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[Barrett2]

Let's get real, people. The Atari Lynx was one of the best game systems of all time!

The system was huge, weighed about 20lbs, was in FULL COLOR, had sweet-ass games, and even LEFT HANDED people could play it.

The Atari Lynx is a 16-bit handheld game console that was released by Atari Corporation in 1989. The Lynx holds the distinction of being the world's first handheld electronic game with a color LCD display. The system is also notable for its forward-looking features, advanced graphics, and ambidextrous layout. The Lynx was released in 1989, the same year as Nintendo's (monochromatic) Game Boy. However, the Lynx failed to achieve the sales numbers required to attract quality third party developers, and was eventually abandoned.

The Lynx system was originally developed by Epyx as the Handy Game. Planning and design of the console began in 1986 and completed in 1987.[1] Epyx first showed the Handy system at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 1989. Facing financial difficulties, Epyx sought out partners. Atari Corp. and Epyx eventually agreed that Atari Corp. would handle production and marketing, while Epyx would handle software development.

Atari Corp. changed the internal speaker and removed the thumb-stick on the control pad before releasing it as the Lynx, initially retailing in the US at US$189.95. Atari Corp. then showed the Lynx to the press at the Summer 1989 CES as the "Portable Color Entertainment System", which was changed to Lynx when actual consoles were distributed to resellers

Just look at this awesome box. Remember seeing the Lynx running behind the glass at Toys R Us, and this enormous box sitting below? Of course you do, and it was awesome.

Remember this monstrosity of a case? It was like carrying around a briefcase to your friend's house.

California Games was a great pack-in game. I remember opening the system two weeks before Christmas in my parent's attic because I was so hyped to play California Games surfing and BMX.

Suck it, Gameboy.

I have very fond memories of the Lynx, more-so than either Gameboy or Game Gear. It just really felt like a magical time in gaming when the Lynx was released.

My only regret is that as a kid I made terrible decisions when buying games, so I missed out on some great Lynx games because I wasted money buying garbage like Viking Child, Roadblasters, etc.

My top three Lynx games:

- Batman Returns
- California Games
- Rampage

 

[Takao]

Can't tell if serious.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Your list needs more Slime World dammit!

Lynx was an awesome system, well ahead of it's time; unfortunately Atari was SEGA before SEGA was SEGA. So they couldn't market free money if they tried.

Loved my Lynx and I miss it as it was stolen when my parents house was broken into . . . god, 18 years ago. Along with my first ever import game for the Genesis. D:

Had a lot of really superb arcades ports as well. Ninja Gaiden woot!

 

[Barrett2]

Your list needs more Slime World dammit!

My best friend at the time had Slime World, he let me borrow it and I remember it being awesome.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

My best friend at the time had Slime World, he let me borrow it and I remember it being awesome.

Plus those things that popped out of the floor, easily one of the scariest fucking sounds and moments in video gaming. :lol

 

[ReyBrujo]

Never had one, but started following video games back in the early '90s, so I used to check on the Lynx. Besides Batman Returns (I remember reviewers getting surprised at the size of the sprites and the difficulty), you must always mention Shadow of the Beast, the game that truly exploited the Lynx to the peak (monstruosity difficulty as well!).

 

[frankie_baby]

I got a lynx for my 11th birthday, annoyingly later that day i broke my arm but thankfully due to the left handed layout i could still play
Only ever had 2 games though, blue lightning and gauntlet
Loved it though

 

[Wag]

I had one, a loooong time ago. I don't even remember what games I owned.

 

[twinturbo2]

It's kinda odd how the Lynx had the only half-decent port of STUN Runner. Remember that game?

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

It's kinda odd how the Lynx had the only half-decent port of STUN Runner. Remember that game?

Didn't it also have a port of the one arcade game where some flying ship would drop a weapon mount onto your hood? It was sort of like combat Hard Drivin'. What the hell was that called?

I remember playing it a lot in the arcade and it's cool cabinet.

 

[BravoSuperStar]

I had one of the redesign's. It was an excellent portable system. I loved California Games and Batman Returns. Also had a great port of APB, only one I can think of actually outside of compilations.

