PFG 9000

The first thirteen Jaguar CD games I tried all booted up perfectly on the first try, and I played around a half hour of each without any problems. Most seem to run better than the originals due to shortened loading times, most noticeable on Myst and Baldies for me. Blue Lightning froze for a few seconds on the map/level select screen, but that was it. For something in Beta stage, this is fantastic. I did have the advantage of waiting 20 hours or so before starting the firmware update and ISO conversion process, giving me the benefit of several pages of comments here to help me. The new firmware seems to have messed with my Rayman save files though. Now when I get to the file select screen, I see "Error" in red text in place of each file. No biggie, just mentioning it here in case it's an unknown issue.

To be fair, here we are 27 years later and we just got some eagerly anticipated hardware, and several new software titles are on the way. I love gaming mags from this era. I have a ton in my collection, and I still browse them from time to time. Always takes me back to my youth. Someday when I have time I'd like to see if I have any Jaguar or Lynx articles that aren't out in the community yet and get them scanned and uploaded. Thanks for sharing!

If 80s/90s Atari knew how to market their stuff, right now we'd all be playing the Atari Snow Leopard with its 1024 bits and optional 4K blu-ray drive.

It's been a really long time since I "mastered" Checkered Flag. I got it for Christmas around 1995. Back then I only had three other Jaguar games, and I was young enough to pour hours into every game I owned, because I didn't have all that many. I do remember tapping left and right for steering - holding either one down is sure to activate the wall magnet. I don't think I used the brake much at all, a strategy that my wife seems to have picked up in real life. Sorry, but it's been too long for me to remember. I do want to put more time into it for nostalgia sake. I was really hoping to play the steering patch version, but I can't get it to work on GameDrive.

What is wrong with Cubanismo saying he finds some of the "bad" games fun? It can be tremendous fun to play bad games. I've hosted entire parties with the goal of having fun with terrible games. And Jaguar fans should know better than most that there's good things to be found even in some genuinely crappy products. I can totally understand somebody enjoying stuff like Checkered Flag and Club Drive. Hell, Checkered Flag has some pretty good things going for it, it's just that its terrible controls bring it way down...and those controls are even workable once you get the hang of them. Reading the original post makes me want to go back and give Supercross 3D another try, because I barely spent any time with it at all. Maybe it is complete trash. But if somebody was able to enjoy it, maybe I can to. People tend to trash Syndicate on the Jag. And I've put hundreds of hours into it. I love it to death. But the majority of Jaguar fans write it off as one of the games not worth their time.

I've been playing Tempest 2000 for 20+ years, and I never knew this. I knew the arrow rings bump you up or down, but didn't know it matters where you hit on the arrow ring. Thanks!

Thank you for the heads-up! I'll be watching for those auctions eagerly.

1) Slime World. It's not technically an exclusive, as it got ports to the Genesis and PC Engine. But nobody knows about those versions, so let's just say it's a Lynx exclusive and move on to raving about how awesome it is. It's an exploratory action-platformer that draws comparisons to Metroid, although all it really shares with Metroid is a kinda-similar setting. It's so much fun getting lost in its world, learning strategies for the different enemies, picking mushrooms to keep the planet from exploding (why not?), and searching for that hidden zit popping contest. 2) Lemmings. It's one of the priciest Ltnx games now, but it's also one of the best. If you're not familiar with it, you get a line of rodents marching to their doom. Left on their own, they'll just keep walking forward until they either die or hit a wall. You need to direct them to the level exit. It's way more fun than it sounds. The Lynx port is one of the best ways to play it. But if you've already played it elsewhere, it might be best to forego the price tag...and play it on your Lynx SD. 3) Shadow of the Beast. This game was originally made to show off the graphical capabilities of the Amiga. It played rather poorly. When they ported it to the Lynx, Psygnosis decided to polish it up a bit, and now it's a great game that is also one of the best-looking and best-sounding games on the Lynx. 4) S.T.U.N. Runner. If you played this in the arcades in 1991, you would be excused for assuming it would not have been possible on a home console, even moreso a handheld. Somehow the Lynx port is awesome. Even if it wasn't technologically mindblowing, it would still be a lightning fast crazy fun racing game. 5) Scrapyard Dog. Great little platformer, except it's not remotely little. It has seven levels, each with five "worlds." Each one is loaded with secrets - hidden powerups, warps, shops, minigames, etc. Each level has a unique boss. There's just so much to find, and it plays really well too. It's such a shame Scapyard Dog didn't catch on - it deserves a full franchise with sequels and merchandise and stuff. It was on the 7800 too, but the Lynx version is far superior. Best platformer on the Lynx. 6) Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. This game gets either panned by fans who haven't put much effort into it, or more often ignored completely. But it's pretty fun once you understand that you can't attack enemies or defend yourself...bad guys are just another puzzle element here. If you can't easily avoid them, then you need to figure out another way through. Killer soundtrack. A Lynx exclusive. 7) Battlewheels. I haven't played a ton of it, but it's a fun vehicular combat title pre-Twisted Metal. Really technologically impressive too. A Lynx exclusive. 8 ) Warbirds. A super impressive biplane/dogfight flight sim. It had polygonal landscapes and a fairly large 3D space to fight in. The first game I had for my Lynx, some 30+ years ago. Another Lynx exclusive. 9) Dracula the Undead. A point & click adventure game with nice sepia visuals and creepy atmosphere. It was intended to be a much longer game but lots had to be scrapped to fit on a Lynx game card. But there's still several hours of gameplay there, and it's pretty enjoyable. Also a Lynx exclusive. 10) Xybots. A port of the arcade game which should not have worked this well on a handheld. It's kinda like a proto-third-person-shooter. You have to manage your energy (i.e. life), which slowly drains over time, as you navigate 3D mazes full of angry robots, powerups, and secrets. Catchy music too. I don't feel like typing more, but you should also check out Toki, Robotron: 2084, Shanghai, Ninja Gaiden, Qix, Rampart, Rampage, Joust, and Crystal Mines II. Hell, just about everything on the Lynx is worth a try. And make sure you play Klax, Chip's Challenge, California Games, Electrocop, Checkered Flag, and Blue Lightning. Those are great games to start with and I would have mentioned them already if you hadn't already bought them.

