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Announce: Stardreamer 2000 for the Lynx

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Karri Kaksonen

unread,
Jan 1, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/1/00
to
The sky is still illuminated by rockets.
Finland has entered year 2000 at GMT+2.
Two hours ahead of UK and who knows how many hours
ahead of the US.

Now the bell strikes 12 times.

Now is the time to do it:

Put on the helmet and goggles. -check
Power up my Linux box. -check
Login to my account. -check
Connect the serial download cable. -check
Power up the Lynx. -check
cd stardreamer -check
Download the binary. -check

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
All systems go!

It works! The Lynx running Stardreamer 2000
is Y2K compatible!!!!

*********************************************
* Ladies and Gentlemen. *
* It gives me great pleasure to *
* introduce to you *
* the first Lynx game of the new millenium. *
* *
* Stardreamer 2000 *
* Send your Lynx into space *
*********************************************

For a description of the game, screenshots
and of course a downloadable binary point your Y2K
compatible browser to
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Station/7666/

What the critics have to say about this:
- Ooooh (Leo, 2 years old)

Technical description of Stardreamer:
- A space trading and combat game designed especially
for the Lynx hardware in the spirit of another well
known space trading and combat game...
- Hardware sprite engine used for rendering all
graphics at real time at Lynx standard frame rates.
- Stereo sounds used throughout the game and rendered
on the Lynx hardware sound circuits in real time.
You may also recognize some familiar sounds from
your helper droid.
- Thanks to recent advances in the "Alien Technology
Exchange Project" we can now offer hyperspace travel
through jump-gates even to small crafts that lack
hyperdrive technology. This allows you to get on
the exiting missions before your batteries run out
instead of just doing shuttle-traffic for hours in
order to advance from your "harmless" status.
- Save game support with an eeprom module.

User Interface description:
- joypad is used for steering the craft
- A+up/down for adjusting flight speed
- A+left/right for looking left/back/right/ahead
- A for 3 seconds to get a missile lock on the enemy
- A+B fire missile
- B fire cannon
- Option 1 to access cockpit/map/galaxy/trading/save
- Option 2 toggles cockpit/fullscreen
- Pause will pause the game
- Restart will start a new game
- Flip screen will flip the screen

Availability:
- Download from the net is free.
- The code is now entering a beta-test phase. If you have
some features you would like to see in the game or some
ideas of better implementation then send me some email.
The playtesting binary is updated almost daily so
check back often and send comments.
- I also hope to get this code into a compilation cart
of some sort when the playability of the game is right.
- The game is intended to run from a S.I.M.I.S.-type
cart. If you have S.I.M.I.S. then you can also download
this game into a real Lynx!

The mostly harmless team:
- The game is based on tools and libraries made by
Bastian Schick. And it is being developed on hardware
made by Lars Baumstark.
- The team for putting this together is formed from well
known Lynx lovers from this newsgroup. The project
started on 4th of October, 1999 at alt.games.lynx.
Look how far we have got in 3 months!

--
Cheers,

Karri, Marika & Teddy Kaksonen

William Kendrick

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Jan 1, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/1/00
to
Karri Kaksonen (ka...@twins.dna.fi) wrote:
:
: It works! The Lynx running Stardreamer 2000
: is Y2K compatible!!!!

Wow! Looks cool! Now I need to find an FAQ and some hardware to download
this! :)

-bill!

Cadimus

unread,
Jan 1, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/1/00
to
Karri Kaksonen <ka...@twins.dna.fi> wrote:

> - A space trading and combat game designed especially
> for the Lynx hardware in the spirit of another well
> known space trading and combat game...

Sounds a bit like Starflight (available on Mac, C64, Apple II, Amiga,
PC, Genesis)

(PS I think your game is the first homebrewed game of the Y2K of any
platform.

Steve Jacobs

unread,
Jan 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/4/00
to
Yowza!! Sounds really cool. I have S.I.M.I.S. and would love to try
running Stardreamer on my Lynx.

I visited Bastian's website and downloaded cl_232.gif. I have a few
questions about the diagram - C1 through C5 -- I assume these are
capacitors, of the value described on the bottom of the .gif ? The chip
labelled 'MAX232' -- what is a generic name for that chip? Is it
available from Radio Shack, or would I have to go to someone more
kowledgeable (DIgiKey, for example)?

Lastly, and really the only stumper for me -- In the top-left corner of
the diagram, there is a drawing that looks like it could be the barrel
of the ComLynx plug, but the ComLynx plug is already present in the
drawing, right next to it. What is that piece at the top-left of the
diagram?

Thanks for any help,
Steve Jacobs

> It works! The Lynx running Stardreamer 2000
> is Y2K compatible!!!!
>

> *********************************************
> * Ladies and Gentlemen. *
> * It gives me great pleasure to *
> * introduce to you *
> * the first Lynx game of the new millenium. *
> * *
> * Stardreamer 2000 *
> * Send your Lynx into space *
> *********************************************
>
> For a description of the game, screenshots
> and of course a downloadable binary point your Y2K
> compatible browser to
> http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Station/7666/
>
> What the critics have to say about this:
> - Ooooh (Leo, 2 years old)
>
> Technical description of Stardreamer:

> - A space trading and combat game designed especially
> for the Lynx hardware in the spirit of another well
> known space trading and combat game...

Steve Jacobs

unread,
Jan 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/4/00
to
I just went to Digikey's website and searched on MAX232. I got 9 items
back. Of course, I don't know the requirements of the project, and don't
know which part would be required. Some of the parts are labelled SO,
while others are labelled DIP - I am guessing the SO means the chip is
to be soldered, while DIP indicates the chip plugs into a socket? I
can't figure out other differences in the parts listed. Any one able and
willing to help? I understand I can just buy a premade cable from Carl,
but I'd really have more fun building the cable myself. To be honest, I
built adapters to use my Genesis controllers with my 7800, and found
that building the adapters was more fun than actually using them to play
with the 7800 once I was finished.

Steve

Karri Kaksonen

unread,
Jan 4, 2000, 3:00:00 AM1/4/00
to
Steve,

On Tue, 4 Jan 2000, Steve Jacobs wrote:
> Yowza!! Sounds really cool. I have S.I.M.I.S. and would love to try
> running Stardreamer on my Lynx.

I don't mind getting a beta-tester either ;)

> I visited Bastian's website and downloaded cl_232.gif. I have a few
> questions about the diagram - C1 through C5 -- I assume these are
> capacitors, of the value described on the bottom of the .gif ?

Correct.

> The chip
> labelled 'MAX232' -- what is a generic name for that chip? Is it
> available from Radio Shack, or would I have to go to someone more
> kowledgeable (DIgiKey, for example)?

You obviously answered this in the next mail yourself.

> Lastly, and really the only stumper for me -- In the top-left corner of
> the diagram, there is a drawing that looks like it could be the barrel
> of the ComLynx plug, but the ComLynx plug is already present in the
> drawing, right next to it. What is that piece at the top-left of the
> diagram?

The top-left corner plug is for the ComLynx. If you don't need
to chain in a second Lynx then you don't need that connector.

The downloader is active on the title-screen. You don't need to
press any buttons on the Lynx just run 42Bastian's downloader
on the PC.

Yesterdays version flies much smoother than the one I posted two
days ago. Thanks for the suggestions I got from the people out
there.

--
Regards,

Karri


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