Atari Lynx : Shoulda Been a Contender [updated]
Written: Sep 30 '00 (Updated Oct 01 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Cheap, fun portable gaming system with large software library
Cons: Didn't survive in the market!
|
|
|
| Zzach's Full Review: Atari Lynx |
The Atari Lynx. "What," you say, "Atari produced a PORTABLE gaming system?" Yes, venerable and occasionally quixotic Atari, producer of both the successful 2600 and the doomed Jaguar, made the first major-company foray into the color portable gaming market in 1989. Why didn't it catch on, you wonder? Allow me to begin with the background of the system.
Background
Atari didn't actually design the Lynx. A company named Epyx, made up of former Amiga engineers, designed the system in 1987. Previously Epyx produced games for numerous other systems, however with the Lynx they sought to produce a powerful, color gaming system and would provide a rich, full, fun gaming experience. They system they created was called Handy. The system was renamed the Lynx upon Atari's purchase to show off the system's multiplayer capability (more on this later).
System Specs & Design
The Lynx was designed around a 16 MHz 6502 chip with additional hardware to add both scrolling and zooming functions. These added chips gave the system functionality similar to that of the "Mode 7" scaling found in Star Fox for the SNES; keep in mind the Lynx had these features from the get go in 1989.
The screen used for the system was color with a 3.5" diagonal size. The onboard video circuitry allowed for a 12 bit palette of 4096 colors to be used. This compares quite favorably to the 2 bit capabilities of the Gameboy (black and white), and I believe the 4 bit quality (16 onscreen colors) of the Sega Game Gear, released in <90 or 91>.
The audio features of the system were also above and beyond those of the competition. Stereo sound and onboard audio circuitry allowed for four channel, 8 bit/channel game music and even speech synthesis. Remember the music for Tetris on the Gameboy? You would listen to the 15 second clip once or twice and then promptly turn the music all the way down. Not always so on the Lynx - certainly some games were much better than others, but even with the early games released for the system, care was put into the audio and speech and it showed. Early games like Road Blasters and Klax demonstrate this well.
The physical design of the Lynx exhibits the thought put into the system. The original Lynx was roughly the size of a piece of 8.5" x 11" paper folded in half lengthwise - much wider than the Gameboy. One of my big gripes about the Gameboy was that after extended gaming sessions, your arms would tire of the scrunched position required to hold the machine properly. The Lynx was set up with a more spread layout, with the directional pad on the left side of the system, screen, power and option buttons centrally located, and the speaker and gaming buttons on the right side. Along the top of the Lynx was the volume control knob as well as ports for headphones, comlynx and power cables. On the bottom of the system was a knob to adjust the contrast of the screen. Games were loaded into a slot behind a door on the back of the system behind the d-pad. A door covering the battery department was on the back of the system; the Lynx used 6 AA batteries.
The Lynx was redesigned for 1992, with hopes of both increasing sales and addressing some user complaints. It was shortened by nearly two inches, the game slot was moved to the central back of the system, a button to turn on or off the backlight was added and the battery compartment was moved from the back to the bottom side of the system.
Functionality
Game Control: As I mentioned above, the Lynx had a much more ergonomic design than the Gameboy. This allowed the Epyx/Atari engineers to do some interesting things. When playing games, of course you used your left hand to control the d-pad and right hand to press buttons, right? It had been this way since Nintendo introduced the NES with it's two button rectangular buttons. Besides the majority of the population was right handed - left handed people would learn to adjust. The Lynx designers added the ability to flip the screen 180 degrees. As you'll see in the picture above, there are two sets of buttons on the right side of the Lynx. Though I never made use of the function other than to show it off to people, I appreciate the thought which went into this design.
Another screen function which was well nigh impossible on the Gameboy and competing systems was to use the machine on its side. Go look at the picture again and turn your head to the side and look at the screen. Recall how some arcade games used this setup for shooters and other games (Raiden comes to mind) - the same was possible here. Games such as Klax, Gauntlet III and NFL Football made use of this setup. I found playing the games this way to be interesting and they were quite playable.
Comlynx: The namesake of the system, the comlynx allowed for up to eight players to simultaneously play against eachother. All that was required was two or more Lynxes with copies of the game to be played and one comlynx cable fewer than the number of Lynxes to be connected. Though I never made use of the function (I only knew two other people with the system), I have read it worked very well. Many of the game developers for the system took advantage of the simple design needs to add multiplayer ability to their games.
