What console is the Lynx most similar to?

[Rick Dangerous]

What home console do you think the Lynx is most similar to? This could either be graphically, regarding processor structure, the game library, or any combination or characteristic you could think of. Curious to hear what you all think!

[Video]

Kind of a mid range console. Its low color like 8 bits but clearly pushes more sprites though not as many as most 16 bits.

 

Mainstream I'd say it most reminds me of genesis. Id say closest might be turbo grafix. No real reason it just reminds me most of that.

[Schizophretard]

The Jaguar because they are both cat names, I think of the Lynx as like the smaller older brother, they have a similar design(like the concave buttons), and I read there were some plans of making the Lynx a controller for the Jaguar for dual screen game play kind of like the Wii U.

[Rick Dangerous]

It reminds me a lot of the 7800 and the SMS for some reason. 7800 for games, SMS for graphics and capabilities.

 

I know it shares a processor with the TG-16, but it feels more like a high performance 8 bit system.

[roland p]

I think it's unique due to the really low resolution.

 

Since it has some games the amiga has (apb, lemmings, sotb to name a few), 4096 color palette, pcm capable sound (klax), and made by ex-amiga people (RJ Mical, Dave Needle), I always thought of it as a little amiga .

[sirlynxalot]

I tend to think of it as akin to an old dos computer from the first 4 years of the 1990s. I played a lot of dos games back then and many lynx games have that feel (games designed by westerners on a low budget, constrained by significant hardware constraints such as number of colors possible to be displayed, yet still impressive/creative and fun! Many high quality games that were not based on an established franchise, such as zarlor mercenary, but which had just as much if not more detail and capabilities as the more established arcade ports)

[Gregory DG]

I was going to say TG-16 in how the games feel. But then, the Lynx is mostly arcade ports (which I love) which makes it totally unique.

[Agent X]

I think it's unique due to the really low resolution.

 

Since it has some games the amiga has (apb, lemmings, sotb to name a few), 4096 color palette, pcm capable sound (klax), and made by ex-amiga people (RJ Mical, Dave Needle), I always thought of it as a little amiga .

 

Same here. I have always considered it connected to Amiga, for reasons that you mentioned.

 

If I had to limit the relationship to other video game consoles (not full-fledged computers), then I would say it's closest to Genesis or TurboGrafx-16. It's ironic if you think about it, since they later released portable versions of both of those consoles.

[7800fan]

The 3D capabilities are probably on par with SNES' SFX chip but at much lower resolution.

[Trew]

It's the resolution that's the killer for me. What good is all the GFX muscle in the world, if you've barely got any pixels to use. Sacrilege, I know, but I always found the Game Gear games looked prettier because the basic number of pixels allowed more detailed sprites and backgrounds.

[Flojomojo]

In the market, Lynx is like Sega Saturn:

Powerful, but in all the wrong ways

Lots of arcade ports

Big, black plastic case

Lost out to the dominance of the small, grey machine that received much more software support.

 

I had a Lynx at the same time as a Genesis. Lynx could do some cool things that Genesis could not. In retrospect, both resemble the Amiga in many ways, Lynx because of the shared hardware lineage, Genesis because of shared software.

[Atari_afternoon]

I agree with portable old DOS computer, and would add some GBA feel (the first "landscape" one), in which you play some of the better Gameboy Color arcade conversions; thinking of GBC ports of Rampart, Joust, Shanghai, Qix, or games like Duke Nukem (to which "Power Factor" resembles a bit).

Edited July 15, 2016 by Atari_afternoon

[high voltage]

Playstation 4

[Serguei2]

I think it's unique due to the really low resolution.

 

Since it has some games the amiga has (apb, lemmings, sotb to name a few), 4096 color palette, pcm capable sound (klax), and made by ex-amiga people (RJ Mical, Dave Needle), I always thought of it as a little amiga .

 

Atari uses Amiga computers to make Lynx games.

 

I read it from a website or on Gamepro magazine.

[GadgetUK]

From the CPU perspective it is very similar to the C64, PC Engine, and NES, although there are some opcode differences etc. With regards to game library, I guess it is unique!

[English Invader]

The console that came to my mind was the Vectrex (not that I've ever used one). Mainly because of the arcade-centric library and limited appeal.

[kogden]

The console that came to my mind was the Vectrex (not that I've ever used one). Mainly because of the arcade-centric library and limited appeal.

 

LOL The Vectrex was awesome but has NOTHING in common with a Lynx hardware-wise. Totally different beast. I really miss my Vectrex I had when I was little. Cosmic Chasm was great. And the vector monitors were cool. You could do much higher resolution than bit-mapped pixel-based graphics. You would have to see it up close to understand why emulation doesn't cut it for these sorts of games.

 

All in all, the hardware in the Lynx is closer to the TG16. 8-bit CPU but with advanced graphics hardware and marketed as a 16-bit machine. Both were crushed in the market even though they were quite advanced for their time.