Atari Lynx was superior over GameBoy.

[Arbitern1]

I love the lynx as it was my first handheld system,but it does eat up batteries fast. That wasn't an issue when i was younger as my parents infinitly replaced them but now that im 16 with a job it's not like i can ask"can i have some batteries". I just hate that i can't play it for long without it going dead. I could use an AC charger ,but hey the ruins the portability aspect of it...

[phuzaxeman]

when it all comes down to it, the battery size, the size of the lynx, and lack of 3rd party support eventually killed the lynx. it was a great system and very ahead of its time. if lithium ion batteries were used back then, they would have helped big time. funny thing, the lynx feels a lot more comfortable than my psp.

[lynxmatt1980]

yep 3rd party support and # of games in general really hurt the Lynx. If they could have released games like Sonic, Mario, Mortal Combat, NBA Jam, or any of the other extremely popular games, then the Lynx could have survived.

 

The technical specs of the Gameboy don't even COMPARE to the Lynx (in any category). The Lynx really destroys the Gamegear too. My cousin had a Gamegear and I laughed how bad it was. the only thing that was good about Gamegear was the games (which still were not that great). There were a TON more games on Gamegear than lynx. So if you wanted a color handheld you got the Gamegear. but even without color, the Gameboy games were really fun I must admit. but not fun enough that I was going to abandon my Lynx. I was already hooked on California games.

 

if they could have made the lynx more efficient on batteries (6AA's just didnt very long as we all know) and signed a couple good 3rd party games, it would have competed a little better. and if more people had even just played California games, then they could have sold a few more units. Lynx was definitely an underachiever. Atari should have just funded it more and never done the jaguar , that thing ruined Atari for good.

[johannesmutlu]

The lynx was a powerfull beast and even has a better soundchip then the gba, yes that's right gba has 2 8bit dac,and the lynx has 4 8bit dac, so that means it's better.

[MathUser]

I ain't gonna say it was superior over gameboy. The library is clearly better on GameBoy. But I really wish it was better tho. I think there's someone making ports of 16-bit rpg's but I can't remember. Besides that alot of the library isn't that great. I'm really glad I didn't get it when I was younger cause I wanted to try it. It does deserve better games tho. Must Atari ruin every system they create with bad games?

[Level42]

I was already a bit older when the GB and Lynx appeared and was much more my Atari ST at the time.....and not only for games...

 

Game consoles were "a thing of the past" for me ever since I got my 600 XL. I saw the NES coming and I think I watched a little kid play Kirby....such things made me feel that NES was a kid's toy, and the Gameboy only completely confirmed that for me. I tried it a couple of times. I just couldn't see what the F*ck was going on at that lousy screen !!! I could have lived with the black and white, I could have lived with the resolution (Lynxes isn't much higher) but the LAG is what killed it for me.....it was smeary and I couldn't anticipate because of it.....

 

Anyway, I thought the Lynx was WAY better when it came out, but I didn't buy it until it got dumped for ridiculous prices at a German Atari fair somewhere in the early 90s......together with all accessories (both cases, car adapter, sun visor) and a stack of games.

And I regretted not buying it earlier.....it was such fun, and I could SEE the games !

 

I think Lynx was much more aimed at more adult players. The size, better screen and sound clearly indicate that.

 

But adult players didn't so much need a portable device.....not as much as kids do. The Gameboy was exactly on target there.....and the kids didn't care about the screen.

 

That and Mario. Lynx never had a killer app, or maybe better....Atari Corp. failed to understand the need of a killer app.

 

The 2600 had Space Incaders which actually saved the console, Colecovision had Donkey Kong, Nintendo had the Mario games,,Sega Sonic.....what Lynx game can possibly can come close to Mario games ?

 

Which brings me to the fact that, with hindsight, I was wrong about consoles and Nintendo being for kids, but I only discovered that when I played Super Mario World on the SNES......which is still my favorite home game ever.....

[BadPricey]

Unfortunately superior tech doesn't always win out. Atari went wrong when they screwed over Epyx. Some of the earliest games in the Lynx catalogue are easily the best. Blue Lightning, California Games, Slime World and Zarlor Mercenary. Imagine what could have been.

 

My friend at school had the Gameboy when I had the Lynx. He use to brag how long his batteries lasted. Great you can't see anything for a whole 20+ hours. I use to have an audience watching my Lynx.

 

Super Mario World, greatest platformer ever ?

[Level42]

Ha, awesome post, couldn't agree more on every word.

 

O well.....we have the McWill LCD, Gameboy has it's screen upgrade too:

[MathUser]

The Lynx ain't totally superior. I think it's screen resolution is less than gameboy/game gear. I remember the characters in Double Dragon being almost the full height of the screen.

[Flojomojo]

GameBoy was the place to go for long RPGs that would save your progress. I think a relatively deep RPG was planned for Lynx, but did it ever come out? Is there space for a battery or EEPROM save on a Lynx card?

[Video]

The gameboy is indeed higher resolution. You got that much more resolution of puke green to look at.

 

Actually I never really had a problem with the gameboy screen. Of course I'd turn the screen down a bit which did wonders. I never understood those people playing it on damn near as dark as they could get it.

 

Its like modern day Tv viewing. Don't know how many people I see with their Tv on max eye exploding brightness. Even a cheap Lcd can look nice if one can be bothered to calibrate it.

 

As for the games. I always thought of lynx as geared more towards adults while Gb was more for kids. Not to say I didn't love both but the Gb was cheap and power efficient and the lynx wasn't. Its more efficient thane game gear for sure but not a lot.

 

LOL when I was a kid I played all the handhelds. Once batteries wouldn't run lynx or gamegear they went to the gameboy and its battery life on dead batteries was still double that of the lynx.

[7800fan]

GameBoy was the place to go for long RPGs that would save your progress. I think a relatively deep RPG was planned for Lynx, but did it ever come out? Is there space for a battery or EEPROM save on a Lynx card?

 

Eye of the Beholder has the save feature. However it was many years too late for Atari. AFAIK there wasn't cheap and practical save feature back in 90s that would fit the thin cart profile. Batteries would have been required as flash ROM for game saves didn't come cheap until after Atari went down when Lynx and Jaguar didn't sell well enough against Nintendo, Sega, and Sony.

 

EDIT: to give an idea about save challenge in thin cart, take a look at Tennokoe Bank Card. It has thick bubble on the back to hold a battery for save RAM. Making one small enough to fit inside Lynx 1 would have been a challenge. There's a reason the SD cart is available without the nice looking cover, they don't fit in Lynx 1 with the door shut.

Edited August 15, 2016 by 7800fan

[Flojomojo]

Neither Eye of the Beholder not Guardians: Storm over Doria had a commercial release as far as I know. The Lynx was stuck in the arcade-action-adventure zone. Not bad for me (I liked the flashy graphics and didn't mind being tethered to wall power) but it's easy to see how Nintendo beat them as a portable with long games

[Trew]

Now I'm sad about Guardians: Storm over Doria/Distant Lands never happening all over again.

 

Would love to see that project revived.