Randy Lyndon is a programmer known for his remarkable achievements in video game development. He has a history of porting games to various platforms, including the Commodore 64 and Amiga. Lyndon gained significant recognition for creating the Bleem! emulator for the PlayStation 1 on PCs, allowing gamers to play PS1 games on their computers. Despite winning a legal battle against Sony, Bleem! eventually went out of business.
One of Lyndon's most impressive feats was porting the game "Doom" to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). This port was particularly challenging due to the SNES's limited hardware capabilities. Lyndon had to tap into the Super FX 2 chip, originally used in "Star Fox," to handle the mathematical calculations required for rendering a 3D world. He created a custom development kit to work on this project and wrote an entirely new engine for the SNES version of Doom.
To optimize performance, Lyndon used pre-calculated lookup tables for trigonometric math and implemented various other optimizations. However, Doom on the SNES still suffered from a sluggish frame rate, primarily due to bandwidth limitations and the SNES's low clock speed.
Despite its limitations, the release of the Doom source code for the SNES version has allowed ROM hackers to make improvements, such as fixing control issues and potentially adding support for the Super Scope accessory.
In summary, Randy Lyndon is a programmer known for his impressive work in game development, including porting games to various platforms and creating the Bleem! emulator. His most notable achievement is the port of Doom to the Super Nintendo, which pushed the SNES hardware to its limits.
Here are the key facts extracted from the provided text:
1. Randy Lyndon is known for porting Doom to the Super Nintendo.
2. The source code for Doom on the Super NES was released to the public on July 14, 2020.
3. Randy Lyndon initially started writing games for the Commodore 64 in the 80s.
4. He gained attention for porting Dragon's Lair to the Commodore Amiga in 1989.
5. Randy Lyndon is also known for developing the Bleem PlayStation 1 emulator for PCs.
6. Bleem allowed users to run PlayStation 1 games on their PCs and was sold at retail stores for a short time.
7. Randy Lyndon built his own custom development kit for working on the Super NES version of Doom.
8. He created a new engine called the "Reality Engine" to make Doom levels run on the Super NES.
9. The Super NES version of Doom had to make various sacrifices to fit into a 16-megabit cartridge.
10. The game ran at a reduced resolution compared to the original.
11. Doom on the Super NES used pre-calculated lookup tables for trigonometric math to optimize performance.
12. The BSP tree algorithm was crucial for rendering walls in Doom.
13. Despite optimizations, Doom on the Super NES could get sluggish, running at an average of about 10 frames per second.
14. There were limitations due to bandwidth, fill rates, and the low clock speed of the Super NES main processor.
15. Recent updates in the ROM hacking scene have improved the control system of Doom on the Super NES.
16. There is hope for Super Scope support with the release of the source code.
These facts provide a comprehensive overview of Randy Lyndon's work on Doom for the Super Nintendo and the technical challenges involved in the project.