{"id":24671,"date":"2021-10-29T20:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T18:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/?p=24671"},"modified":"2026-08-27T23:03:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:03:50","slug":"elcheaposdatari-lynx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/elcheaposdatari-lynx\/","title":{"rendered":"ElCheapoSD [Atari Lynx]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team at BennVenn in Australia set themselves the goal of providing an affordable SD card solution for the Atari Lynx. They have successfully achieved this with the ElCheapoSD. I personally waited for the version that works with both the Lynx 1 and the Lynx 2\u2014a compatibility issue stemming not from the technology itself, but rather from the cartridge casing. With this device, there is now a competitor to the market leader: the Lynx Game Drive by RetroHQ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The functionality is quickly explained: Lynx games can be copied onto an SD card, which is then inserted into the ElCheapo. ROMs up to 512 KB are supported, allowing for the use of all original games and homebrews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, there is the option\u2014for instance\u2014to save high scores to an SD card; this does not apply to original Lynx games, however, as this capability did not exist back then. Nevertheless, this feature is now utilized by newer homebrew titles.<br>Beim Einschalten wird das zuletzt verwendete ROM gepr\u00fcft und wenn es EEPROM verwendet, wird das EEPROM auf die SD-Karte verschoben. Wird ein neues ROM geladen, l\u00e4dt es die SD-Speicherung in das EEPROM (wenn vorhanden). Ist keine SD-Speicherung vorhanden, wird die Datei f\u00fcr den n\u00e4chsten Neustart gespeichert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The loading times for the games are extremely short, amounting to a maximum of 1.5 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph translation-block\"><strong>Usage<\/strong><br>1. Format the SD card as FAT32 and assign it a name.<br>2. Copy the `boot.bin` file from the BennVenn download page\u2014this is the menu system\u2014to the SD card.<br>3. Add games in LNX format. The order in which the files are copied to the SD card determines the order in which they appear in the menu. This allows you to place your favorite games at the top of the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leider hat sich herausgestellt, dass ich viele Spiele im LNX-Datei Format, die ich &#8222;gesammelt&#8220; hatte, nicht verwenden konnte. Anscheinend werden viele Downloads zwar als LNX-Datei angeboten, sind aber eigentlich LYX-Dateien. Diese m\u00fcssen erst umgewandelt werden, was mit dem Programm make_lnx.exe aus dem Download des Lynx-Emulators &#8222;<a href=\"http:\/\/handy.sourceforge.net\/download.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Handy<\/a>&#8220; erledigt werden kann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"25163\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Menue-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Das Auswahlmen\u00fc des ElCheapoSD\" class=\"wp-image-25163\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Menue-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Menue-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Menue.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Das Auswahlmen\u00fc des ElCheapoSD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"25159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Rueckseite-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"R\u00fcckseite der ElcheapoSD\" class=\"wp-image-25159\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Rueckseite-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Rueckseite-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Rueckseite.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">R\u00fcckseite der ElcheapoSD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Das im ElCheapoSD verwendete Men\u00fcsystem ist sehr einfach gehalten. Es zeigt eine Liste von ROMs, durch die gebl\u00e4ttert werden kann und mit der Taste &#8222;A&#8220; kann ein Spiel gestartet werden. Verzeichnisse werden nicht unterst\u00fctzt.<br>Als Alternative gibt es ein Men\u00fc von AtariGamer auf dessen <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/atarigamer.itch.io\/elcheaposd-menu\" target=\"_blank\">Downloadseite<\/a>. Er weist darauf hin, dass mit der aktuellen Firmware das Maximum der Spiele mit 256 erreicht wird und keine Verzeichnisse unterst\u00fctzt werden.<br><br><strong>Update 11\/2022<\/strong><br>Inzwischen gibt es ein neues Men\u00fc von Atari Gamer (V20221102-A), das nun auch Verzeichnisse unterst\u00fctzt. Es wird eine kleinere Schriftart verwendet, die bis zu 16 Eintr\u00e4ge gleichzeitig anzeigen kann. Dazu gibt es anpassbare Farbschemas und die ROM-Liste ist alphabetisch sortiert.<br>Diese Version des Men\u00fcs funktioniert nur mit der Firmware v0008 (nicht die Original-Firmware) und muss entsprechend vorher aktualisiert werden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Firmwareupdate<\/strong><br>Sollte es neue Firmware-Dateien geben, werden diese einfach in das Root-Verzeichnis der SD-Karte kopiert. Nach dem Einschalten des Lynx wird f\u00fcr ca. 15 Sekunden &#8222;Insert Game&#8220; auf dem Bildschirm angezeigt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph translation-block\"><strong>Tests<\/strong><br>I tested the SD card with my Lynx II (featuring a McWill display) and with a stock Lynx 1. The cartridge works without any issues on both devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph translation-block\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><br>The El Cheapo is a solid SD card for the Atari Lynx. Since it hasn't been on the market for very long, there is still room for improvement in its development. Combined with the menu from AtariGamer, it serves as an alternative to the Lynx GameDrive by Retro HQ. Given that the price of the El Cheapo\u2014$50\u2014is truly affordable, I can highly recommend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sGY5dkzeog4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Das Team von BennVenn aus Australien hat sich das Ziel gesetzt eine g\u00fcnstige SD-Karten-L\u00f6sung f\u00fcr den Atari Lynx zur Verf\u00fcgung zu stellen. Dies ist mit \u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[668,4737,4738],"class_list":["post-24671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atari-lynx","tag-atari","tag-hardware","tag-how-to"],"wp-worthy-pixel":{"ignored":false,"public":"699812c58d4f475ba7c50649c173c7a5","server":"","url":"https:\/\/vg04.met.vgwort.de\/na\/699812c58d4f475ba7c50649c173c7a5"},"wp-worthy-type":"normal","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/El-Cheapo-Vorderseite.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42714,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24671\/revisions\/42714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jungsi.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}