I comlynxed Zarlor Mercenary for the first time in my life today

[sirlynxalot]

Aside from the fact that my friend was terrible at it and kept complaining about the lynx screen, it was pretty cool!

When you boot up the lynxes at approximately the same time with the comlynx cable plugged in, it goes to the main menu and in the bottom left corner, it says "2 players mode"

The gameplay remains the same, but if one person runs out of lives, their screen remains scrolling and text comes on the screen, something to the effect of "try to buy another ship in the shop... if you can"

Although my friend lost all lives on the first level, he was able to scroll the viewscreen area left and right and observe all the action that I was doing until the level ended.

Once in the shop, my friend was able to buy and sell stuff - except he didn't have enough cash for an extra life. A cool feature was that I could elect to give him as much of my cash as I wanted - so that kept him int he running as I played the next 4 or so levels, and gave him enough cash to buy 1 or 2 lives for each level (which he would promptly lose within the first minute or two of gameplay).

Once I used up all my lives, and his had been used up as well, it went to the "you have died screen" with the broken ship on the ground graphic.

Another cool feature was that there were extra multiplayer mode only items in the shop, including the "back stabber" which I think lets you shoot your opponent, and "invisibility" which I suppose would be helpful if you were playing with multiple people and wanted to use the backstabber without anyone knowing exactly who did it. I didn't really have a use for these items so I didn't check them out this time around.

Overall, comlynxing was a fun and neat experience, and I'm kind of chuffed that all this 25 year old hardware worked without a hitch. Even the game music would become syncronized between the consoles - although occasionally it would desynch a little bit - but I never noticed any lag or glitchy gameplay between my friends ship, my ship, the bullets and the enemies. Pretty good for a low bit rate serial connection. Now if only I can meet enough people with lynxes to do the 4 player mode for Zarlor!

[Trew]

 

Aside from the fact that my friend was terrible at it and kept complaining about the lynx screen, it was pretty cool!

When you boot up the lynxes at approximately the same time with the comlynx cable plugged in, it goes to the main menu and in the bottom left corner, it says "2 players mode"

The gameplay remains the same, but if one person runs out of lives, their screen remains scrolling and text comes on the screen, something to the effect of "try to buy another ship in the shop... if you can"

Although my friend lost all lives on the first level, he was able to scroll the viewscreen area left and right and observe all the action that I was doing until the level ended.

Once in the shop, my friend was able to buy and sell stuff - except he didn't have enough cash for an extra life. A cool feature was that I could elect to give him as much of my cash as I wanted - so that kept him int he running as I played the next 4 or so levels, and gave him enough cash to buy 1 or 2 lives for each level (which he would promptly lose within the first minute or two of gameplay).

Once I used up all my lives, and his had been used up as well, it went to the "you have died screen" with the broken ship on the ground graphic.

Another cool feature was that there were extra multiplayer mode only items in the shop, including the "back stabber" which I think lets you shoot your opponent, and "invisibility" which I suppose would be helpful if you were playing with multiple people and wanted to use the backstabber without anyone knowing exactly who did it. I didn't really have a use for these items so I didn't check them out this time around.

Overall, comlynxing was a fun and neat experience, and I'm kind of chuffed that all this 25 year old hardware worked without a hitch. Even the game music would become syncronized between the consoles - although occasionally it would desynch a little bit - but I never noticed any lag or glitchy gameplay between my friends ship, my ship, the bullets and the enemies. Pretty good for a low bit rate serial connection. Now if only I can meet enough people with lynxes to do the 4 player mode for Zarlor!

 

 

Thanks for this, I forget that multiplayer mode can open up new features in a game. It's a shame, as a lot of the most fun stuff is in playing with friends, which is often much harder with these days. That said, I somehow seem to have acquired four lynxes, so the next stage of my collection will be to get multiple copies of each four player game I imagine. At the very least, it keeps the collector's fire alive.

[BillyHW]

Yep, the Lynx was pretty effing awesome.

[BadPricey]

I love Zarlor Mercenary and your story is great sirlynxalot 😄. Certainly put a smile on my face.

[Atari_afternoon]

Can´t believe we have never thought of Zarlor for Comlynxing. Got to bring this up at our next local meeting here! coop-shooting must be awesome side by side!

[+doctorclu]

I'm counting 38 games the Lynx could network which is amazing since the almighty Atari Jaguar had like 3 games that could be linked up (Aircars, Battlesphere, and Doom).

 

Really the Lynx was the more amazing system in a lot of ways.

[+karri]

This might be a nice topic for Lynx Lounge

[+rdemming]

I'm counting 38 games the Lynx could network which is amazing since the almighty Atari Jaguar had like 3 games that could be linked up (Aircars, Battlesphere, and Doom).

 

Really the Lynx was the more amazing system in a lot of ways.

 

Make that two. Networking of Doom is so buggy that it hangs the game before you can shout "Do+The+Math" in excitement, thus making a networked Doom game unplayable.

The Jaguar had some serious hardware bugs while the Lynx seems perfectly thought out.

 

Robert

[7800fan]

Like Jaguar was rushed out so Atari could be the first 64 bit system on the market while other systems are 32 bits? Sega rushed Saturn out to try and beat Playstation by adding a few extra chips. Unfortunately the extra chips aren't meant to work together and made the system a bitch to program for. In the end most developer started on Playstation and ported to Saturn without improving graphics to take advantage of Saturn's capability. Also Sony was able to reduce cost over time by integrating parts into fewer chips but Saturn had too many odd chips it couldn't be shrunk and Saturn couldn't get real price reduction.

[BadPricey]

Thanks to sirlynxalot I've just ordered a second copy of Zarlor Mercenary 😉 it was one of the games I didn't have a box for anyway. It'll be great 2 player fun with my brother or my son.

Anybody from Plymouth U.K.fancy some ComLynx action? Pm me if interested.

[sirlynxalot]

Zarlor was a fantastic com lynx game. I could imagine it would be very fun with multiple skilled players. It seemed like the enemy waves were the same as 1 player mode, so having 4 people shooting through the level could make the game somewhat easy, especially if everyone has the various powerups. I'd love to play some more, if anyone is in the northeast us, we should arrange some kind of comlynx meetup!

[Tempest]

Zarlor is a great game, but it's too damn hard. I think I can make it up to the fourth level or so before I lose all my lives. That ocean level with those ships that try and ram you sucks!

 

Maybe once I get a VGA out mod I can play it on a bigger screen and that will help?

[+MacRorie]

A friend and I have literally been playing Zarlor comlynxed for 20+ years. The kicker? We only *just* beat it about 6 months ago! We also play a lot of Rampart (I was undefeated for years YEARS! and then I lost. sad face.)

 

Also, ShangHai has a comlynx mode! It is a lot of fun.

[BadPricey]

My new copy of Zarlor Mercenary arrived this week, however it's in a blister pack and looks so cool. I don't want to open it now though! I may just grab a cart off eBay......😉

[Serblander]

Happy to hear you discovered the joys of Zarlor ComLynx!! this is one of my favourite ComLynx games and so much fun with more people. Having said that, while we play all the different Lynx ComLynx games from time to time, i found that the best combo for Zarlor is in 3 Player. Its much easier to see whats going on and not lose out on all them Z Ca$h! Remember: the less things there are to shoot, the less money you get at the end of stage, the harder it gets to upgrade!

 

The best tip i have for Zarlor multiplayer: the Backstabber item is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED in 3 and/or 4 player Zarlor sessions!

[Guitari]

What's the deal with the fact that you can't restart the game by pressing A or B?