The MacOS version is Copyright(c) 1998 Richard Bannister
This licence grants you the following:
Permission to use, copy, and distribute Handy in its entirety, for non-commercial purposes, is hereby granted without fee, provided that this license information and copyright notice appear in all copies.
If you redistribute Handy, the entire contents of this distribution must be distributed. The software may be modified for your own purposes, but modified versions may NOT be distributed without prior consent from Keith Wilkins and Richard Bannister.
This software is provided 'as-is', without any expressed or implied warranty. In no event will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.
If you would like to do something with Handy that this copyright prohibits (such as distributing it with a commercial product, using portions of the source in some other program, etc.), please contact the author.
The emulator will not start without a copy of the 512-byte Lynx Boot ROM in the file "LYNXBOOT.IMG". DO NOT ASK ME TO SEND YOU THIS FILE. I WILL NOT REPLY TO ANY EMAIL ON THIS SUBJECT.
This release is only for PowerPC machines and will run at about 60%-100% of the speed of the original Lynx on a 603/100. Considering that the Lynx CPU runs at 16MHz and there is a lot of hardware acceleration, I don't think Handy's speed is too bad for a C++ implementation - especially since there is no assembler here (yet!). You may disagree, if so dont bother emailing me with your opinion, I dont wish to know it.
If you still think Handy is too slow you have three choices:
a) Buy a faster machine (PowerMac G3 would be ample).
b) Dont use Handy (Its not as if you paid for it)
c) Write your own lynx emulator in assembler
1.1 Game images
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DO NOT ASK ME FOR LYNX CARTRIDGE IMAGES, I WILL NOT REPLY TO ANY EMAIL ON THIS SUBJECT.
NOTE: Handy will NOT run .LYX images, you need to convert to .LNX format using the supplied 'MakeLNX' utility, see section 4.0.
There are a numer of "homebrew" images floating around in homebrew.zip. These are all copyright Bastian Schick and are from his homepage. He deserves some real high praise for the work he has done. <http://www.gp.fht-esslingen.de/students/mt/elw5basc/>
1.2 System Requirements
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* Power Macintosh or 100% Compatible
* 15MB or more free memory.
* Minimum 1MB Hard Disk space + whatever images you require/own.
This program only runs in 256 colour mode.
2.0 Using Handy
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Just click on the Handy icon and away you go. Select your file from the browser.
3.0 Status
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Below are the list of known problems:
General Problems (affecting some carts)
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. Flickering sprites
. Flickering backgrounds/colour changes (e.g Shadow of the Beast, Awseome Golf)
this relates to IRQ timing which is unstable due to some of my optimisations.
Specific Cartridges
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SlimeWorld - Missing sprites i.e the Player ??
Tetris - Cart calls power down.
BattleZone - Missing ships, maybe a math related problem.
Warbirds - Dodgy horizon, maybe a math related problem.
Blue Lightning - Corruption of lanscape when flying at low level.
EuroSoccer - Illegal Opcode error, on starting game.
Dirty Larry - Hangs program after game start
I have tried over 79 cartridges and the only problems I've found are listed above. If you have a cartridge image that hangs at the blank screen (colour is random) what you'll find is that you have a corrupted cartridge image. I know for a fact that there are a whole batch of corrupted images floating around on the net.
A list of MacOS-specific bugs can be found in the Version History section.
Todo list
---------
. Implement everon register bit
. Improve integral debugger features
. Improve sound synchronisation.
. Mod c6502 so that +100 is included in SP usage.
. Proper fix for the +1,+1 sprite problem.
. Further optimisation targetting 100% on all games with sound on a 603/100.
4.0 With Thanks
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[The original Win95 version]
Lee Witek - All round mate and windows guru.
Bastian Schick - Your HTML lynx docs make my paper copy redundant, thanks. Also a big thanks for all of your lynx development work.
Harry Dodgson - Insights into timer related pernicousness... Help with test code for sprite engine bugs.
RTOONist - Beta testing & suggestions.
Riddler - Beta testing.
Thanks to all those who've emailed their support.
[MacOS version]
Jacques Azoulai, Arnauld de la Grandiere, Derek Scott, Blackjax - Beta Testing
John Stiles - Portions of code.
5.0 Revision History
--------------------
v0.5.3 - April 24th, 1999
- Recompiled using CodeWarrior Pro 4.1, and for the first time ever, compiled with CodeWarrior's Level 4 Optimization. The only reason I've been able to do this is my Mac now has 192MB of RAM - providing enough for CodeWarrior to compile without running out of memory. With a G3/350, it only takes 11 minutes to compile - a far cry from the hours and hours (and eventual crash with no code at all) on my old Mac.
- Fixed the speed limiter so that it is no longer based on sound. The limiter wasn't working at all on my new G3. Unfortunately, this will almost certainly have a detrimental effect on the sound quality on slower Macs - which may start to experience broken sound. Handy's speed throttling code is not the best, I'm afraid.
- Yes, I'm aware the PC version is now at v0.6. I've begun the v0.6 port, but as it looks like it is going to take a while, I figured I'd release this version now with v0.6 following when it is ready.
v0.40b5 - June 14th, 1998
New features in this beta:
- A few optimizations in the CPU core.
- Apple Events work again (broken in b4).
- ZLIB support (Handy can now open ROMs in .gz format without expanding them first).
- As part of this support, Handy will now ask you when opening an uncompresed ROM if you would like it to be compressed or not. (This option can be disabled if you wish).
- Built MakeLNX into Handy; it is no longer included as a seperate application. When converting a .LYX file, the .LNX file is automatically compressed into .gz format.
- Built RotateLNX into Handy too. (Your ROM will be automatically compressed into .gz format when you change the rotation).
- Added a "Fit to Screen" video option so the window will fit on the screen regardless of rotation.
Known bugs in this beta:
- Occasionally Handy/MacOS may quit while loading a second game. If this happens, you should allocate more memory to the program and run it again.
v0.40b4 - June 4th, 1998
New features in this beta:
- Graphical Keyboard Configuration dialog
- Quintuple size video mode.
- You can now open a new game without reloading the emulator.
- The window is now byte-aligned properly when rotate video is active.
- The single & double size video modes are now roughly twice as fast as previous betas, and the quadruple size video mode is now roughly four times faster than previous betas. Triple and quintuple size modes still run at the old speed.
- A few other tiny speed improvements here and there.
v0.40b3 - May 29th, 1998
New features in this beta:
- Loosened up the event loop a little; a tiny bit slower (0.5%), but the program will be more responsive. It should still be significantly faster than beta 1.
- Fixed up the sound code - the lynx sound is far more accurate now.
- Added a proper speed limiter not based on the sound.
- Sound can now be turned off.
- Fixed an error that resulted in incorrect colours in some games.
- The emulator now warns you if the provided "LYNXBOOT.IMG" file is invalid.
- Cleaned up the MakeLNX code a little.
v0.40b2 - May 27th, 1998
New Features in this beta:
- Added support for the Navigation Manager.
- Replaced the about box.
- Added command-key equivalents for the window sizes.
- Apple Event Support added - double click your game file to open it.
- Cleaned up and sped up the mac-specific code.
- Save PICT file works again (d'oh!)
- You can now quit the emulator when it is paused.
- Improved sound support.
- The emulator now warns you if it can't switch to 256 colours instead of just beeping and quitting.
- Sped up the code a little.
- The monitor depth is now always restored properly.
- Added the ability to rotate the video in the application.
