What the heck went wrong?
Written: Dec 13 '01 (Updated Dec 13 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fantastic features for the time, good selection of games
Cons: Boneheaded marketing by Atari; few great sports titles
The Bottom Line: Undersupported system that has some great features and a few fantastic software titles, too. Absolutely wonderful system for long car trips.
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| HawgWyld's Full Review: Atari Lynx |
The folks over at Atari, with the Lynx, proved they couldn't find their way out of a paper bag when it came to marketing. I don't know if the Atari 2600 did so well because it was a radical departure from anything we'd seen before, but I'm convinced the success of that console was a fluke. It was a great system, and that alone must have sold it.
Why would I print such blasphemy against mighty Atari? The company just plain blew it with the Lynx, and blew it badly. The Lynx came out in 1989 and was competing against the eight-bit, black & white Nintendo Game Boy. While I maintain the Game Boy was a great machine, the Lynx had it beat in just about every way possible. After all, the Lynx came with color graphics, some nifty tricks such as polygons and scaling and a 16-bit graphics engine (the main system CPU was a 65C02, much like the one found in the Apple //c and many other eight-bit computers and game consoles).
Unfortunately, the Lynx also came with all the marketing expertise of Atari (the same company that rejected Nintendo's offer of full licensing rights of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S., by the way). That means we saw a few splashy ads about the Lynx, but Atari never really figured out how to cut into the market enjoyed by the Game Boy.
In fact, Atari only backed the Lynx for four years. In 1993, the company pulled its support and concentrated on the Jaguar, which was hailed as the future of the company. We all know what happened to the Jaguar, right? It just wilted on the vine, and Atari went spinning down the tubes with it.
It's a shame Atari never put more intelligent marketing folks on the Lynx project, for it is truly a nifty little machine. I own a Lynx II, and it's a heck of a good thing to have around for road trips and such. As I've mentioned, the Lynx has color graphics on a 3.5" screen. The headphone jack on the unit supports stereo sound, but the built-in speaker is perfectly fine (it has four sound channels). The Lynx I, by the way, lacks stereo support).
And, there was some pretty good software for this thing, too. Fortunately, a lot of those are puzzle games that are great for long trips. Perhaps the best one is Shanghai, which is a tile game similar to the famed Mahjong shareware title for computers. Chip's Challenge is another good puzzle game, as is Super Skweek (even though that one is odd). You've also got some fantastic arcade titles out there, like Paperboy, Ms. Pac-Man, Battlezone 2000 and Xenophobe, just to name a few.
Also, bear in mind that the 16-bit graphics CPU is a true benefit. It takes care of displaying and manipulating graphics, so the main system CPU can take care of housecleaning duties. That means there are some pretty darn quick and colorful games out there for the Lynx.
And, they're dirt cheap. You can pick up Lynx titles on eBay for a song, and can make out even better if you have a local used game store in town ($4.95 per title at my local Game Xchange).
The controls here are fine, too. You get a directional pad, two fire buttons and a couple of "option" buttons which can be used for additional game functions and to do things like pause games, flip the display (so left-handed folks can play with ease) and turn off the backlit display. That backlit display is another advantage -- playing in the dark is no problem. There's also the ComLynx cable, which allows players to hook Lynx systems together and do the multiplayer game bit. I haven't tried out that function, so I can't really write about it. I do wonder though -- how easy is it to find someone else with a Lynx? My guess is, most people play solo on this system.
There are some problems with this machine, of course. First of all, it eats batteries like crazy. The machine takes 6 "AA" batteries and goes through them in about five hours (a little less time for the Lynx I). Of course, you can get a power adapter and one that lets the user plug it into the cigarette lighter in a car.
Also, it's kind of large (around 10" wide and 4" tall). And the six "AA" batteries make it a bit heavy.
Of course, there aren't just a ton of games available as Atari didn't support this for all that long and it never was too popular. I believe there are around 100 titles out there, and some new ones come out from Songbird Productions from time to time.
And, then there are the sports titles. There aren't many good ones. Jimmy Connors Tennis is pretty good, but that's the only one I know of personally (I've heard European Challenge Soccer is great, but I don't know whether it is or not).
So, what we're left with in the end is a fantastic system that wasn't supported very well. While it's more sophisticated than either the Game Boy or the Game Boy Color, it didn't have the software support of those two systems. And, naturally, the snazzy Game Boy Advance just leaves the Lynx in the dust.
Fortunately, the software for these is cheap and fun if you get your mitts on a Lynx. If you want a good portable system that is unique, a Lynx isn't a bad one to consider.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
HawgWyld
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Member: Ethan C. Nobles
Location: Benton, Ark.
Reviews written: 1429
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About Me:
The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.
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