I'm playing with a McWill. Maybe I should toss the cart in one of my old Lynxes. 🤔

Lol, I haven't made progress on it since my second play session. I've put in an hour or two after that, also starting the game over from scratch, but I haven't been able to progress. I think I've only made it like three "screens" into the game. Must be something obvious that I'm not catching.

I love Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure! I grew up with it and figured my way through most of the game before internet FAQs were a thing. Really great game, and for some reason the Lynx fanbase just doesn't care for it. Slime World isn't technically a Lynx exclusive. It was, until it got ported to the Genesis and PC Engine. But the Lynx version is the best, and nobody knows about those other ports, so it seems like an exclusive.

That's awesome! Interesting too that you did this in a few days, while that...other...group working on Heretic for the Jag still hasn't shown anybody a working model after how many years.

Yes! That's my favorite quote ever.

Oh, man. That flyer takes me right back to my youth. I don't think I've seen this particular flyer before, and I've known the ins and outs of the majority of the Lynx library for ages. But somehow seeing that this morning sent waves of delicious nostalgia washing over me. Thanks for that.

Sounds like you might be at the same spot I've been stuck at for a week. When does the strategy guide come out? 😄😄😄😄😄😄🤔

I really like the parallax backgrounds, with the planet's surface. That feature alone makes this look a generation or so more advanced. Very nice!

I was eyeing that up for Gorf, but I don't need another JagCD. Why not sell those three items separately? You know Gorf alone will fetch a high price, and you're almost certain to make more on three individual auctions than one lot. I would understand if you had like 20 different things and didn't want to go through the trouble of listing them individually. But doing three auctions isn't that much more work than doing one.

I just sat down with Unnamed for about an hour. I really like it so far. I think it's an excellent addition to the Lynx's library. It's always great to see stuff on the Lynx that isn't so "arcadey." (Not to slight arcade titles in the least, as they're the Lynx's bread and butter.) The save feature is really helpful here. I have no idea at this point how long Unnamed is, but already I wouldn't want to repeat all the progress I've made the next time I fire it up. If item acquisition is any indication, I might be about halfway through...? I have 8 items in my inventory, plus a 9th that I lost upon using it. But I'm stumped at the moment. Pleasantly stumped. Nice work on this one!

Yes! There have been some very impressive homebrew projects on the Lynx in the past few years. This was among the best, and that's saying a lot! It really deserves a physical release.

Serblander, do you have an update on when the auctions might be posted? I've been checking in here a few times a day so I don't miss out. 😃

Got my copy of Philia today. Thanks! That shipping was super quick.

This is really coming together nicely! Great work.

Well, I know what I'm playing this weekend.

I worded my post poorly. I don't think it's an actual 3D model - I just think it looks like one. I figured maybe he used a technique like Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, with pre-rendered texture mapped polygons converted into sprites. But I'm completely out of my league here, with zero programming/technical knowledge.

Yeah, Trevor McFur did look amazing back in its time, in screenshots...but in every other way it was complete trash. It doesn't take advantage of the Jaguar's 2D power at all. There are NES shmups with better effects and faster gameplay, even with a comparable number of sprites, like Recca. And there was zero thought put into the enemy placement. They just toss gobs of enemies at you...that's it. No fun bullet patterns to weave through, no interesting animations or enemy wave patterns. There's no music. The powerups are boring. It's not even that it doesn't have anything to make it stand out...it's that it isn't even mediocre. It's just like they took too long to learn the hardware and didn't have enough time to make the game fun.