13 replies to this topic

[Wookie]

Atari Lynx Howard Dev Kit:

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 300484914761

[Harry_Dodgson]

It went for only $60 which is a shame since Atari was charging $5000 when they were new.

[Wookie]

What else would you need to make something useful with that?

[Harry_Dodgson]

It requires an Amiga and the development software.

[Wookie]

So what did the Howard do? Is it a Lynx in a box?

[Harry_Dodgson]

It is that and so much more. You could add RAM up to 1MB for cartridge memory + a huge amount of trace memory which collected data on every bus access. The software let you inspect all of RAM, cartridge memory, and go back in time to see every instruction executed with register contents as well as graphics fetch and memory refresh cycles. It is pretty much overkill unless you have a real nasty bug.

[108 Stars]

Then it´s really surprising no fan was there to bid a little more on this.

[busterm]

I actually won this auction and it just arrived yesterday to my house. This thing is huge its bigger than my circa 1995 Packard bell desk top I first played Quake on =P

It came with no cables and before I start to toy around with it I want to ask a few of the pros her some questions.

Will a standard PC Power cord work for the unit?
Is there a proprietary cable to hook it up to the Amiga or if possible a pc using an Amiga emulator. I also just won an Amiga 2000 but it hasn't arrived yet.
Were can I obtain the Amiga development software?
Can a regular Lynx be moded to act as a Howdy or can the Howard be used with out a Howdy?

[sage]

busterm, on Wed Nov 17, 2010 10:57 PM, said:

Can a regular Lynx be moded to act as a Howdy or can the Howard be used with out a Howdy?

Nope. The development one has additional pins/hardware for debugging.

[Harry_Dodgson]

sage, on Thu Nov 18, 2010 8:14 AM, said:

busterm, on Wed Nov 17, 2010 10:57 PM, said:

Can a regular Lynx be moded to act as a Howdy or can the Howard be used with out a Howdy?

Nope. The development one has additional pins/hardware for debugging.

The Howdy is NOT a Lynx. It is a case with display, speaker, buttons and long cables.
You could run the Howard board without it - but what would be the point.

[semicolo]

If it accepts 110V/60Hz as input, there's no reason a standard power chord wouldn't work.

[busterm]

So how difficult is it to track down a Howdy unit. Do any of the Atari Dealers carry them?

[Harry_Dodgson]

busterm, on Thu Nov 18, 2010 5:21 PM, said:

So how difficult is it to track down a Howdy unit. Do any of the Atari Dealers carry them?

Video61 or Best Electronics might still have some.

[busterm]

Thanks for the heads up. I just sent off a couple emails to both.