Did the atari lynx (and others)revive interest in portable electronic games

[carmel_andrews]

By portable electronic games i am talking more like the tabletop games like astro wars, scramble, jetfighter, space invaders 1000/10000 etc as well as the various iterations of coin op games re-imaged in tabletop format (complete with coin op fascia's in most cases), rather then game watches (like the nintendo ones and similar) seeming as though the tabletop (as well as the game watches) market basically died out in the mid 80's

 

You can see a similarity between the portable/electronic gaming market (i.e lynx/gb/gba/gg/nomad/turbo express etc) and the previous tabletop/game watches market and the similarities with the programable gaming systems (i.e vcs, channel f/ves etc) and the previous dedicated single gaming systems market (i.e pong, video pinball/stunt cycle, telstar etc)

 

In that the tabletop/game watches market is somewhat likened to the dedicated single gaming systems market (i.e systems that could only play one game or one type of game) and the later portable electronic gaming market (i.e the lynx/gb/gg etc) is somewhat likened to the programable gaming systems market (I.E VES/Vcs Coleco etc etc)

 

 

I.e a typical lynx/gb/gg or turbo express cartridge game was the equivalent of buying something like a space invaders 1000/10000 or astro wars tabletop but in condensed form and not forgetting that the lynx/gg/gb/turbo express etc were technically table top electronic games

 

so the question is , did the lynx (and it's competitors) revive interest in the portable electronic gaming market, since that particular market had 'died' a few years earlier

[LynxVGL]

By portable electronic games i am talking more like the tabletop games like astro wars, scramble, jetfighter, space invaders 1000/10000 etc as well as the various iterations of coin op games re-imaged in tabletop format (complete with coin op fascia's in most cases), rather then game watches (like the nintendo ones and similar) seeming as though the tabletop (as well as the game watches) market basically died out in the mid 80's

 

You can see a similarity between the portable/electronic gaming market (i.e lynx/gb/gba/gg/nomad/turbo express etc) and the previous tabletop/game watches market and the similarities with the programable gaming systems (i.e vcs, channel f/ves etc) and the previous dedicated single gaming systems market (i.e pong, video pinball/stunt cycle, telstar etc)

 

In that the tabletop/game watches market is somewhat likened to the dedicated single gaming systems market (i.e systems that could only play one game or one type of game) and the later portable electronic gaming market (i.e the lynx/gb/gg etc) is somewhat likened to the programable gaming systems market (I.E VES/Vcs Coleco etc etc)

 

 

I.e a typical lynx/gb/gg or turbo express cartridge game was the equivalent of buying something like a space invaders 1000/10000 or astro wars tabletop but in condensed form and not forgetting that the lynx/gg/gb/turbo express etc were technically table top electronic games

 

so the question is , did the lynx (and it's competitors) revive interest in the portable electronic gaming market, since that particular market had 'died' a few years earlier

 

I think the Gameboy and the Lynx were outgrowths of where Console Gaming and tech in general was in 1989. The original LCD watch style and LED games were dedicated systems, much like the first console systems were dedicated systems. I think Nintendo & Atari (and later Sega and NEC) saw this as the logical growth of the console market.

 

If a handheld is going to get credit for getting interest up, I would have to say that it was the Gameboy, and not the Lynx. This mainly due to Nintendo's marketing muscle in 89-90 more than anything else.

[Bones Justice]

I never owned a console before a Lynx, only played computer games before that, with the exception of Coleco's Electronic Quarterback. It was one of those dedicated handhelds with a single red LED for each player and maybe three "players" on a team. Anyways, I never once thought of the Lynx as anything similar.

 

I had thought that the Lynx was a new way to play console games. I didn't really think of it as a handheld. I envisioned a time when everybody would play console games with dedicated screens rather than on the television in the living room.

 

I agree that the Gameboy made cartridge-based handheld gaming popular. I also agree that it was Nintendo strong-arming developers more than anything that made Gameboy the most popular.