Didn't it also have a port of the one arcade game where some flying ship would drop a weapon mount onto your hood? It was sort of like combat Hard Drivin'. What the hell was that called?

I remember playing it a lot in the arcade and it's cool cabinet.

Roadblasters!

 

[commish]

Diry Larry, Dracula, Cyberball, and the greatest version of Ninja Gaiden ever.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Roadblasters!

Oh hell yes!

Here's the awesome sit down cabinet.

Man, this thread makes me want to buy a second hand Lynx! :lol

 

[Barrett2]

Roadblasters was dope. Loved that game.

What are people's thoughts on Blue Lightning? I remember enjoying it, but probably wouldn't buy it again if I ever get around to buying a Lynx & games on Ebay like I keep intending to do.

 

[Agent X]

I appreciate the Lynx!

Didn't it also have a port of the one arcade game where some flying ship would drop a weapon mount onto your hood? It was sort of like combat Hard Drivin'. What the hell was that called?

I remember playing it a lot in the arcade and it's cool cabinet.

Most likely RoadBlasters. I'm surprised lawblob didn't like it, as I think it's one of the Lynx's better games myself. A truly superb arcade conversion that still holds up well.

As a matter of fact, most arcade conversions were extremely well done. Some of them were even better than the arcade versions they were based on! For example, Rampage and Xenophobe both supported 4 players (the arcade versions only went up to 3), and had some extra items and other tweaks to the gameplay. Ms. Pac-Man had an extra alternate set of huge mazes (not the same as the Genesis/SNES versions, which also had extra sets of mazes). Don't also forget the great version of Klax, with its awesome intro music and redrawn backgrounds.

Then you've got the Epyx games which just flat out rock. I remember seeing Electrocop in Macy's in early 1990, and my jaw hit the floor. Blue Lightning was simply stunning, and Gates of Zendocon was a huge shooter with lots of levels. California Games was great for multiplayer, as was Todd's Adventures in Slime World (many hours were spent on the legendary multiplayer game #5).

Speaking of multiplayer, the Lynx really excelled at it. Besides some of the other games that I've mentioned, I also played a lot of Warbirds, Checkered Flag, Joust, Shanghai, and BattleWheels. I don't think I've ever played more than 2 players personally (might've tried 3 on one occasion), but there were a fair amount of 4-player games on the system, and a few that did more than that (Checkered Flag and BattleWheels could support 6 players, and Slime World could support 8). All of this was due to a clever daisy-chaining link cable design, which allowed you to easily add more players just by connecting another cable (no "four-player adapter" needed). It was way ahead of its time.

 

[Iron_Scimitar]

Man i loved my lynx and how it ate up 6 AAs :lol

Back when I was younger my buddies in catholic school had the model 1 lynx and I was uber jealous. That christmas, I got the model 2 lynx. I had 3 games, Turbo Sub, Ninja Gaiden, and a buddy let me borrow Gates Of Zendocon. Gate Of Zendocon used to scare the shit outta me w/ the flying eyeballs and super large sprites and sound fx. LOL

Lets see, I had the Lynx zipper carrying case w/ the velcro sections AC adapter, and Lynx carrying pouch. I had great times w/ that system.

 

[Agent X]

Roadblasters was dope. Loved that game.

Maybe you're thinking of a different RoadBlasters than the one you mentioned in your first post? :lol

What are people's thoughts on Blue Lightning? I remember enjoying it, but probably wouldn't buy it again if I ever get around to buying a Lynx & games on Ebay like I keep intending to do.

It's definitely a good game. It's not the deepest game around, and a fair amount of the game is pretty easy, but it's got enough moments of tension to keep it worthwhile. It shouldn't be too hard to find at a good price, if you decide you want to get back into Lynx gaming again.

 

[industrian]

My fingers are hurting looking at that button arrangement.

I was an Atari ST fanboy back in the day, and I'll admit I wanted a Lynx and Jaguar.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

My fingers are hurting looking at that button arrangement.

I think you're looking at it wrong.

