Atari Lynx emulators
| |
| Developer | Atari, Epyx |
|---|---|
| Type | Handheld game console |
| Generation | Fourth generation |
| Release date | 1989 |
| Discontinued | 1995 |
| Emulated | ✓ |
The Atari Lynx was a fourth-generation handheld game console released by Atari on September 1, 1989 and it retailed for $179.99. It has a WDC 65SC02 CPU. Notably, it was the world's first handheld system that used a color LCD screen, as well as having fairly advanced graphics for the time.
Unlike contemporaneous machines, its architecture is based upon a frame buffer and a scaling blitter, providing both 2D sprite and background scaling and hardware support for lines and filled triangles. Because it has no inherent concept of a tile map or any sprite-specific hardware, the drawing budget is per frame rather than per line; there is no enforced limit in terms of the number of sprites or sprites per line other than that implied by the amount of drawing that can be achieved within an acceptable frame rate.
Emulators[edit]
| Name | Platform(s) | Latest version | Netplay | Comlynx | Retro Achievements |
libretro | License | Active | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PC / x86 | |||||||||
| Mednafen mednafen_lynx_libretro |
   
|
1.32.1 libretro core |
~[N 1] | ✗ | ~[N 1] | ✓ | GPLv2 (Copyleft) | ✓ | ✓ |
| MAME |
|
0.270 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause |
✓ | ✓ |
| Felix |
|
0.6.3 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | MIT (Permissive) | ✓ | ✓ |
| OpenEmu |
|
2.4.1 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ? | ✓ | ✓ |
| Handy Handy_libretro |
|
libretro core 0.971 |
~[N 1] | ✗ | ~[N 1] | ✓ | zlib License (Permissive) | ~[N 2] | ✗ |
| Mobile / ARM | |||||||||
| Handy_libretro |  
|
libretro core | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | zlib License (Permissive) | ~ | ✓ |
| Lynx.emu |
|
1.5.77git | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | GPLv3 (Copyleft) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Consoles | |||||||||
| Handy Handy_libretro |
    [N 3]   
|
libretro core Handypsp Handy VITA WiiHandy Handy-3DS 06/03/23 Saturn git |
~[N 1] | ✗ | ~[N 1] | ✓ | zlib License (Permissive) | ~ | ✓ |
| PLynx |
|
0.9 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Proprietary | ✗ | ~ |
Comparison[edit]
- Mednafen
- Based upon Handy, but unlike other forked cores, its emulation only improves upon the original. Despite having the .lnx extension, No-Intro ROMs aren’t directly compatible with Mednafen nor Handy and must be converted with make_lnx, which is bundled with Handy.
- Felix
- Inspired by Handy. Created in C++20 using DirectX. Under MIT License. It's a cycle exact Atari Lynx Emulator with good compatibility. It has a simple GUI and can load roms in .lnx, .lyx and .o format, change rotation and EEPROM properties, has Xinput Gamepad support and redefinable key mapping.
- Handy
- Hasn't been updated since 2007. Only included here for reference.
BIOS[edit]
All emulators require a dump of the 512-byte BIOS named lynxboot.img. On Mednafen, put it on the root folder.
LLeny made HLE BIOS for Handy's libretro core, it can run Lynx games directly
 |
Consoles: Atari 2600 • Atari 5200 • Atari 7800 • Atari XEGS • Atari Jaguar • Atari VCS Handhelds: Atari Lynx Computers: Atari 8-bit • Atari ST |
