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The Atari Lynx is a 16-bit handheld console developed by Atari Corporation, initially released in September 1989, with worldwide release in 1990. While it was an incredible handheld for the time (and a lot more powerful than Game Boy), it unfortunately was a market failure and contributed to the downfall of Atari. Although the Lynx still gets rather impressive homebrew developed for it, the system remains relatively unpopular. But hey, Furnace supports it!

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Sound Capabilities

The Atari Lynx has a 6502-based CPU with a sound part (the MIKEY chip) featuring:
  • 4 channels of LFSR-based sound, modulated with different frequencies (×0, ×1, ×2, ×3, ×4, ×5, ×7, ×10, ×11) to create square waves and wavetable-like results
  • When many modulators are activated, this provides a “pseudo-white noise”-like effect useful for drums and sound effects
  • Soft stereo panning via the 08xx effect command
  • Four 8-bit DACs (one per voice) for sample playback (at the cost of CPU time and memory)
  • A variety of pitches from 32Hz to “above the range of human hearing” according to Atari

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Effects

  • 3xxx: Load LFSR (bitmask from 000 to FFF)
    • For this to work, duty macro in instrument editor must be set to some value
    • Without it, LFSR will not be fed with any bits

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Chip Configuration

Consistent frequency across all duties: Uses an algorithm to calculate frequency depending on duty
  • Make sure you reset phase on each note, otherwise sudden changes in the LFSR may make this option less effective

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