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LYNX LOST
TREASURES
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As I was thinking of a way to take advantage of our lately installed fast
Internet connection at work, I happened to find a real nice ATARI dedicated
website,ATARI TIMES at http://www.ataritimes.com
There, I found out about the LYNX version of world famous Alien Vs Predator
one of the so few JAG games that really got me addicted. I also read about a
3D engine for the LYNX. Unfortunately, in the meantime Moondog released UCM 22
in which I read an article about the same topics (damn, Eric can you read my
mind or something ?). Anyway I noticed that his article missed snapshots as
well as essential urls so I hope my contribution will not just read like some
tasteless copy cat but bring more details.
As these games or engines never saw the light of day as commercial releases
you will only be able to enjoy them as ROMs. That implies using an emulator of
course. Here Marss gave me a hand and sent me HANDY v0.82 which is a nice and
easy to use emulator. Btw you can find it at http://www.esplexo.co.uk. Please
note that the latest update works on all WindauZ systems, except for the XP
shit.
IMPORTANT ! You'll need a Lynxboot.img file to run the emulator ! Of course
- and as usual - such file isn't included in the emulator archive (as if there
was still someone out there willing to sue the author of Handy) but you can
easily get your hand on it, using any search engine and typing "lynxboot.img".
Well I found it at the first shot :)
Back to our business. Once you have downloaded and unpacked the emulator,
you just need to pay a visit to ATARI TIMES and more precisely to the LYNX
section from which you'll get links to both AVP, and the 3D demo I'll write
about later.
AvP http://www.ataritimes.com/lynx/features/fea_avp_rom.html
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Get your emulator started and load that 257 Kb romfile. Before you start I
suggest you open the OPTIONS menu and check the "key definition". I could tell
you what keys are used but - except for the arrow keys - this would surely be
useless to non French users :)
There must have been a lot of hype regarding this game development back in
1994 especially if you remember the original AvP on JAG and keep in mind that
its makers - Rebellion - were also responsible for this porting. Unfortunately,
surely due to ATARI's lame marketing strategy, the game never got any further
than this preview. Btw I think this is actually more an engine demo than an
playable demo since a lot of elements are missing.
At first I was really amazed by the nice gfx ! They reminded me of my fave
LYNX game, Shadow of the Beast. Colors are nice chosen and there is definitely
some style into these pictures ! It all starts with a title screen, shortly
followed by credits and a real nice introduction with static graphics of great
quality. Then you reach the character selection screen and that's when you see
the game is far from completed since only the marine and predator are offered.
Besides, except for a different weapon, both characters play exactly the same.
Anyway I went for the marine and here's what went up on my small screen.
The snapshot on the left comes from the marine game while the right one shows
the predator's part. As I said before, except for the weapons I could not see
any differences at all but maybe some were to be added later one like the
thrilling night vision of the predator !
There you go, wandering in the predator's ship from which you will have to
collect a bomb, start it and then run as fast as possible. The game looks real
nice with zoomed walls instead of mapping thus allowing faster pace. I don't
know if the emulator's speed is identical to a real LYNX but if it is, then
that game would have been damn fast and smooth !
Unfortunately I did not find so much more to do as the actual playground
isn't really big. There are some other marines that you can kill if you play as
the predator but it doesn't affect the game :( Sound fx are almost reduced to
zero as well as music.
You can also access the following inventory by pressing an option button :
From this screen, you will be able to check your life bar, ammo, change
weapon (not available in this demo) or have a look at the level map. Not much
to do in this demo, but surely essential in the finished game.
Bottom Line : as I stated earlier, this should * NOT * be considered as a
playable demo since ennemies do nothing but walk back and forth, sound fx and
music are almost absent and I am not even sure you can actually complete this
single mission. I'd rather call it a technical demo that shows that AvP could
have been ported to the LYNX and - with the mentioned missing features - would
have been another asskicking game ! Remember this preview is 8 years old ! Now
I wish there was more than that, maybe the game was deeper developed ? Maybe
the guys of SONGBIRDcould actually get the rights to AvP and release it then ?
Yeah I know, just another nice dream :(
3D Demo http://www.ataritimes.com/lynx/features/fea_lynx3d.html
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Unlike Moondog, I never read about other 3D engines, but anyway from what I
read most of them just sucked. Once again, I found this engine on ATARI TIMES.
The archive you will download features two versions of this engine, the second
one being a bit smoother and faster.
Run one of these tiny prg (20 kb !) and you will find yourself in a very
Wolfenstein like world, meaning some rooms with mapped walls while both the
ceiling and the floor are just filled with one color. Just have a look at the
following snapshots :
Yup, it looks nice (sorry for the snaps low quality). Textures seemingly
feature 8 colors but that's enough. You can walk around the few rooms offered
with the arrow keys and even press some fire button to 'run' instead of just
walking. Speed is quite good, between 15 and 20fps, for that kind of engine. It
may even be more but I'm not sure HANDY's frame counter really works as it kept
reading 30 frames... Anyway it's fast enough especially when you start running.
Of course this engine shows no ennemies, nor sprites, therefore it's a bit hard
to say if once completed this engine could have maintained respectable speed.
Anyway it definitely looks nice !
The more or less "good" news is that this engine was released some months
ago, more precisely in July 2001, meaning that unlike AvP this project may not
be buried when you read this. Unfortunatley no further detail was given about
possible improvment or game development. Future will tell...
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Possibly more to come next time or maybe not, who knows ?
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