New Lynx games on ebay question

[bvandragt]

Hello,

I recently purchased a "new" lynx system and 15 new shrinkwrapped games on ebay which arrived today. What I first noticed is most of the cartridge boxes have English and French (I think) text on them. It seems that everybody is selling these new games, are they surplus intended for the Canadian market, or did most games have both languages? The Lynx II system box also is bilingual, does the same apply here? Was there an all English version?

Thanks

Brian

[Ze_ro]

I'm not completely sure... I've wondered about the volume of shrinkwrapped Lynx stuff available on eBay. My guess is that it's surplus after Atari went under or something.

 

As for multi-lingual games... I bought my Lynx along with Ninja Gaiden 3 from Australia, and the boxes for both are tri-lingual (German being the third language). I can't seem to find any pattern to whether or not my other games are multi-lingual though. Altogether, they only came from two sources, some are bi-lingual, some are english only, and others are tri-lingual.

 

It's possible that some of what's available was surplus that was intended even for Europe. Atari's Jaguar stuff that came to Canada was always tri-lingual, in case that has any bearing on this

 

--Zero

[Gunstar]

In the case of the Jaguar, all Atari published games were/are tri-lingual, English/French/German as Jaguar games work on all versions of the Jaguar, i.e.; NTSC, PAL, SCART, etc. So they published it all to be automatically ready for the Jaguar's major markets in north America and England/Europe. I would imagine that this differed only in the case of Japan, as Atari attempted to market it there too. Of course, they may have just sent the same games there as well as English is basically the world wide second language for most countries. I would assume a similiar situation with the Lynx, especially since it is portable and unaffected by TV standards around the world, so any Lynx game also works in any Lynx console, regardless of where it was sold. Basically it's a case of Atari once again pinching pennies; they don't have to print up different versions which would be less cost effective.

[Albert]

I don't have them handy at the moment, but I think the original Atari releases (the ones that came in the taller boxes) were English-only. Here are two examples:

 

Gates of Zendocon

Chip's Challenge

 

I don't remember how many other games came in this box style, I think Blue Lightning, Todd's Adventures in Slimeworld, and Electrocopy may be the only others. Outside of these, a good 75% of my Lynx boxes are multilingual.

 

..Al

[Ze_ro]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gunstar:

In the case of the Jaguar, all Atari published games were/are tri-lingual, English/French/German

---

 

Are you sure about that? I have a number of mono-lingual games, some of which I think are published by Atari:

 

Primal Rage (Time Warner)

Power Drive Rally (Time Warner)

Syndicate (Ocean)

Cannon Fodder (Virgin)

Brutal Sports Football (Telegames)

Wolfenstein 3D

Raiden

Evolution: Dino Dudes

Tempest 2000

Memory Track

 

I'm pretty sure the last 5 were published by Atari. Were there different Memory Tracks for different languages?

 

For more on-topic questions: Do any Lynx games (Or Jaguar games for that matter) come in different box variations? That is, did games come out both multi-lingual and mono-lingual?

 

--Zero

 

[ 01-04-2002: Message edited by: Ze_ro ]

[Albert]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ze_ro:

For more on-topic questions: Do any Lynx games (Or Jaguar games for that matter) come in different box variations? That is, did games come out both multi-lingual and mono-lingual?

---

 

That's a good question and one I'd like to know the answer to as well. All the boxes we have online match the list you posted (they're all mono-lingual). However, I do know of at least one box that has two variations, and that's the one for Power Drive Rally. The alternate box has wildly different artwork. Someone was kind enough to send us a scan, but it never found its way online (it's been neglected "in the queue"). I'll put it online later in the day, it's pretty cool to look at the two boxes side-by-side. I don't remember if it's multi-lingual, but that will be answered shortly.

 

..Al