Gearlynx

Gearlynx is a cross-platform Atari Lynx emulator written in C++ that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD and RetroArch.

This is an open source project with its ongoing development made possible thanks to the support by these awesome backers. If you find it useful, please consider sponsoring.

Don't hesitate to report bugs or ask for new features by opening an issue.

Downloads

• Pre-Releases: here
• Dev Builds: GitHub Actions

Features

• Very accurate 65C02 core.
• Compressed and hombrew rom support (lnx, lyx, o, and zip).
• Save states with preview.
• Configurable low-pass audio filter.
• Internal database for automatic rom detection and hardware selection if Auto options are selected.
• Supported platforms (standalone): Windows, Linux, BSD and macOS.
• Supported platforms (libretro): Windows, Linux, macOS, Raspberry Pi, Android, iOS, tvOS, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo WiiU, Nintendo Switch, Emscripten, Classic Mini systems (NES, SNES, C64, ...), OpenDingux, RetroFW and QNX.
• Full debugger with just-in-time disassembler that can handle self-modifying code, CPU breakpoints, memory access breakpoints, code navigation (goto address, JP JR and JSR double clicking), debug symbols, automatic labels, memory editor, Suzy and Mikey register viewer, audio inspector and framebuffer preview.
• Windows and Linux Portable Mode.
• ROM loading from the command line by adding the ROM path as an argument.
• ROM loading using drag & drop.
• Support for modern game controllers through gamecontrollerdb.txt file located in the same directory as the application binary.

Tips

Basic Usage

• BIOS: Gearlynx requires a BIOS to work. It is possible to load any BIOS but the original with md5 fcd403db69f54290b51035d82f835e7b is recommended.
• Portable Mode: Create an empty file named portable.ini in the same directory as the application binary to enable portable mode.

Debugging Features

• Docking Windows: In debug mode, you can dock windows together by pressing SHIFT and dragging a window onto another.
• Multi-viewport: In Windows or macOS, you can enable "multi-viewport" in the debug menu. You must restart the emulator for the change to take effect. Once enabled, you can drag debugger windows outside the main window.
• Debug Symbols: The emulator automatically tries to load a symbol (.sym) file when loading a ROM. For example, for path_to_rom_file.rom it tries to load path_to_rom_file.sym. You can also load symbol files using the GUI or the CLI. It supports cc65 (VICE label file), lyxass (EQU) and mads (lab and hea) file formats.

Command Line Usage

gearlynx [options] [rom_file] [symbol_file]

Options:
  -f, --fullscreen    Start in fullscreen mode
  -w, --windowed      Start in windowed mode with menu visible
  -v, --version       Display version information
  -h, --help          Display this help message

Hardware Tests

• Atari Lynx Hardware Test ROMs: https://github.com/drhelius/lynx-tests.

Build Instructions

Windows

• Install Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022 or later.
• Open the Gearlynx Visual Studio solution platforms/windows/Gearlynx.sln and build.

macOS

• Install Xcode and run xcode-select --install in the terminal for the compiler to be available on the command line.
• Run these commands to generate a Mac app bundle:

brew install sdl2
cd platforms/macos
make dist

Linux

• Ubuntu / Debian / Raspberry Pi (Raspbian):

sudo apt install build-essential libsdl2-dev libgtk-3-dev
cd platforms/linux
make

• Fedora:

sudo dnf install @development-tools gcc-c++ SDL2-devel gtk3-devel
cd platforms/linux
make

• Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S base-devel sdl2 gtk3
cd platforms/linux
make

BSD

• FreeBSD:

su root -c "pkg install -y git gmake pkgconf SDL2 lang/gcc gtk3"
cd platforms/bsd
gmake

• NetBSD:

su root -c "pkgin install gmake pkgconf SDL2 lang/gcc gtk3"
cd platforms/bsd
gmake

Libretro

• Ubuntu / Debian / Raspberry Pi (Raspbian):

sudo apt install build-essential
cd platforms/libretro
make

• Fedora:

sudo dnf install @development-tools gcc-c++
cd platforms/libretro
make

Contributors

Thank you to all the people who have already contributed to Gearlynx!

License

Gearlynx is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 License, see LICENSE for more information.