You just used two buttons.

The system was designed so you could physically flip it and still comfortably use all the buttons if you were left handed.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Electrocop and Chips Challenge were pretty awesome.

I recall enjoying Bill & Ted, too.

 

[Barrett2]

Maybe you're thinking of a different RoadBlasters than the one you mentioned in your first post? :lol

Wait a minute, I must be confusing Roadblasters with another game. I can't remember which one I loved and which I didn't like. Hold on, time for some Google memory-jogging. :lol

 

[Agent X]

Plus those things that popped out of the floor, easily one of the scariest fucking sounds and moments in video gaming. :lol

Oh yeah, those hidden jaw monster things were royal pains. You'd just be wandering along a quiet path, minding your business, when suddenly AAAAAWWWORN! That damn sound always got on my nerves, too. Good times!

My fingers are hurting looking at that button arrangement.

It's actually quite comfortable. Most people who aren't familiar with the Lynx don't realize that the four face buttons are just two sets of A & B buttons. This is especially true in this day and age, where four face buttons have been commonplace on most controllers for several years now--people see the Lynx's buttons and can't understand how you can reach all of the face buttons easily. That's because you only have to reach two of them! Usually, you just use the "top" set, based on the system orientation (if you flip the system 180 degrees, then the other set becomes the "top" set). The Option1/Option 2 and Pause buttons (on the inside, near the screen border) are a little harder to reach in the heat of battle, but thankfully most games don't use them frequently (usually auxiliary functions, or music toggle).

 

[G-Fex]

I had a Lynx it was used with no working sound but oh the hours I spent playing blue thunder and gates of zardon(sp?) and amazed about the graphics of Blue thunder almost being like a slower Afterburner. Oh and Klax but not so much that. It was an awesome little (well bulky little) thing.

 

[mrgone]

I really miss EPYX

 

[DigitalDevil]

interesting note:

the Lynx was developed by Epyx way back in 1987. They actually showed this to Nintendo and pitched it to them, but Nintendo turned them down. Can you imagine how much handheld gaming would be today if Nintendo had taken on the Lynx?

 

[Jamie xxoo]

I loved my lynx! I always played it plugged into the wall though, the battery requirements were ridiculous. You could really tell that the same guys who made the Amiga made this system - the 4 channel sound, the 4096 colors, it just "felt" Amiga-ish.

I still have my Lynx cartridges under the bed, thinking one day I'll pick up a 2nd hand Lynx II (my original got crushed when I moved house years ago). The best game on that system for me was Toki (about to come out on Xbox Arcade!) - SO addictive, followed by California Games (I could do BMX on that game for hours on end) - I actually think it had the *best* version of that game. Stun Runner was also brilliant - easily the best version you could play at home.

The games were *impossible* to find in my area. Only one shop sold them, and I often had to order in the games I wanted after reading about them in magazines. I loved how indie it felt though to have this hardly known-of system. And you got a free newsletter!

GAH! Too... much... nostalgia... can't... breathe....

 

[Quasar]

I loved my Lynx. First an only handheld I ever owned, unless you count a Popeye Game & Watch or my iPod Touch.

 

[Brashnir]

Electrocop and Chips Challenge were pretty awesome.

I recall enjoying Bill & Ted, too.

If Electrocop was the game I'm thinking it was, it was an near-unplayable mess.

Chip's Challenge on the other hand was indeed excellent.

 

[Zonar]

The most under rated game of all time!

Gates of Fucking Zendocon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcmmfOfeN6k

 

[jvm]

Robotron: 2084 on the Lynx is sadly unappreciated. It has a wonderful control scheme, and despite being a hair slow has all the excitement of the real thing.

Roadblasters is also good, as is Rampart.

Really, for classic games, it's a pretty decent system. My third favorite handheld, after the PSP and NDS.

 

[AstroMan]

Sorry, the nomad was the superior (and still definitive) handheld.


Wait, which system had that SWEET ASS Power Ranger game? Was it the Neo Geo? Maybe that was the definitive handheld.

 

[Beer Monkey]

My favorite non-Nintendo handheld of all time by a very large margin. Lynx was tons better than the Jaguar.

