what the hell is up with the Atari Lynx?

[Zooey]

Brief research into it, the best selling game on the Atari Lynx was RoadBlasters (ive never heard of it)

 

[MasterEn]

Brief research into it, the best selling game on the Atari Lynx was RoadBlasters (ive never heard of it)

that looks like a racing game that i owned on the nes, with the same level of graphics.

 

[bjork]

The Lynx and Game Gear had terrible libraries and sucked batteries down. Keep in mind these had to compete during the height of Pokemania. My feeling is that if the Game Gear and Lynx only had to compete with Tetris, they would've had a slightly easier time.

They did only compete with Tetris as Pokemon wasn't a thing until the late 90s? Game Gear was 91 and Lynx was 1989, years before Pokemon. Lynx's answer to Tetris was Block Out and GG had Columns, but neither was going to catch on like Tetris. I don't know when Lynx went out, but GG was originally discountinued in 97 and then brought back in 2000 by Majesco as a discount thing, not really a serious attempt at competing. They were like $30 at Toys R us and games were $10-15.

 

[tonyhoro]

Don't wanna sound like an ass but you can pretty much find everything about it on google or chatGPT.
It was a mid to shitty portable system, but its graphics are somewhat appealing.

There's a homebrew port of Mortal Kombat 1 to the Lynx which is kinda remarkable.

 

[Zooey]

They did only compete with Tetris as Pokemon wasn't a thing until the late 90s? Game Gear was 91 and Lynx was 1989, years before Pokemon. Lynx's answer to Tetris was Block Out and GG had Columns, but neither was going to catch on like Tetris. I don't know when Lynx went out, but GG was originally discountinued in 97 and then brought back in 2000 by Majesco as a discount thing, not really a serious attempt at competing. They were like $30 at Toys R us and games were $10-15.

Yes, good correction. Lynx's game library would've had to compete with the likes of Tetris and Mario Land. I still believe that if the Lynx were to survive, it would need a game that is at the same caliber of Pokemon, or at least Tetris. The Game Boys library wasn't that great either, but having those 2 heavy hitters to carry it, did help.

 

[Parasite_Steve]

It was a fairly capable system for the time but it bit the dust rather quickly because of a lack of quality games. I’ve never seen one in action, all I remember is its picture in Atari catalogues at the time. It looked neat and I kinda wanted one but by the mid90s it had disappeared from stores over here along with everything else Atari so I never got the chance. For the better I guess but there’s something alluring about failed hardware. The final years of Atari were pretty fascinating.

 

[nattybohman]

I like my Lynx and the color screen WAS better than the pea green GB screen at the time. The battery life is a problem, but since I play more at home than anything, the AC adapter is worth it.
There aren't a ton of great games, but there's a nice handful. My favorite games are Ninja Gaiden, Robotron, Rygar, Warbirds and Wyvern Tales.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

i swear, i hear people talk about the gameboy, i hear some talk about the game gear, hell, i love the wonderswan for its pretty impressive ports of stuff like clock tower and the final fantasy games... but i NEVER hear a peep about the Lynx. i think the singular time ive seen this thing in action is when Gordo 106 was played at AGDQ2019, and that's it. so, i beg the question: what the hell was up with the Atari Lynx? are there ANY notable games for it? and why does it have two sets of A and B buttons??

Exclusives? Most likely not, Atari games aren't known for their longevity. Ports? Probably

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's iconTamagotchiTamaHero24]

Exclusives? Most likely not, Atari games aren't known for their longevity. Ports? Probably

It’s so bizarre. The hardware seems neat, but… I maintain, I have NEVER seen a single game for it that’s even notable.

Game.Com has notable games. They’re HORRIBLE, but they’re interesting. Atari Lynx is worse than that. It’s not bad, it’s BORING.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

yeah, i'm familiar with the 2 version gimmick. that help kill most of my interest in the later games.

DemiKids, the Mega Man RPGs and Medabots (that one to a lesser extent) are the rare times where having both versions actually changes everything. Pokemon will change a rival, the available Pokemon, and in Gen 5/8 a gym leader. Demikids changes the whole story. The Mega Man RPGs and Medabots remain largely the same but completely change your gameplay style.

Post automatically merged: Feb 22, 2025

It’s so bizarre. The hardware seems neat, but… I maintain, I have NEVER seen a single game for it that’s even notable.

Game.Com has notable games. They’re HORRIBLE, but they’re interesting. Atari Lynx is worse than that. It’s not bad, it’s BORING.

You know it's bad when Atari Jaguar has more notable games like Tempest 2000 and the infamous Cybermorph. I'd love to maybe see someone do a homebrew for the system but as is, you're better off with anything else. Even a ZX Spectrum, someone made an entire Castlevania fan game on there and it's actually pretty good

 

[BinaryMessiah]

I have a Lynx II with about 10 boxed games. It's a neat little system. A lot of lost potential, but Atari being Atari at the time just fumbled the ball. Not to mention shitty and cheap hardware design. The caps and screen backlight fail in almost every unit. Mine just recently went and I need to send it in to someone with more expensive equipment than I have (oscilloscope, microscope, etc). For now I use my Lynx adapter for my Analogue Pocket.

 

[Big Finger Jim]

Yeah, how'd they fit a 25 pound cat in a little plastic shell? That shit's crazy.

 

[groundbeef]

I owned a Lynx and had 4 games for it:

Ninja Gaiden (which I loved)
Rygar
Blue Lightning
Warbirds

Overall the device was not much to talk of. I spent some good time with Ninja Gaiden as it did well to mimic the arcade. In the end it lasted as long as the Jaguar did for me. I think I had both of them 3 months.

 

[OpenVMS]

Atari got fat and lazy in its later years. They would kick out a half baked platform and just kind of arrogantly assumed that customers and developers would flock over. When they didn't, Atari just kind of shrugged.