From: chu@acsu.buffalo.edu (John C. Chu)
Newsgroups: alt.games.lynx
Subject: Please, please not another flame war (Re: lets face it)
Date: 12 Jan 93 17:31:34 GMT
Organization: UB

This discussion is still fairly reasonable now, but having witnessed
the mess that's currently comp.sys.atari.st, I guess I'm getting a
little cautious.

In article <1993Jan12.023356.18929@csus.edu> vcsc1090@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Dionicio Lazo) writes:
>The fault is not with Toys R Us but with
>Atari itself.

I doubt many people would disagree with you.

 Let me make my case :
>
>1. Atari does not advertise. When was the last time you saw an
>advertisement for the Lynx or its cartridges (bessides Batman)?

A couple of weeks ago on MTV. I can't tell you how surprised I was. Of
course, this was just an isolated incident. Atari does not advertise
at anywhere near the frequency of Sega. I don't think there is
necessarily a one to one correlation between the amount of advertising
and the success of a product, but in Atari's case, more advertising
would certainly help. The Lynx is a good product. If people knew about
it, and thought Atari would last, people might actually buy one. (The
opinion of the 10 year old kid who lives in the apartment below me is
that "Atari is dead." :-()

I would agree with the "Atari doesn't have the money" argument.

>2. Atari is living in the past. 99.9% of Atari games are
>translations form its video game.

This is an exaggeration. Exaggerations typically serve to weaken a
case, not strengthen it.

> Simply put, if we played joust or
>road blasters at the arcade, why would we want to play them at
>home?

I haven't done the arcade scene in years, but do arcades still have
Joust in them? (This is not an attack on your argument. I'm just
curious if Joust is such a good game that being 10 years old is not a
disadvantage for it. I like it a lot.) In any case, I suppose its the
same reason why Street Fighter 2 is all the rage. (It's an arcade game
and an SNES game, right?)

> You would get tired of them very fast!

However, there are people (like me) who don't go to arcades and find
it more cost effective (and convenient) to buy a Lynx and get the good
arcade translations.

>3. Atari does not make any new or intersting games that people want
>to play!

One of the selling points that Robert Jung *always* makes whenever
someone posts a "Should I get a Lynx or GameGear" message here is that
Lynx has quite a diverse selection (even though it doesn't have a very
deep selection). Looking at the games available, I'd have to agree
with him.

> Look at gameboy which has Megaman, Terminator 2, etc.

This is good if you want those games...

>Atari does not even have a Role playing game out onthe market.

This, of course, is the Lynx game library's regretable weakness.

>What Atari needs to do is to get 3rd party programmers to develop
>new games with imagination.

I'm thinking of an old game, but Midi-Maze for the ST (a.k.a. Kill a
Happy Face(?)) would be *perfect* for the Lynx. I doubt that anyone
would disagree with you about the need for 3rd party programmers. The
interesting question is how to get them to develop and support the Lynx.

>4. Atari does not release enough games. Each month, Atari releases
>1 game or 2! Thats it!!

Again, I would agree that this is a money issue.

>Atari's first RPG, Guardians,
>Storm Over Doria was given a release date of Nov-December of 1992
>and they still have not finished it!

To be fair, this is not an Atari product. I forget which 3rd party had
developed it (and then dropped it when they saw Eye of the Beholder).

>5. Lynx does not use it fullest potential as a 16 bit machine.

I guess it has a 16-bit graphics subsystem (I don't have the FAQ
anymore so I'm going from memory), but the main processor is a 6502,
which is definitely an 8-bit (and fun to program on too!)

>If the Lynx is a true 16 bit machine, why can't they
>achieve the clear crisp graphichs like the Genesis or SNES. The
>screen has nothing to do with it because the smaller the screen,
>the better the picture.

The screen has everything to do with it. "The smaller the screen, the
better the picture" is true if you're comparing CRT to CRT (or LCD to
LCD) at comparable resolutions. Neither is the case here. The Lynx
does not have a CRT screen, it has a passive-matrix LCD display. That
is necessarily going to look worse than a CRT (e.g.  colors will not
be as vivid, the refresh rate is lower and there is more "smearing").
Also, the Lynx has a much lower resolution screen than a Genesis or
SNES. A portable with graphics that looked as good as a console would
be quite expensive. (I figure the predominant cost would be for the
large active-matrix lcd display.)

>
>In conclusion, what you should be doing is writing Atari and tell
>them to get their act together.

If you feel this way, join Len Stys's letter writing campaign.

>and come up with its own magazine! 

I thought they had their own magazine... Was Grey Matters just a
one-shot deal? (If so, why did it have a volume and issue number? I
believe, I have vol. 3(!) Issue 1. This is not an attack of any sort.
I'm really curious about this.)

>I love my Lynx but if things keep on going as they are, then I fear
>the Lynx will follw the path of the 2600.         
>What do you think?

If it became as popular as the 2600 was in its prime, that would be
great! :-)

Yes, I know that's not how you meant for that statement to be taken.
Just for perspective, keep in mind the state of Atari Inc. as a whole.
Compared to how they are handling their computers, they are absolutely
brilliant with the Lynx. At least they advertise occasionally and
support it somewhat actively. Whether or not Atari still has the money
to do it right (they used to be a Fortune 500 company), I'm not sure
they will with the current management team as they tend to be somewhat
stingy.

However, I think the Lynx will survive (I'm not so certain about their
computers) because ultimately, they do release games (although I
wonder about their timing, 2 days before Christmas?) and ultimately,
there is some 3rd party support. Hopefully, Batman Returns has gotten
the Lynx into more hands than has ever had the Lynx before and maybe
good word of mouth will make up for lack of advertising muscle.
However, I wouldn't count on it. They need to advertise.  Although it
could be doing better, it's not doing too badly. Around here, I don't
see support dropping. It might be my imagination, but the video game
stores around might have actually increased their Lynx support in the
past couple of months (this includes Toys R Us).

Historically, Atari has always been better at selling video games than
computers and they are doing the right things to push the Lynx. They
just aren't doing them enough. (i.e., I have seen non-Batman Lynx
commericials, but they need to do more. They do release games, but
they need more and the releases should be better timed etc.) Whether
they are fiscally able to do it is beyond me. I think the know-how is
there though.

					john
				chu@acsu.buffalo.edu