 

[Defensor]

I went through dozens of AA batteries playing Xenophobe. I think I still have my Atari Lynx however the plastic screen doesn't stay on anymore due to the glue finally lost its adhesiveness.

 

[Death Dealer]

Cool system. It was color ! Couldn't believe it didn't catch on more. Everyone in school had gameboys.

I had california games, blue thunder, gauntlet, s.t.u.n runner, rampage, paperboy, and a few others. I was more into Genesis and later SNES.

 

[wondermega]

ALL THIS SHIT KICKED ASS

God, I miss being a kid.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Game Boy: 40 hours of battery life on 4 AAs according to manual (I would guess 35-40 actual)
Game Gear: 7 hours of battery life on 6 AAs according to Majesco ver. manual (4-7 is a good guess for actual performance) (backlit)
Lynx model 2: ~4-6 hours of battery life on 6 AAs (backlit)
Lynx model 1: 2-3 hours of battery life on 6 AAs (backlit)
TurboExpress: 2-3 hours of battery life on 6 AAs (backlit)

Hmm, I wonder why the Game Boy won. Oh right, beyond Tetris and Mario, it was the only system that didn't destroy your wallet. The model 1 Lynx is in a three way tie for worst battery life ever in a major handheld. The model 2 isn't much better.

Other comparisons:
Game Boy Light - 20 hours with light off, 12 with light on, on 2 AAs (backlit)
Game Boy Pocket - ~10-12 hours on 2 AAAs
Game Boy Color - ~12-15 hours on 2 AAs
Game Boy Advance (model 1) - 15 hours for GBA games, a bit less for GB/GBC, on 2 AAs (GB/GBC games use more power than GBA games)
Neo Geo Pocket - ?
Neo Geo Pocket Color - 40 hours on 2 AAs (plus a CR2032 to save system settings)
WonderSwan - 30-40 hours on 1 AA
WonderSwan Color - 20 hours on 1 AA
SwanCrystal - 15 hours on 1 AA
game.com - ? on 4 AAs
game.com Pocket Pro - ? on 2 AAs (front lit)
game.com Pocket - ? on 2 AAs
Sega Nomad - 2-3 hours on 6 AAs

Obviously good battery life only helps so much, as the NGPC and WonderSwan serieses learned, but it helps.

I mean, yeah, the Lynx had an amazing screen, it was the first console ever with built-in hardware scaling and rotation support, and it had a 16-bit graphics chip with its 8-bit CPU... but the battery life was abysmal, particularly in the model 1 system, it was extremely large, and it just didn't have many games, and games came out for the system quite slowly.

But beyond the usual "after the 2600s third parties didn't want to support Atari anymore and Atari didn't want to spend the money to get them to support them" issues that led to the system having so few games, that battery life really was a problem. Sure it was really powerful, but for handhelds that comes at a big price...

Nowadays with rechargeable batteries things aren't quite as bad, but back then, when it was either spending lots of money on batteries, using rechargables of your own that probably won't last that long, or always being tethered to a wall or car jack or something with your AC adapter or car adapter... well, battery life was one reason why I wanted a Game Boy over a Game Gear or Lynx in the early '90s. Game selection was another reason, and that I liked Nintendo best, but battery life was an important consideration...


On the other hand, of course, the Lynx still has an active fan community, like all Atari systems. In fact, for anyone who doesn't know, an entirely original Atari Lynx shmup was just released recently, and in an actual cart too, called Zaku. See here for info:
http://www.zaku-lynx.com/

Going by all the stuff I've seen about it it's a pretty good game with some nice graphics and gameplay.

 

[wondermega]

I didn't care that the Lynx scarfed down batteries. I happily plugged that thing into the AC adapter and played for hours and hours. They had so many weirdo (but wonderful) games that you just could not find anywhere else..

