what ever happened to the Lynx to TV adaptor?

[Atariman]

I was just thinking about the TV adaptor that Wizztronics was working on a few years ago. What ever happened to it? it always seemed like they were *just* on the verge of producing the adaptor and modding the Atari Lynx systems for this, but I don't recall ever seeing them complete it... Did I miss something? I always thought it looked cool, but I was rather intimidated by the estimated $150 price tag for the mod and whatnot. Anybody know?

[V.R]

As far as I know, it was still going ahead. I don't see how it can take that long to produce such a kit. The estimated price tag of $150 is a monumental rip-off. If I sat down with a few schematics, I could come up with a board in a few weeks for the fraction of the cost.

[Gunstar]

I remember reading about that on their site too, although I'd thought I remembered it not being updated since Atari went under and had assumed the idea died when Atari died. I was excited about it also, until I saw the price, then I laughed and forgot about it.

[Atariman]

well, I didn't find it on their site anymore. They have a few atari games (priced slightly higher than normal IMO) but I couldn't find a link to the adaptor page anymore. Oh well. Not like I"d have the cash to get on of my lynx's modded anyway...

[Nimtene]

Here's some interesting pictures of the unit they

demoed at the World of Atari In '98:

 

http://www.cgexpo.com/woa98/recap/img/page4.html

[+Mitch]

Here's the link, apparently it's supposed to be still coming out.

 

Mitch

[Atariman]

and I see that it's selling for a measly $199... [blatant Sarcasm=atariman] Heck who CAN'T afford that? [/blatant Sarcasm] ... but I suppose I"m still kinda interested in it despite the somewhat high price tag. I guess you just have to consider that it's not a huge corporation that is making it, thus it is more expensive per unit to produce.

[toughacton]

Yeah i agree. The $199 price tag is steep, but i'll probably lay down the money for it. I mean there'd be nothing cooler than to play xenophobe or warbirds on a big screen.

[lais]

As far as I know, it was still going ahead. I don't see how it can take that long to produce such a kit.

 

This is not a personal criticism, but there are many factors most consumers don't see when it comes to producing kit. The best way to find out is to try it yourself.

 

It might be something as simple as the developer got bored with it, or was offered a better-paid job elsewhere. The Atari market is hardly the place to become a millionaire.

 

The estimated price tag of $150 is a monumental rip-off.

 

This is a common criticism of Atari hardware upgrades (even software). I think if you were developing and selling these commercially you might not think the same. You have to compare what alternatives of equivalent specification are available and have a good idea of the research and development costs to make a true judgement of its value.

 

If I sat down with a few schematics, I could come up with a board in a few weeks for the fraction of the cost.

 

I don't doubt you could come up with a board, but would it use SMD and have a low component count (high integration), perhaps multi-layer, and compact dimensions? Hobbyists will happily spend more time than is viable in a commercial environment, to develop and tweak a project. I remember reading the Wizztronics site and looking at the prototype versions. There was a photo of the huge number of discrete components needed to make the device, and it was the goal to produce a far more highly integrated solution. I believe this is the board shown at the URL posted elsewhere in this thread - it's a very professional looking board which is nicely integrated. Producing small scale PCBs in limited quantities is not cheap, $150 is not unreasonable in my opinion. You only have to look at professionally made hardware upgrades on other Atari systems to see this. I've just acquired a hardware 386SX emulator board for my Mega STE. These cost 300 UKP when new! Could I say in all honesty that was a rip-off? No, there was nothing else like it, and compared to having a "real" PC, it would actually work out cheaper.

[Video]

Has anybody tried to take the GBATV accessory (Not GameBoy Player, this is an unofficial product you can still buy at lik-sang I belive) Anyhow, this GBATV thing costs $80 when it come out. And It's a ready made LCD to TV converter. Has anybody tried moding one of these to run a Lynx game on TV? I think it would be easier/cheaper to use preexisting hardware to make new hardware if possible.

[YOK-dfa]

Hi,

 

See also this thread about connecting your Lynx to your TV

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.p...1653&highlight=

 

Cheers,

Raymond

[Tom-Lynx]

Has anybody tried to take the GBATV accessory (Not GameBoy Player, this is an unofficial product you can still buy at lik-sang I belive)  Anyhow, this GBATV thing costs $80 when it come out.  And  It's a ready made LCD to TV converter.  Has anybody tried moding one of these to run a Lynx game on TV?  I think it would be easier/cheaper to use preexisting hardware to make new hardware if possible.

 

I have the GBA TV kit and modded a GBA to play directly on the TV. It works really well, although you cannot run it exclusively off of batteries. There is an AC adaptor that also needs to be plugged in while playing.

 

You can display the GBA picture in two sizes.... small and large.... but in large mode the pixels are simply doubled, so the picture is not as nice compared to the GB Player using the GameCube or a GBA emulator using some of the various pluggins available.

 

However, the GBA TV adaptor uses a ribbon cable connector found inside the GBA. I believe it has 8 connections on the connector. I highly doubt it is anything the same as the digitized lynx display system used. There is also a GBA gadget to turn the GBA into a portable TV, much like the Sega GameGear TV kit, which was never possible on the Lynx (or at least not possible w/o heavy duty translations between the TV format and the Lynx LCD format).

 

Tom

[Video]

I think the reason a TV tuner was not made for lynx (that I'm aware of) is because it can only show 16 colors. It can show more, but to my understanding, framerate starts dropping if you show much more. That would be a lot of work for a TV tuner, figure what 16 colors to put together to make the best picture, and it would have to switch that set of colors for each frame.

 

Yeah, I know the Ribbon cable probably wouldn't fit into the Lynx screen. Haven't taken my lynx apart though so I can't say what it looks like inside. But I was meaning, take the GBATV unit apart, and modify what's inside to work with Lynx LCD. As for power. You'd just use a 5volt one amp power supply instead of the included 8 volt 1 amp supply. And have the lynx use it's own power supply seperately.

 

Come to think of it....is there any reason at all, someone couldn't make a Super GameBoy style Lynx cart for say, the Jaguar? That would be awesome, and let you use it's hardware to remove distortions from an enlarged image if you had a full screen mode. Better yet, if you did Lynx on Jaguar. I see no reason you couldn't have two lynx slots in the jag cart, and run comlynx games on it two player. You'd show the two images on top of each other like so many other two player games.

[sage]

I think the reason a TV tuner was not made for lynx (that I'm aware of) is because it can only show 16 colors.  It can show more, but to my understanding, framerate starts dropping if you show much more.  That would be a lot of work for a TV tuner, figure what 16 colors to put together to make the best picture, and it would have to switch that set of colors for each frame.

 

That is not the problem. 16 colors is a problem of the video-chip, not of the display!

 

I see two choices:

 

a) you copy the TV data to Lynx RAM and let the Lynx display it:

-> You will need hardware, which converts the TV format to a lynx screen format (x/y) AND render TrueColor to 256 or 4096 colors. Even with a "fixed" palette scheme this should be enough for TV. Ah yes the framerates... well if the hardware is able to scale the picture it must also be able to sync different framerates.

The data has either to be copied direct to RAM (which requiers soldering AND additional electronics in the lynx) or the Lynx has to get it from Cartridgeport (which might be too slow)...

 

b) you put the ribbon directly to the display

->4096 fixed colors, no palette needed!

The hardware has only to scale the picture and display it... framerate is depending on the hardware... the Lynx display-engine has to be switched of for that ... ah yes, and you have to solder/put electronics into the lynx.

 

... only some ideas...

 

Tschau,

Sage