16 replies to this topic

[bentper2]

Hi
Did anyone work on porting some games to the Lynx?
Like Rick Dangerous or Duke Nukem?

[108 Stars]

bentper2, on Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:25 PM, said:

Hi
Did anyone work on porting some games to the Lynx?
Like Rick Dangerous or Duke Nukem?

It´s funny that you are asking about Rick Dangerous right now. I am actually doing a few graphics for a Mega Drive/Genesis-version of that game, and matashen thought it might work wel on Lynx too. But we have enough other things to do now, so there are no plans.

I don´t know of anyone else working on it or a Duke Nukem game either atm.

But a first person shooter on Lynx would e neat.


One problem with such games is at you can get into trouble when you sell a game based o a big cmpany's intellectual property. Even for maybe a hundred Lynx cards with the Duke Nukem or Rick Dangerous names you could be sued, even if you don´t make a profit.

Edited by 108 Stars, Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:28 PM.

[bentper2]

Yeah but are some of them not released as source and is allowed to be ported?
Like they do for linux is it possible?

[bentper2]

Or make a similar like Lynx Dangerous hehe and make it less hard! :-)

Also the Batman game is very very hard. Is it possible make an edition less hard and few more levels?

[ThomH]

I'd vote Rick Dangerous over Duke Nukem on the grounds that it rarely scrolls, making it more appropriate for the Lynx's screen.

And I just plain like it more.

[ACrystal2011]

no ports we need original games

[ThomH]

I don't know, ports have the benefit of not requiring any real design; all the graphics, art and level layouts are already done. So they're probably more likely to be completed.

[jcp]

All we need is The New Zealand Story !
And Rick Dangerous of course.

Edited by jcp, Fri Feb 3, 2012 5:16 AM.

[108 Stars]

I must say I´m surprised so any of you want Rick Dangerous.

I always felt that while fun, the game is so damn difficult with its trial-and-error-gameplay that I can´t imagine many people would ever play it for long nowadays.^^

With the Mega Drive version I was glad I actually convinced the programmer to add a password function. But even then it will be tough as nals even to reach the end f the first level to actually get a password.^^

[sneth]

Rick Dangerous is one of those games with a great theme and style. I don't remember how hard it was, but I remember loving it.

[Amstari]

bentper2, on Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:47 PM, said:

Or make a similar like Lynx Dangerous hehe and make it less hard! :-)

Also the Batman game is very very hard. Is it possible make an edition less hard and few more levels?

Batman Returns is brutal. There is some cheats for it though: http://www.atariage....SoftwareID=2372 I want to try to finish it one day without cheats though.

I haven't read much about Lynx programming yet but is possible to hack an existing game such as Double Dragon (or Batman) to use new sprites and backgrounds? Sort of like making a Beats of Rage game.

[108 Stars]

Amstari, on Sat Feb 4, 2012 2:19 AM, said:

bentper2, on Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:47 PM, said:

Or make a similar like Lynx Dangerous hehe and make it less hard! :-)

Also the Batman game is very very hard. Is it possible make an edition less hard and few more levels?

Batman Returns is brutal. There is some cheats for it though: http://www.atariage....SoftwareID=2372 I want to try to finish it one day without cheats though.

I haven't read much about Lynx programming yet but is possible to hack an existing game such as Double Dragon (or Batman) to use new sprites and backgrounds? Sort of like making a Beats of Rage game.

I´m not a programmer, but of course you could hack a Lynx game amd do such things. It happens on other systems all the time, especially on NES. But the Lynx community seems more into creating new things instead of hacking existing games.

[Ninjabba]

I recently encountered the game Chaos: The Battle of Wizards on Android.. that would make a neat port on the Lynx as well

[ThomH]

Ninjabba, on Tue Feb 7, 2012 3:04 AM, said:

I recently encountered the game Chaos: The Battle of Wizards on Android.. that would make a neat port on the Lynx as well

Coming from the Spectrum portion of the world, that's one of my favourite games!

108 Stars, on Sat Feb 4, 2012 10:39 AM, said:

I´m not a programmer, but of course you could hack a Lynx game amd do such things. It happens on other systems all the time, especially on NES. But the Lynx community seems more into creating new things instead of hacking existing games.

It'd be slightly more awkward on the Lynx because sprites are (usually) compressed — not by a lot but enough to make their size variable. So when doing a sprite swap you'd either have to make sure that each individual replacement image compressed to a size no greater than the corresponding original or dive into the code in order to make adjustments to the source locations for different bits of data. On the NES and most other similar platforms sprite data has a fixed size so you can just copy and paste replacement data and you're guaranteed everything will line up appropriately in memory.

108 Stars, on Fri Feb 3, 2012 8:40 AM, said:

I must say I´m surprised so any of you want Rick Dangerous.

Not only is it better than Duke Nukem but Power Factor does a pretty good job of being Duke Nukem already, or at least close enough.

[bentper2]

are there other awesome platform games to port?

[108 Stars]

ThomH, on Wed Feb 8, 2012 10:47 AM, said:

Not only is it better than Duke Nukem but Power Factor does a pretty good job of being Duke Nukem already, or at least close enough.

I dunno. I think Rick Dangerous is not a great game either. The trial-and-error-concept is just so frustrating, I´d call it a fundamental design error... I believe it mostly achieved a cult status on homecomputers because there just weren´t nearly as many great platformers as on consoles.

I bet NOBODY would have the patience to sit through a Lynx version.

As for Duke Nukem, I don´t care much for the 2D versions either. If a 2d sideview run´n gun was to be ported to the Lynx, I´d not try to do something mediocre like Duke, but aim high and port a Contra game or Gunstar Heroes. Or Turrican. Those games are miles ahead of what Duke Nukem.



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Speaking of Duke, I would very much like to see a 1st person shooter on the Lynx though. I am no huge fan of the genre, but the idea of having an fps on an antique handheld like the Lynx is intrigueing. Seeing how well the Lynx does smooth scaling, and that not only systems like the Mega Drive, but even the C64 and Spectrum have decent enough (homebrew) fps I think it should be possible.

Edited by 108 Stars, Wed Feb 8, 2012 11:43 AM.

[ThomH]

108 Stars, on Wed Feb 8, 2012 11:37 AM, said:

I dunno. I think Rick Dangerous is not a great game either. The trial-and-error-concept is just so frustrating, I´d call it a fundamental design error... I believe it mostly achieved a cult status on homecomputers because there just weren´t nearly as many great platformers as on consoles.

I bet NOBODY would have the patience to sit through a Lynx version.

I agree — while there's quite a bit of trial and error to games like Shadow of the Beast, Rick Dangerous does take it to quite an extreme.

108 Stars, on Wed Feb 8, 2012 11:37 AM, said:

Speaking of Duke, I would very much like to see a 1st person shooter on the Lynx though. I am no huge fan of the genre, but the idea of having an fps on an antique handheld like the Lynx is intrigueing. Seeing how well the Lynx does smooth scaling, and that not only systems like the Mega Drive, but even the C64 and Spectrum have decent enough (homebrew) fps I think it should be possible.

This is something I've actually researched; a hybrid forward/backward rendering engine with arbitrarily angled walls wouldn't be too hard but the lack of arbitrary clipping windows would make elevation changes very difficult to render efficiently. The limited storage available for enemy sprites would also likely limit them to a very low resolution.