Talk to Me about the Lynx

[Space Runaway]

So...on an impulse I picked up Lynx II for cheap. After admiring its rugged contours and foreboding presence, I came to the conclusion that I am completely unfamiliar with the Lynx's library. I bought so I could have a Lynx more than anything else, but I at least need a handful of games to go with it. So, Lynx Lovers, what do I need to pick up? Xybots? Toki? At the very least, I see that there is a Raiden port, and it seems to be regarded favorably, so that's on my radar. Ninja Gaiden III is another one on the short list.

Proceed.

 

[Darklighterx]

Alien vs Predator.

 

[fenikso]

If you like Klax at all, the one for the Lynx was incredible.

Crystal Mines II also good fun.

 

[Black IcE]

Alien vs Predator.

Call me crazy, but I thought it never officially got released.

 

[Space Runaway]

Apparently it didn't? Looks like someone is selling homegrown AVP carts on ebay, but from what I read, the game was about 85% complete when canned?

Anyways, the tips are much appreciated, feel free to keep 'em coming.

 

[neo_mao]

nice...gotta love the Lynx

Roadblasters
Ninja Gaiden 1 (the arcade game)
Zarlor Mercenary (intense shmup)
Rampage
Blue Lightning (sometimes boring but at least technically impressive)
Xenephobe


Will check out my collection when i get home...am sure there are more

 

[Electric Cake]

Dont buy batman

Turbosub and scrapyard dog are nice.

 

[Diggerman]

Slime World was an excellent game on the Lynx, and very innovative for its time. Years back I once had the opportunity to play 4 - 6 players linked, and it was truly awesome.

I still have around 40 Lynx games. Even boxes and manuals.

 

[Decepticreep]

Hated the system, but the one game i liked was Rampart.

 

[GunstarHero]

I have a Lynx and about 50 games. Great machine. You'll find most success with the Arcade ports on the system, namely:

Roadblasters
APB
Ms PacMan
Robotron (amazing port)
Ninja Gaiden
Hydra
Xybots
Xenophobe!
Rampart
Rygar (Another AMAZING port)
STUN Runner
Paperboy
Rampage
KLAX
Blockout

Thats just the arcade ports off the top of my head that I think are fantastic versions given the hardware.

Raiden is very good, but it's expensive.

AvP is jank and uncomplete, for collectors only.

I play my Lynx at work often, never gets old, just good solid titles, and a good selection too. It's a very arcadey system, no RPG or RTS stuff, but there are a couple of puzzlers like Chips Challenge and Shanghai that are great.

Totally shitty games to avoid (unless you want to collect) are:
Kung Food
Steel Talons
Tournament Cyberball
Scrapyard Dog
Power Factor
Dirty Larry Renegade Cop
Gauntlet 3

Just my opinion.

 

[Space Runaway]

This is really helpful guys, thanks! I've got enough totally shitty games for other consoles, so I'm probably going to stick with a few tried and true gems.

 

[Diggerman]

Only thing I really hated on the Lynx, was the controls. Really lousy dpad IMO.

 

[One-Up]

The main problem with the Lynx is the missing of games unique to the system. Most are ports and usually the original ones are better.

 

[GunstarHero]

The main problem with the Lynx is the missing of games unique to the system. Most are ports and usually the original ones are better.

Don't really understand this comment. The Lynx was competing with the original Gameboy, and side by side, the Lynx ports of arcade games just annihilate any GB versions, and the Lynx pretty much bitch-slapped the Game Gear around as well when it came to technical specs. If you are saying that Lynx arcade ports aren't as good as the Arcade originals, well then all I can say is '''well duh'''.

 

[madman]

Don't really understand this comment. The Lynx was competing with the original Gameboy, and side by side, the Lynx ports of arcade games just annihilate any GB versions, and the Lynx pretty much bitch-slapped the Game Gear around as well when it came to technical specs. If you are saying that Lynx arcade ports aren't as good as the Arcade originals, well then all I can say is '''well duh'''.

Yep, agreed. When the Lynx first came out, I unfortunately was never able to get one as I already had a Gameboy. But, seeing the ads for all the games completely blew me away. The Lynx had all but disappeared and I forgot about it, so I picked up a Game Gear on the cheap with a few games. I was never really impressed and I thought the screen was crap. The Lynx resurfaced for $99 with 4 pack ins and I finally picked one up. I've got a nearly complete collection for it and still think it's the best of the old school handhelds. The arcade ports are a blast and obviously they are not as good as playing an original full size stand-up. It's a nice, niche market handheld that's still quite a bit of fun. Can't say as much for my Game Gear.

 

[RAINBOW PONY]

the lynx is craptastic, i played it back in the day, system was HUGE and the screen was TINY, bad controls too. the only thing it had going for it was the color graphics and it owned the gameboy and gamegear at the time technically.

no reason to own one nowadays IMO.

 

[GunstarHero]

the lynx is craptastic, i played it back in the day, system was HUGE and the screen was TINY, bad controls too. the only thing it had going for it was the color graphics and it owned the gameboy and gamegear at the time technically.

no reason to own one nowadays IMO.

The Screen on the Lynx was the largest until the PSP. It just looks small because the system is so large. The Lynx owns and you know it. I played Rygar and Dinolympics on mine last night.

