Beetle Lynx in RetroArch: Core Setup, BIOS, Content Loading and Options

Beetle Lynx is an Atari Lynx emulator implemented as a libretro core, so it runs inside RetroArch or another libretro frontend. The documentation states it is a port of Mednafen Lynx, which is itself a fork of Handy.

Authors and licensing

The core is credited to K. Wilkins and the Mednafen Team. It is distributed under the zlib and GPLv2 licenses.

Prerequisites

A Lynx boot image is required. The firmware file named lynxboot.img must be placed in the frontend's system directory, and the documented MD5 checksum for it is fcd403db69f54290b51035d82f835e7b.

Content formats you can load

• - .lnx
• - .o

Beyond the file extensions, the core accepts Lynx ROMs both with and without headers, and it also loads homebrew titles packaged with the .o extension.

Core directory and save locations

The core's directory name is 'Beetle Lynx'. Save states are written to and read from the frontend's State directory, using the pattern 'content-name'.state#.

Supported and unsupported frontend features

The core respects a defined set of frontend-level features. Supported items include Restart, Screenshots, States, Rewind, state-based Netplay, Core Options, Memory Monitoring for achievements, the Cheats menu, Controls, Remapping, Softpatching and Crop Overscan.

Features it does not support include Saves, Native Cheats, Multi-Mouse, Rumble, Sensors, Camera, Location, Subsystem, Disk Control, Username, Language and LEDs.

Geometry and timing

The core reports a provided frame rate of 75 FPS, a sample rate of 44100 Hz, and an aspect ratio of 80/51.

Core options

Three options can be adjusted from the core options menu. Auto-rotate Screen (lynx_rot_screen) accepts Auto, Manual, 0, 90, 180 or 270. Color Format (lynx_pix_format) accepts 16-Bit (RGB565) or 32-Bit (RGB8888) and requires a restart. Force 60Hz (lynx_force_60hz) accepts OFF or ON.

Auto-rotate virtually rotates the screen orientation and button mappings for known games. With Manual, screen rotation is changed by pressing the SELECT button; alternatively a fixed counter-clockwise rotation of 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees can be chosen.

Force 60Hz is described as forcing 60Hz instead of the original 75Hz refresh rate, for smooth movement on 60Hz displays.

Controller mapping

For User 1, the available device types are None, RetroPad (the default) and RetroPad with Analog. RetroPad maps B to B, A to A, Start to Pause, the D-Pad directions to the same directions, L1 to Option 1 and R1 to Option 2.

• Option 1 + Pause flips the screen.
• Option 2 + Pause restarts the game.

Documented compatibility issue

The documentation lists one known issue: RoadBlasters shows graphics glitches, described as minor flickering and glitches after starting a race. This is the only title-specific entry in the source.

Beetle Lynx is an Atari Lynx video game system emulator that can be used as a libretro core. Specifically it's a port of Mednafen Lynx which is a fork of Handy.RetroArch: beetle lynx — official gaming software documentation