Games
No system can even attempt to be great if it doesn't have a foundation of strong games. While the Lynx had its share of lousy games (NFL Football, Viking Child, etc.), there were some truly amazing games released for it as well. Quite possibly my favorite game ever for the system was the original pack-in cartridge:
California Games. In essence, four mini-games packed in one, it included surfing, skateboarding, hackey sack and BMX biking. I have wasted NUMEROUS hours playing this game, as it offered continual replay value in trying to outdo your last score or trick in its sports. It also made early use of the scrolling/zooming hardware.
Other interesting games included:
Warbirds was a WWI flight simulator. An adequate one player game, it shone brightly in multi-player mode. Up to eight people could be dogfighting at the same time, leading to some exciting flying circus simulations.
Todd's Adventures in Slime World was something of the platform game for the system (Batman Returns could be the other). You play as Todd, an intrepid space explorer who in the six scenarios is either exploring or escaping slime world. The game covered its bases with scenarios varying from strategy/logic to action. A very large, fun game which also had multi-player support.
Klax, a game you probably remember from the NES/SNES/Genesis, was designed by Atari and was translated very well to the Lynx. Klax took advantage of the sideways playing setup. Again, I believe two player support was present.
Electro Cop was an interesting game for the system. It was one of the original games designed for the system by Epyx. While the controls were a bit complex and imperfectly implemented, it still went a long way to show off the graphical power of the system. Complex, 3-D levels with full zooming and scaling made the game a visual treat.
Blue Lightning was to the Lynx what Afterburner was to the Genesis/MasterSystem. An excellent flying/shooting game; you were in command of a top-secret new jet, and there were enemies everywhere. Very fun.
Rampart was one of the later games released for the Lynx, it was a very good translation of the arcade game. While simple graphically, it successfully blended strategy and action to make a fun and challenging game. Also had excellent sound.
The games I listed above are but a very small fraction of those released. I could go on for many more pages listing both good and bad games for the system. Some games, like Ninja Gaiden, Road Blasters, Rampart, Steel Talons, Raiden or APB, made for successful ports from the arcade to the Lynx. Others, such as Hard Drivin', didn't make the transition as well. In addition, many games were developed solely for the Lynx: Zarlor Mercanary, Junkyard Dog, Gates to Zendocon, Turbo Sub and Switchblade II were but a few. As always, there were both very good and very bad games in the mix.
The Bitter End
Since the Lynx is now listed in the Classic Console section, it had to stop at some point, didn't it? Unfortunately, as always happens with the battles of technology (VHS vs BETA, NES vs MasterSystem, Palm vs. Newton etc.), there has to be someone who walks away defeated. In a combination of marketing foul-ups and sheer volume of competition from the Gameboy, the Lynx was edged out of the market by late 1993/ early 1994. The Lynx was initially overpriced, at $200 - $250 with one game. By the end, it was selling for $70 with four games included. As Atari proved again and again until its final demise in 1999, it was able to take an excellent hardware concept and ruin it. The games were never overly expensive, most weighing in at about $25 (although a game like Batman Returns could command as much as $40), but in the end the Lynx went out with not a roar but a whimper.
Epilogue
The Lynx did manage to build a small group of devout followers. In fact, there are still a few developers, mostly amateur, producing some very high quality games for the system. These games can be purchased over the net and delivered to your door in a few short days.
The system is still quite available over auction sites like ebay and classified sites. Nearly all the games for the system are available at relatively cheap prices ($4 - $10 each). Lynx I and II systems can be had for about $40 to $50 with a few games on ebay.
There was some hope when the Jaguar was released in 1993 it might somehow make use of the Lynx as a high-tech controller (in a fashion similar to the Dreamcast). An internal circuit for the comlynx existed, but no external port was present. This could have been used as a radar function for Alien vs. Predator or a Tricorder for the hoped for Star Trek game, but the Jaguar's failure in the marketplace meant this never came to be a reality.
Overall
I can easily recommend the Lynx as a portable gaming system, even today with other systems like the Gameboy Color, Nomad, Turbo Express, NGPC and other on the market. It is a strong system with many fun games and it can be had on the cheap. You won't be like the other people with a Color Gameboy, but you probably won't be playing it around in public, either.
If you are interested in collecting or playing old video game systems, you'll be in for a pleasant surprise when you slide a game in and turn the system on.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Zzach
|
|
Member: Zach Zaletel
Location: Montreal, Canada
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.