyone using an eprom simulator for the Lynx? And if so, which one, where did you get it, how expensive is it?

 

A couple of years ago I programmed a number of small demos for the Lynx, in assembly, for a project of Ray Ryland. (After coming up with the high-color idea for the Lynx, which Bjoern went on to make).

 

Right now I'm thinking about making a game for the Lynx, so I'm also thinking which game I'd like to do the most.

 

Ray was also thinking about doing a flash cart back then, but I haven't heard anything about it anymore.

 

There are lots of classic arcade games that should work very well on the Lynx. You could even make Lynx versions of GBA games, though that would be a lot more work.

956681[/snapback]

 

In the case of Lynx high-color possibilities, I was wondering if it would be possible to make a game using it.

As it seems to be suitable for non moving images, it could be used in some sort of aventure game or RPG. But I don't know if it is possible to use

sprites (to display informations) in this high color mode.

I guess there must be some bandwith limitations... Anyway, no matter using thousand of colors, this mode maybe used to display images with,

say between 32 and 64 colors (there are really nice RPG on Amiga that use 32 or 64 colors GFX -> Eye of Beholder 2 for example),

and maybe less than thousand or even hundred colors on screen could save some bandwith (in the case it would be the problem). Would it be possible ?

 

Concerning game adaptations, I think that it is not a good idea to focus on games such as the ones on modern handheld consoles like the GBA,

they are often complex games, and making versions on these games on the Lynx are, I think, a very long and painful process that inevitably leads to

a born dead project (lack of time, lost of interest, discouragement etc.).

 

You should rather look toward old 8 bit machines like the NES (CPU-> 6502, 16 colors displayable on screen...), the MSX1 or MSX2, etc.

Games like "Yie Ar Kung Fu" (MSX1 and NES have the same version) are very entertaining and do not seem that hard to adapt : just a screen without scrolling, and 2 sprites jumping, punching and kicking in a kung fu fighting frenzy !

It's a very simple concept, but so fun !

 

Opcode, a guy from Brasil has made a Coleco adaptation of this game :

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=66325

 

http://www.opcodegames.com/modules.php?nam...=showpage&pid=8

 

So, if it is possible for the Coleco, it should be possible for the Lynx !

 

 

Well, in fact there are many, many very good old 8 bit games that could give some ideas or inspiration for people who would like to make

some games for our beloved handheld. I hope that some day we could see some of them on our little LCD screen...

 

Have a nice day !

[Lamer Deluxe tm]

Wow, a 16Mb flash cart sounds perfect! I'll do some digging in the forum, I vaguely remember a topic about a flash cart, but didn't know it actually materialized.

 

Can't wait to try TailChao's game BTW, I love Sonic.

 

Ofcourse most games from the GBA can't be ported to the Lynx, it can't do sprite rotation for one thing. I'm also pretty sure some Lynx games would be hard to do on the GBA, because of it's sprite size and number limitations.

 

I was thinking about games inspired by Advance Wars, Wario Ware, Chu-chu Rocket, those should be possible to do on the Lynx. But creating all the levels would take quite a bit of time.

 

Bjoern (sage) actually came up with a cool highcolor mode that uses 216 colors and can be used for moving objects as well. The graphics do use more memory ofcourse, but he already made a demonstration game with it that worked well.

 

I'd also been thinking about a game using elements of International Karate+ and Tekken. Which would be something like IK+ with more moves and nice backdrops with some parallax effects. Making the character animations look good would be the most work. If you kept the number of colors of the characters low, it would allow for some more frames.

[Shawn Jefferson]

Ofcourse most games from the GBA can't be ported to the Lynx, it can't do sprite rotation for one thing. I'm also pretty sure some Lynx games would be hard to do on the GBA, because of it's sprite size and number limitations.

 

Almost everything can be ported, its just a matter of where you make compromises. You can just pre-render your rotated sprites on the lynx for instance.

 

A lot of confusion in the thread above.

 

1. It's certainly possible to code games bigger than 64k with cc65 on the lynx. Just pull in code from cartridge. Most vintage computers/consoles work this way. The C development tools, both old and new support this pretty easily.

 

2. The emulator, last time I looked, did a pretty good job of emulating the lynx and cartridges so you could code your game and test it in emulation. The "high-color modes" (correct me if I'm wrong) are just flipping between two screen buffers every frame to give the illusion of more colors. This also has been a well-used graphics tool on vintage computers/console for quite some time. The emulator could have problems with that, to be sure.

 

I'd love to do a game on lynx one day. I have a couple of other projects on the go and want to finish them up. Also, I have to admit that while I think the Lynx is a very cool system, the 8-bit computer is my first love.

[Lamer Deluxe tm]

It's not that the development software can't go above 64K, the BLL cartridge can't. It simply loads executables into the Lynx's 64K memory.

 

The Handy emulator seems to have some timing problems somewhere with raster interrupts (or maybe it's raster polling?), try Shadow of the Beast and Roadblasters to see what I mean.

 

Highcolor indeed usually uses multiple frames of changing colors, though one of the versions uses 16 colors per scanline which works perfectly with Handy.

 

If Handy would be able to mix two or three successive frames together, the other highcolor modes would work as well.

 

And I agree that many games can be ported if you degrade things here and there.

Edited October 30, 2005 by Lamer Deluxe tm

[Isgoed]

That IK+ idea of yours, sounds cool!!

 

One vote from Holland for Atari Lynx IK+......

[Lamer Deluxe tm]

That IK+ idea of yours, sounds cool!!

 

One vote from Holland for Atari Lynx IK+......

957321[/snapback]

 

Thanks

 

Here's a quick drawing of a 'karate guy', just for fun:

 

 

And here's what Ms. Pacman could have looked like on the Lynx:

 

[Fadest]

Which would be something like IK+ with more moves and nice backdrops with some parallax effects. Making the character animations look good would be the most work. If you kept the number of colors of the characters low, it would allow for some more frames.

 

Think of mirror ability to divide numer of necessary sprites by 2.

You can also use the same sprite for the 2 (or 3, in an IK+ clone) players, by redefining ordonnancement of the palette of the PCB for each player. Of course, this is a hard work for the graphist (thinking this belt can be blue or red, hair colors).

Il made some tests (not for an IK+ clone) and it work well.

So you "only" need sprites for 1 player welle designes in oly one direction to manage all characters.

Of course, if you prefer heavy character design, this is another problem

[Lamer Deluxe tm]

Good points, those Lynx functions would indeed work perfectly for IK style characters.