Atari Lynx Emulation on Mame

[Graham]

Hi All

I'm having difficulties getting the Atari Lynx to work with Mame. I've downloaded countless number of Lynx BIOS's and unable to load any game . I'm sure the BIOS's are at fault as the CRC's don't match although the games are playable from the file manager. My question is, has anybody been able to successfully run Lynx on Mame? (via software list). Although the actual Lynx (AFAIK) has one BIOS, from the files I have found, lynx.bin and lynxa.bin are required within lynx.zip. Is that correct? Any advice on how to get this working much appreciated. I'm not asking for any links to Lynx BIOS's, just whether I'm wasting my time on something that doesn't work yet. If anyone could recommend some CRC checking software (for Ubuntu), that would be helpful. I wouldn't have thought a console like this would have put up such a challenge but I'm loosing hope, hence the request.

[Klez]

Hi Graham,

I tested Atari Lynx and it works. I played a few minutes the popular game TOKI.

First you need the proper bios rom: "lynx.zip" in your "roms" directory.

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MD5 (lynx.zip) = fdacb0b66a149052be4e4ed64418a4b2

./mame64 -verifyroms lynx
lynx        : lynx.bin (512 bytes) - NEEDS REDUMP
lynx        : lynxa.bin (512 bytes) - NEEDS REDUMP
romset lynx is best available
1 romsets found, 1 were OK.

In Linux in general you can use 'md5sum' in the terminal:

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(MD5) # md5sum filename 

This bios file is only 1,2 Kb and contains two files packed inside: "lynx.bin" and "lynxa.bin" both of 512 bytes.

Then you need cartridge roms for this system. The software list for this system is "hash/lynx.xml"

Direct usage from command line with full path:

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./mame64 lynx -listmedia
SYSTEM           MEDIA NAME       (brief)    IMAGE FILE EXTENSIONS SUPPORTED
---------------- --------------------------- -------------------------------
lynx             quickload        (quik)     .o    
                 cartridge        (cart)     .lnx  .lyx

./mame64 lynx -cart roms/toki.lyx

For using the software list of Atari Lynx the roms must match the filename specified in the related hash file. In this TOKI example the rom file must be named "toki.zip" and must contain packed inside a file named "toki (euro, usa).bin" matching the proper hash file entry. Then simply type:

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./mame64 lynx toki

Or you can simply execute mame64 alone, and then from the internal UI select the system Atari Lynx, and then choose the title you downloaded from this software list from the UI and choose from there.

An screenshot of Mame running the game TOKI in Atari Lynx:
https://imgur.com/ZBUb6CO

[Graham]

Hi Klez

I can confirm that I have a lynx.zip file including lynx.bin and lynxa.bin, both 512kb in size. This file (lynx.zip) has been added to my BIOS folder (which has been added to ROMs). From the bios's downloaded, I'm getting different md5sum values and verifyroms points to lynx.bin as being the culprit. Thanks for your confirmation, I will continue my hunt for the perfect lynx.bin.

[Graham]

Problem solved . In fact, the actual roms (games) were all incorrect (wrong size). Once I got the proper BIOS (thanks to verifyroms), renamed the actual files within the zips, I was able to identify the actual problem. Thanks for your advice Klez.