Lynx Vertical Perspective Games...Why!

[Rick Dangerous]

Okay so I only have three games that are this perspective, Gauntlet, Klax, and Raiden.

 

Does anyone else abhor this viewpoint? It's not the view on the screen that's bad (I like that just fine actually, reminds me of the arcade), it's how AWKWARD it is to hold the Lynx and play it that way. If they were going to do that with games regularly why not add two small buttons down by the D-Pad? Otherwise they should have left it well alone.

 

How to hold the Lynx: So tell me if I'm doing this wrong. I cradle the Lynx in my left hand, the only finger thats really available to hold up the whole bulky Lynx II is my pinky. Theres issue number one. At least you can rest it on your lap or a pillow or something. Issue number two is your right hand, you have to awkwardly hold it up and bend your wrist at a weird angle to hit the buttons. You can't use the dpad or buttons nearly as quickly or with as much dexterity as you can in the landscape mode, and your right arm gets tired pretty quickly. Its just...not...comfortable.

 

Am I crazy here or does anyone else think this is annoying as hell. I will you could flip the screen to portrait mode if you wanted to, but the resolution wouldn't be right.. Anyone have any thoughts or tips?

[Tempest]

Raiden makes since since the original was a vertical orientation monitor. I never did understand why Klax and Gauntlet did this. To me it makes the games too difficult to play, especially the bigger model 1.

 

It's worth pointing out that Klax and Gauntlet were early games, so apparently Atari figured out that people didn't want to hold the Lynx like that.

[Lost Dragon]

Been a while since i fired the beast up, but a few PSP games do same thing (Capcom Classics and Gittlieb Pinball Classics).It's 'ok' but after a while, just feels bloody awkard.

[Rick Dangerous]

AWK-WARD!!!!

[108 Stars]

I agree that it does feel akward, yet it does make sense still. I mean, you name Raiden, and as Tempest points out, it is a vertical game by design. You have the flipside with Zarlor Mercenary, a game that has vertical scrrolling gameplay, but a horizontal screen orientation; and it suffers badly from it.

 

The reason being the Lynx' biggest flaw: It is the handheld with the lowest vertical resolution. If you hold it normally, you have little knowledge of lies ahead in vertical games. Both GG and GB offer 42 more lines vertically; that makes a huge difference.

 

I will show you by example of GG Aleste on Game Gear. To the left you have what it looks like on GG. To the right I cut off what portion of the screen would be missing on the Lynx.

 

 

In games where your reflexes are important, it makes a huge difference to see enemies earlier. Zarlor is a very tough game just because you can't see ahead. Tbh, I would not do a game with vertical gameplay on horizontal screen on the Lynx ever.

 

For Raiden, my personal solution is: I just hold the Lynx like always and play it like a horizontal game. Works fine. But I am sure you can get used to holding it vertically.

[BadPricey]

 

In games where your reflexes are important, it makes a huge difference to see enemies earlier. Zarlor is a very tough game just because you can't see ahead. Tbh, I would not do a game with vertical gameplay on horizontal screen on the Lynx ever.

 

For Raiden, my personal solution is: I just hold the Lynx like always and play it like a horizontal game. Works fine. But I am sure you can get used to holding it vertically.

I tried playing Ikaruga on the Gamecube using this method however it is easily noticeable it should be played vertically. Never had a problem with the vertical Lynx even when I was a kid.

[Emehr]

Holding the Lynx vertically never bothered me. Granted I have always had a Lynx II so I don't know how awkward it would be holding the original model. I think Gauntlet III could've easily been designed for horizontal play, though. It seems like they made it vertical just to show off that orientation. Playing Klax vertically feels fine, though. I usually hold the Lynx with the D-pad at the top.

[Serblander]

Only have Gauntlet and KLAX of the three (still after a Raiden or two). KLAX, for whatever reason, i have no issue with. Gauntlet on the other hand (no pun intended ) i really wish was done the other way, or at least, if there was an option to switch. The saving grace for Gauntlet IMO is the ComLynx multiplayer: it didn't bother me as much when there were three of us playing up till Level 40 as you get distracted by the teamwork and/or theftwork from team mates

[Agent X]

Raiden makes since since the original was a vertical orientation monitor. I never did understand why Klax and Gauntlet did this. To me it makes the games too difficult to play, especially the bigger model 1.

 

It's worth pointing out that Klax and Gauntlet were early games, so apparently Atari figured out that people didn't want to hold the Lynx like that.

 

I think vertical orientation is fine for Klax.

It's worth mentioning that the original arcade version of Klax has a horizontally-oriented monitor. However, in a one-player game of Klax, the actual playfield (where all of the gameplay occurs) only utilizes about half of the total screen area, with the left and right showing being occupied primarily by background artwork (and the scoring display at the top). The arcade game also had a two-player split-screen mode, with less artwork at the sides. Considering the two-player game would have the players standing side-by-side, the horizontally-oriented display makes sense in the context of an arcade cabinet.

It's evident that the developers of the Lynx version recognized that the playfield area (not including the border art) resembles a vertically-oriented rectangle. Since the Lynx had the unique ability (among contemporary video game systems) to play using a vertically oriented monitor, they chose to use it for this game.

They could have alternatively chosen to mimic the arcade game's screen layout. This would have given them more room to showcase the border art, at the expense of a restricted playfield area. Keep in mind that the Lynx screen is a 3.5" display with a mere 160x102 resolution. Sacrificing half of the already limited number of pixels would have hindered the game by making the playfield much smaller and less detailed.

With that in mind, going vertical on the Lynx version of Klax was a very wise decision, since they were capable of utilizing the full potential of the screen. Doing this both maximized its strengths and minimized its weaknesses.

[Video]

The basic choice is to do the game verticle (probably chose due to the lynx's incredibly low resolution screen) or to either do it horizontal, and loose advance warning on approaching stuff. Or you could shrink the playfield down to give it a verticle playstyle on the horizontal screen (what many consoles did) but then, you end up with a really really small, or squished graphic.

 

I agree that for vertical games, it's awkward, and should have had buttons next to the dpad for that orientation. Kind of what they did with the wonderswan.

 

I like the lynx, it's a wonderful (and for its time powerful) handheld. but to be honest, that screen is what kept me only at the "like" and not the "love" level.

[+slx]

Loved Klax but always found the vertical orientation a bit less than optimum.

[+MattelAquarius]

Never had a problem holding the Lynx vertically, but I always despised the first-person monster-cam on Gauntlet.

[Lost Dragon]

Looking at Game Zone magazines Massive handheld section (it was called Massive, was only a few pages long... :-) ):

Nfl Footbal (37% score at review)-'Oh god it's up the wrong way:First up, you hold the Lynx on it's end so it's vertical.This is so that more of the pitch shows up.Unfortunately it's a waste of time'.

So reviewers in cases like this not that impressed either it seems.