Atari Lynx

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The **Lynx** was a handheld console released by Atari Corporation in 1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe and Japan, around the same time as Nintendo's Game Boy. The Lynx has the distinction of being the world's first handheld game system to have a color LCD screen, preceding the Game Gear. It competed against the Nintendo Game Boy and the Game Gear and was discontinued in 1995 after Atari was bought by JTS Storage.

## Why It Rocks

1. While the console was expensive due to its hardware, the graphics were very outstanding for its time, being capable of displaying even more colors (4,096) than the Game Gear (which was released *after* the Lynx) and even more detailed graphics.
2. Had hardware support for high-speed zooming/scaling, tilting, and distortion effects of sprites, which some consoles at the time couldn't do. These effects were frequently put to use in the games. It was also powerful enough that it could draw stretched triangles that had the appearance of flat-shaded 3D polygons, a technique that was used in 3D games like *Hard Drivin',* *Steel Talons* and a secret game mode found in *BattleZone 2000*.
3. Gained a reputation for being a "portable arcade machine," in part due to the high number of arcade ports that found their way to the system. Many of these conversions were considered to be the best versions of the home ports made available: Some of the arcade ports are also rather unique such as *Gauntlet III*, which features both a first-person & overhead view of the action, or how *Rampage* and *Xenophobe* include more characters than the arcade originals.
4. The game library often received high marks from reviewers in game magazines. This is due in great part to Atari being able to attract more developers to the system than they had managed to do with the mh:crappygames:Atari XEGS and Atari 7800.
5. The Atari Lynx II was smaller, lighter, and better looking than the original model, having a slightly longer battery life and dimensions of 9.25" 4.5" x 2" (thicker than the Lynx I), similar to the Game Gear's size. The Lynx II also came with stereo sound.
6. Switchable right-handed/left-handed configurations.
7. Cool-looking game cards. These were thinner than Game Boy cartridges. There were two kinds, the original ridged style and the more common curved lip style. Atari made a couple of different cart purses to store them in.
8. The ComLynx cable makes for console-to-console networking, allowing for up to **18** players to connect and play multiplayer games on certain titles.
	* However, most games that support the cable would network eight or fewer players. In addition, the maximum stable connection allowed was eight players. The only official games to support up to eight players at once were *BattleWheels* & *Todd's Adventures In Slime World*.
9. For those who were fine playing the unit at home, the A/C adapter featured a very long cord so that you could still comfortably play the system on the couch.
10. Has an active homebrew community who are still making games for it. Some are very impressive, pushing the graphical capabilities well beyond the original parameters in titles like *Alpine Games, Zaku* and *Captain Harlynx* and more.

## Bad Qualities

The system flopped mainly due to its high retail price and major flaws, granting it a page on the Crappy Games Wiki.

## Reception

The system received mixed-to-positive reviews at launch and was initially a success, but sales quickly dwindled due to infrequent game releases, a lack of marketing, and the release of the Game Boy. In an article in issue #129 of *Retro Gamer* magazine, ex-Atari staff confirmed the system's sales were in the region of about 3 million. However, this console had some of the best Arcade conversions ever made for handheld systems, so this is why game collectors like to collect games for Lynx.

## Trivia

* The system was designed by two ex-Amiga engineers while they were working for Epyx. The system was completed in 1987, but financial difficulties at Epyx meant that they couldn't release it themselves. It would take two years for Atari to come to an agreement with them, but not long after the Lynx was released with the Atari name, Epyx declared bankruptcy and everything about the system moved over to Atari.
* The original Handy design featured a thumbstick. This was removed for the final release.
* Some of them tend to die due to the bad capacitors. Fortunately, it can be repaired.
* Originally, the ComLynx was originally going to be a wireless infrared (IR) system, under the codename of "RedEye", but the IR links would be interrupted when players walk through the beams.
* Atari created a sunshield for the Lynx so that soldiers serving over in the Gulf War could still play the Lynx in the hot desert sun. This was soon made available to the public.
* There were plans that the Lynx could be used on the Jaguar as a high-end interactive controller, to act as a motion tracker in *Aliens VS Predator* or a tricorder in a *Star Trek* game. This never came to be.
* In recent years, the Lynx has received homebrew hardware enhancements, including modern LCDs replacements, video output to TV and SD game cards.