EDIT: Also, the Lynx had hardware scaling, and no sprite flicker (I think their custom chip allowed for unlimited count of sprites onscreen or something.. this was in huge comparison to 8bit systems of the day which could have just a couple before things started dropping out all over the place)

 

[A Black Falcon]

I didn't care that the Lynx scarfed down batteries. I happily plugged that thing into the AC adapter and played for hours and hours. They had so many weirdo (but wonderful) games that you just could not find anywhere else..

EDIT: Also, the Lynx had hardware scaling, and no sprite flicker (I think their custom chip allowed for unlimited count of sprites onscreen or something.. this was in huge comparison to 8bit systems of the day which could have just a couple before things started dropping out all over the place)

That is true, the Lynx is, I'm pretty sure, the only video game system released in the 1980s with hardware sprite scaling and rotation. That is a pretty impressive achievement, particularly for a handheld... but it definitely was part of what helped make the thing barely "portable".

 

[wondermega]

Supposedly they market-researched the design and thought people wanted a larger handheld unit, whoops! That's why Lynx II was significantly smaller.

 

[ChryZ]

Maybe I should check if mine is still working.

 

[Noogy]

The most under rated game of all time!

Gates of Fucking Zendocon!

Righteous. I have such fond memories of this game.

 

[LostVector]

I saved up over an entire summer to get the Turbo Express. Couldn't scrounge up enough money to get a Lynx too. But in hind sight I think I made the right choice. The Turbo Express was about 5 years ahead of its time. Playing SF2CE via a card adapter on the go had to be one of the sickest things ever.

 

[phants]

I've got most of the lynx games that were ever released but damn if it isn't hard trying to track down the last few!

 

[ChryZ]

I've got most of the lynx games that were ever released but damn if it isn't hard trying to track down the last few!

What are you still looking for?

 

[confused]

Where is the mentions of greats like Switchblade ? Chips Challenge, and somehow I have a memory of Shadow of the beast but that might not of been Lynx.

 

[LamerDeluxe]

A user called Lynxman on the Atari Age Lynx forum http://www.atariage.com/forums/forum/13-atari-lynx/ has developed a flash cart for the Lynx. Intended primarily for software development. A game programming competition just started recently there.

Roadblasters is a great game, a very good arcade conversion with a really smooth framerate. Shadow of the Beast is also very impressive, smooth framerate and great graphics.

I have a GameGear as well and its battery life is much worse than the Lynx's.

One problem with the original Gameboy library IMO is that so many games are same-ish platform games. Plus ofcourse the screen looked horrible.

I also have almost all games for the Lynx now, been collecting them for about fifteen years.

I've programmed a couple of small demos on the Lynx and the architecture is really different from other consoles. All the graphics you see are a list of sprites any where in memory of size 511 x unlimited, with runlength compression and variable scaling, tapering and skewing (lines and polygons use the sprite engine with these effects). The sprites are drawn in the order they are in the list and can be anywhere in a virtual 32678x32768 pixel space. Just define where the screen of the Lynx is in that space and execute sprite drawing, really cool.

Audio is four channels of typical Atari sound and 8-bit digital sound, with full stereo panning, only on Lynx II.

Horizontal and vertical raster interrupts are available so you can run a function for each scanline, to make vertical gradients for instance and use more than the usual limit of 16 colors out of 4096.

I'm planning on making a game for the competition, in assembly code, haven't decided on what kind of game yet.

 

[Celine]

My favorite game on the system is Xybots.

 

[ChryZ]

I have a memory of Shadow of the beast but that might not of been Lynx.

They ported it to Lynx and I got it in my collection.

 

[Barrett2]

Supposedly they market-researched the design and thought people wanted a larger handheld unit, whoops! That's why Lynx II was significantly smaller.

Yeah, in the Ultimate History of Video Games, Stephen Kent wrote that focus groups said the bigger size of the prototype made if feel like a better value, or something.

I wonder how much truth there is to that; it seems so unintuitive. But then again, it was the late 80s, so who knows.

I'm planning on making a game for the competition, in assembly code, haven't decided on what kind of game yet.

That sounds awesome. Good luck.

 

[DarthButcher]

My Lynx is pretty cool. Can't wait for Spring Break so I can play it, as it's packed away in my new house. Will post pics, too.