Is Lynx slow when loading games?

[Serguei2]

Hi

 

I played Lynx today. I noted that a picture appairs a few seconds then the game begins.

 

Is the Lynx slow when loading the cartridge into memory or it just a ColecoVision syndrome with few seconds to wait until the game starts?

[JagFan422]

what game? I don't recall this being an issue with any of my games.

[bedouin]

I don't know if it's a few seconds, but the games aren't instant-on. Perhaps because,

 

"The games were originally meant to be loaded from tape, but were later changed to load from ROM. The game data still needed to be copied from ROM to RAM before it could be used, so less memory was available and the games loaded slower than necessary."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx

[Serguei2]

Thanks

[Matthias]

Hello!

 

The Lynx does run an encryption-verification process for the inserted cartridge, this causes the delay.

 

Best regards

Matthias

[Rob Nicholson]

Hello!

 

The Lynx does run an encryption-verification process for the inserted cartridge, this causes the delay.

 

Best regards

Matthias

 

The encryption bit was pretty fast - it was the loading of the program and data from ROM that took time as it was loaded via a serial interface.

 

We also compressed our data in cartridge using LZW compression algorithms to squeeze more levels in there.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[Serguei2]

Hmm... Why did Epyx want a portable with tape as media.

 

Sounds like somebody has put a joke about the tape thing in wikipedia.

Edited May 13, 2006 by Serguei2

[Rob Nicholson]

Hmm... Why did Epyx want a portable with tape as media.

 

Sounds like somebody has put a joke about the tape thing in wikipedia.

 

Hmm, not sure - I did meet the Lynx hardware designers (Jay & RJ??) at a 3DO console conference in SF (there was another system which never fullfillied it's promise). A Lynx programmer would feel very at home with the 3DO :-) But never had chance to chat too much about the Lynx hardware.

 

I did wonder why the interface to the ROM cartridge was via a serial interface but assumed it was a cost saving excercise.

 

Rob.

[semicolo]

Serial interface between the rom and suzy ???

Are the lynx schematics wrong ?

[+karri]

Serial interface between the rom and suzy ???

Are the lynx schematics wrong ?

Perhaps the word streamed device is better than serial interface for describing the cart connection.

 

The cart is accessed as a stream device one byte at a time. The byte comes in on the databus 8 bits at a time. But there is also a pin called Audio I/O that is used for accessing serial EEPROM's one bit at a time. This is in use in a few newer carts like SIMIS.

 

You have to read in the data from the cart one block at a time. Only the highest 8 address bits are accessible. The 10 lowest address bits come from a counter that is incremented every time you read a byte. You can only reset the counter - not set individual bits.

 

The original EPYX documentation talks about a tape interface. The idea was to connect a tape drive to the Lynx and upload the game using the ComLynx hardware I believe. This was the "standard" way for game machines like M6800 mark II, Cosmac etc.

 

Fortunately they dropped the idea.

 

--

Karri

[Shawn Jefferson]

The cart is accessed as a stream device one byte at a time. The byte comes in on the databus 8 bits at a time.

 

You have to read in the data from the cart one block at a time. Only the highest 8 address bits are accessible. The 10 lowest address bits come from a counter that is incremented every time you read a byte. You can only reset the counter - not set individual bits.

 

The actual data transfer of the lynx isn't really slower as Karri said, most consoles of the time are probably pushing 8 data bits at a time, but the "streaming" nature means you don't have random access to bytes within a bank, like most consoles of the time had. If you had data that was in the middle of the bank, you had to "skip" over all the data before it by reading it in and discarding it, which is why the Lynx may have had slower cartridge access. This is a programming and layout of data/code in the cartridge issue though (IMO at least) and some games are probably worse than others for slow cart access.

[semicolo]

so, the starting delay is caused by the encryption algorithm or not ?

[Serguei2]

Are bigger games make longer to load than the smaller games?

[+karri]

so, the starting delay is caused by the encryption algorithm or not ?

 

In my opinion the starting delay is caused by the encryption algorithm. The programmer can tell the cart how big the encrypted software is. Harry Dodgson was kind to write a 410 byte program for me that goes on top of the cart for all carts made by the cc65.org compiler. Decrypting this loader program combined with a 1 pixel black starting screen is the fastest way to boot up the Lynx that I have seen.

 

[shameless advertising plug on]

This technique is in use in the brand new MegaPak cart

[/shameless advertising plug off

--

Karri