Lynx = 3.5"
DSLite = 3"
PSP = 4.3" (? correct)

 

[Pocketgamer]

Ninja Gaiden 3 is bad enough on the NES, DO NOT buy it for the lynx, if you still want a ninja gaiden just get Ninja gaiden 1 its similar to the arcade.

 

[One-Up]

Don't really understand this comment. The Lynx was competing with the original Gameboy, and side by side, the Lynx ports of arcade games just annihilate any GB versions, and the Lynx pretty much bitch-slapped the Game Gear around as well when it came to technical specs. If you are saying that Lynx arcade ports aren't as good as the Arcade originals, well then all I can say is '''well duh'''.

What I meant is that the problem of the system is/was that almost all the games were ports. There were no unique games to the system, games which were only released for the Lynx - and very, very good. No games you had/have to buy a Lynx for to play them. And I am certainly not trying to defend either GG or GB.

 

[Robert]

Joust anyone???

 

[RAINBOW PONY]

The Screen on the Lynx was the largest until the PSP. It just looks small because the system is so large. The Lynx owns and you know it. I played Rygar and Dinolympics on mine last night.

Lynx = 3.5"
DSLite = 3"
PSP = 4.3" (? correct)

maybe im thinking of the gamegear, i could have sworn the lynx screen was tiny, oh well.

 

[Jimid2]

My favorite Lynx games are Zarlor Mercenary, Todd's Adventures in Slime World, Gauntlet, Blue Lightning, Shadow of the Beast (hard! but fun!!), Chip's Challenge, Gates of Zendocon, Alpine Games, Raiden and California Games. Alpine Games and Raiden were both published after the Lynx was abandoned by Atari, and they're both rare and pricey. California Games is probably the game I've played the most. I bought my first Lynx in Dec. 1989, on release, and California Games was the pack-in - both of my display Lynxes in my handheld cab have California Games loaded in the slot - I just can't get enough of the Surfing and BMX competitions; I'm always trying to beat my current high score!

 

[Rade K]

Just purchased a Lynx I (complete in box system) with California Games and Chip's Challenge. I've played a bunch of Lynx roms in the past, but I've always wanted to get my hands on one just out of curiosity.

All I can says is wow, what a giant piece of shit. I know it was probably awesome to have a Lynx in 1989, but this thing must have been hilarious by 1990.

I'm not saying the technology involved isn't impressive for it's time (multiple sprite scaling is nothing to sneeze at, as even the SNES could only do one background) but the only developer to really take advantage of the thing was Epyx (the system's designer) and they stopped making games / went bankrupt with a year of this system's release.

After the Epyx games, all you have left with this thing were the garbage Telegames and Atari releases, which were vastly inferior to what Epyx was doing.

There was just so many reasons why this thing failed. Consumers were right not to flock to it and in the end, it was because of the depressing selection of games.

What an oddity.

 

[GunstarHero]

Just purchased a Lynx I (complete in box system) with California Games and Chip's Challenge. I've played a bunch of Lynx roms in the past, but I've always wanted to get my hands on one just out of curiosity.

All I can says is wow, what a giant piece of shit. I know it was probably awesome to have a Lynx in 1989, but this thing must have been hilarious by 1990.

I'm not saying the technology involved isn't impressive for it's time (multiple sprite scaling is nothing to sneeze at, as even the SNES could only do one background) but the only developer to really take advantage of the thing was Epyx (the system's designer) and they stopped making games / went bankrupt with a year of this system's release.

After the Epyx games, all you have left with this thing were the garbage Telegames and Atari releases, which were vastly inferior to what Epyx was doing.

There was just so many reasons why this thing failed. Consumers were right not to flock to it and in the end, it was because of the depressing selection of games.

What an oddity.

Congrats on judging the entire library on 2 launch games, one being a puzzler. Lets judge the Genesis library next by playing Boxxle.

 

[Jimid2]

What I meant is that the problem of the system is/was that almost all the games were ports. There were no unique games to the system, games which were only released for the Lynx - and very, very good. No games you had/have to buy a Lynx for to play them. And I am certainly not trying to defend either GG or GB.

huh? I would say that most of the best titles on the system were system exclusives on release, even if they ended up on other systems eventually (eg: Chip's Challenge on PC and Slime World on Genesis), and most of those were Epyx games (surprise!)... Blue Lightning, Todd's Adventures in Slime World, Chip's Challenge, Electrocop, Warbirds, Gates of Zendicon, Zarlor Mercenary, etc... these were solid Lynx-exclusive games available shortly after the system's release, and there was a lot of hope for the machine in those early days, even if it didn't sell as well as the Game Boy. The Lynx got a lot of positive press early on, and if Atari had been run by real human-beings rather than the sociopathic Tramiel family, the system may well have carved a healthy second place for itself in the handheld market. Unfortunately, Jack Tramiel completely screwed over Epyx Games to "legally steal" the rights to the Lynx hardware from them; in the process, of course, he completely alienated the Lynx's best development house and pretty much announced to any third party developers that were paying attention that Atari was run by a bunch of untrustworthy rat-bastards who'd sell their mother to snuff film producers for a plugged nickel. Needless to say, the good games dried up, and without any new decent software being released to sustain it over the hump, the system ultimately failed... but it was the Tramiels that killed the system, not any inherent shortcomings in the hardware, or even the (early) software...