The old portable war!

[Jess Ragan]

In my defense, Cybermorph isn't the only Jaguar game I've played. I've also spent (too much) time with Trevor McFur, played Tempest 2000, and watched other people play Checkered Flag and Fight For Life. Those were released later in the system's life (as short as it was), and they still didn't impress me much. Checkered Flag was choppier than Virtua Racing on the Genesis. Fight For Life looked like a hybrid of Tekken and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. If that's the best the Jaguar has to offer I don't think I'll ever view it in a positive light.

 

JR

[AtariDude]

Part of the reason that I feel that the Lynx did not succeed against the Nintendo Gameboy despite the fact that the Lynx was far superior was a case of bad timing.

 

In order for any system to succeed, regardless of technical merit, it needs to have a good quantity of games at the time of its release as well as a lot of advertising.

 

What happened in the case of the Lynx was the fact that Atari did not have the Lynx ready in time for Christmas. When that happened, everyone started to buy the gameboy rather than wait for a system that might or might not be supported. By the time that Atari got its act together, it was too wait. Everyone wanted what their friends had and their friends had gameboys, not Lynx. So it suffered because of this. If Atari had released the Lynx with a sufficient number of games at the critical Christmas buying season, history might have gone differently.

[Albert]

quote:

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Originally posted by AtariDude:

Part of the reason that I feel that the Lynx did not succeed against the Nintendo Gameboy despite the fact that the Lynx was far superior was a case of bad timing.

 

In order for any system to succeed, regardless of technical merit, it needs to have a good quantity of games at the time of its release as well as a lot of advertising.

 

What happened in the case of the Lynx was the fact that Atari did not have the Lynx ready in time for Christmas. When that happened, everyone started to buy the gameboy rather than wait for a system that might or might not be supported. By the time that Atari got its act together, it was too wait. Everyone wanted what their friends had and their friends had gameboys, not Lynx. So it suffered because of this. If Atari had released the Lynx with a sufficient number of games at the critical Christmas buying season, history might have gone differently.

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Atari seemed very poor at marketing just about everything they made, and the Lynx was no exception. Of course, Nintendo had gobs more cash than Atari and could afford an extensive marketing campaign, although I don't remember how hard Nintendo was pushing the Gameboy at the time.

 

Another factor in the Gameboy's favor is that the battery life was exceptional. You could play the Gameboy for days before the batteries died, but good luck playing the Lynx for more than 2 or 3 hours before having to swap out six expensive AA alkaline batteries. The Gameboy is also considerably smaller than the Lynx, making it easier to lug around. And, as you said, the Gameboy had more games and better developer support than the Lynx. Atari certainly built a bad reputation for releasing a system with few games and then taking forever to release more titles (Jaguar, anyone?)

 

I think it's a shame that after all these years we're only now getting a decent, color portable system from Nintendo. But unbelievably it still doesn't have a backlit screen! I have a Gameboy Advance but I don't even use it because the screen is so bad. Fortunately, progress is being made on this front, so with any luck a brightly-lit Gameboy Advance will be in my future.

 

..Al

[Songbird]

quote:

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Originally posted by Jess Ragan:

In my defense, Cybermorph isn't the only Jaguar game I've played. I've also spent (too much) time with Trevor McFur, played Tempest 2000, and watched other people play Checkered Flag and Fight For Life. Those were released later in the system's life (as short as it was), and they still didn't impress me much. Checkered Flag was choppier than Virtua Racing on the Genesis. Fight For Life looked like a hybrid of Tekken and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. If that's the best the Jaguar has to offer I don't think I'll ever view it in a positive light.

 

JR

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Fight For Life was indeed one of the Jaguar's last releases (and the only 3D fighter on the Jag -- who knows what 2nd generation 3D fighters could have been like on this system). However, Checkered Flag was an early release, not a later one.

 

If you want some games that demonstrate what a fun and powerful system the Jaguar is, check these out:

 

Atari Karts

BattleMorph (CD)

BattleSphere

Iron Soldier 1

Iron Soldier 2 (CD)

NBA Jam TE

Protector

Rayman

Skyhammer

Tempest 2000

 

Some of these are 3D, some are 2D. All are impressive, and head and shoulders above the early Jaguar releases (Cyb, T. McFur, Club Drive, etc.).

[someguy]

quote:

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Originally posted by Jess Ragan:

In my defense, Cybermorph isn't the only Jaguar game I've played. I've also spent (too much) time with Trevor McFur, Tempest 2000, Checkered Flag and Fight For Life.

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Too bad that of the 5 games you've tried, there is only 1 game (Tempest) that I'd even place in the top 50% of Jaguar games.

 

As Songbird said, try playing some of the *good* Jaguar games before you pass judgement on the system....

[ataribob]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ze_ro:

As we all know, the Lynx was far superior to the Gameboy and the Game Gear... but why did it fail? Was it because the Gameboy was so cheap? Was it because of the lack of games (I personally think the Lynx's library of games is 90% amazing)? Was it because of Nintendo's reputation being better than Atari's at the time?

 

I've always thought it was a mix of all of these. The Gameboy was so cheap for a while, and had so many more games (though they weren't as good as the Lynx games at the time, they won in sheer volume), I think they just flooded everyone else out of the market. It'll be a while before anyone can top Nintendo in the portable market unfortunately

 

(PS - I was just reading through an old EGM where they rated all the game systems. For portables, the Turbo Express got first place, and Lynx got second... good call EGM! )

 

--Zero

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Atari spent TOO MUCH Money and lost the profits bad.

You wonder why there are still tons of Brand New lynx games still around..

Atari did not handle the money too good