The console E̶l̶i̶j̶a̶h̶ ̶W̶o̶o̶d̶ Tobey Maguire had to play in the bathroom. Man, was it huge for a portable. As the first 16-bit portable console it deserves recognition, and morover, it has plenty of good games.
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The console E̶l̶i̶j̶a̶h̶ ̶W̶o̶o̶d̶ Tobey Maguire had to play in the bathroom. Man, was it huge for a portable. As the first 16-bit portable console it deserves recognition, and morover, it has plenty of good games.
And I'll start with Blue Lightning. Some people think it's nothing but a demo for the console, but, boy, what a demo: a shameless yet effective clone of After Burner you could carry almost everywhere (on a backpack, that is). The scaling effects and the uses of colour are jaw-dropping for 1989, the explosions are nothing short of spectacular, and morover, I find to be quite an entertaining game. Sounds so-so, but it fits the part. Epyx started its machine (more than Atari's) with a huge bang.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiGqnUlsKP4
For how powerful the Lynx is with the processor, colour and scaling effects I just cannot get by the low resolution, this thing is barely a step up from the MicroVision resolution wise lol.
So for me it is much easier to play the Game Gear than the Lynx.
Yep, it was its Achilles heel and at the same time one of the things that made it unique.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sut
I had a Lynx II and so wish I didn't sell it. I never had many games for it, but loved Dracula the Undead on it and also loved the scaling on California games
Dracula was a risky decision by the depelopers and Atari. If I'm not wrong it was a beautifully presented text adventure, a genre I like a lot but was quite out of fashion in the 90s (it got better). I heard it's considered a top-notch game on the Lynx.Quote:
Originally Posted by Team Andromeda
It played like a old school text adv game and looked and sounded amazing. Like a fool I sold it all for pennies years backQuote:
Originally Posted by bigladiesman
Checkered Flag is, IMHO, one of the essential games on the Lynx. A game to go for fast 5-15 minute entertainment while commuting or on a rough night. For me it's Atari applying the sheer simplicity of a [by then] old school game to sophisticated 16-bit era aestethics: choose from 18 tracks, colour your car if you want, select if you want to ride solo or with adversaries and the number of laps. And then hit the road with those pretty, colourful graphics, good scaling effects, fluid movements and tight controls. Only the sound, like many Lynx games, leaves a bit to be desired. Nice arcade racing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOHgSxOmKeM
I always loved Checkered Flag. Lots of track variety, good control and nice sprite scaling - the cars even scale in the rear view mirror. I also fully agree with the assertion that Blue Lightning is more than just a tech demo. It has 10 long levels, with fighting through mountains and canyons, over flat land and at sea. You battle against enemy planes, tanks and ships - amazing variety to be dismissed as a tech demo. I always loved going high in the sky and just watching the clouds scale by.
I never played Checkered Flag, gutted now. To be honest while I loved the spec of the Lynx , its screen res made it so hard to play, even on a real system . Its the one area NEC GT got so right at the time
Wonder if it could be uprezzed in emulation, at least for the scalar games. Higan does this for Mode 7 in SNES games. Or at least overclock it to fix framerate issues. Here's what I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bYTI7s-tLcQuote:
Originally Posted by Team Andromeda
I think this old AtariAge thread may address what you're referring to. Then again, I suck at tech… And our GG was something SO BRUTAL… I even keep my old one, that won't work anymore, just for the sake of it, even having another one.Quote:
Originally Posted by axel
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/21...colour-hi-res/
It makes me dizzy to think Epyx created it on 1987.Quote:
Originally Posted by redsox2013
If I understand that thread correctly, they are referring to the fact that the Lynx LCD is actually 480x102 resolution, with three pixels red/green/blue making up one pixel in game. That's useful for displaying static images or making fonts more readable on a low res display. What I'm referring to is something more like this effect in SNES emulators:Quote:
Originally Posted by bigladiesman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnNEy0_JwOs
It probably wouldn't work as well on the Lynx though since you're dealing with bitmaps and not planes.
For overclocking, I saw this article awhile back: https://atarigamer.com/articles/revi...console-repair
I don't know how realistic this is for the rest of the Lynx library though.Quote:
Recently, I've been playing around with some other mods with another Lynx I have. I've done a 24Mhz CPU overclock mod which increased the Lynx speed to 150% its usual, and meant that some games (like Viking Child) could actually be enjoyed! I'm planning to turn this into a switchable overclock mod so I can switch back to the standard 16Mhz CPU speed.
I have a Lynx II and 59 complete games. I love the system! It has a unique charm to it, and it's great that games continue to be released for it.
Sadly, my Atari Lynx I died when I was messing around with the power supply that had a messed up power cord. Hopefully it's just a voltage regulator that I'll need to replace to get it back in working condition.
One of my favorite games for the handheld is Roadblasters, which I think is the best home conversion of the game. I really didn't find a great video of the game in action on the system, on Youtube, but this guy does an admirable job of explaining why it is so great.
https://https://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxbFl3R4vvM=youtu.be
Phew! Holy crap, this one's good. And we already got a nice version on MD/GEN, but if one doesn't take into account the low-res... Splendid. It surpasses ours.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
I'll have to check a couple of emulators, then.Quote:
Originally Posted by axel
I’ve seen emulators for the Lynx and they all appear to run the games too fast. Someone needs to tweak it a bit.
The Lynx has an odd refresh rate, at least in some games. Emulators run too fast because the alternative would be to introduce lag. Maybe this has been fixed in recent years I haven't really kept up.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
Wasn't it Tobey Maguire in that toilet? I have a Lynx II with a new screen, I was lucky enough to have picked one up that was like brand new and for a great price. The flash cart that was released recently is also a great piece of kit.
My thoughts in a nutshell: Great hardware, bad games.
That's not to say the games aren't fun, unique and interesting mind; I love Blue Lightning, Desert Strike is a good port and Technocop is an interesting experience.
There really needed to be a Wolfenstein 3D port, that would have been a natural fit for the system.
Funny you should say that....Quote:
Originally Posted by cleeg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E0l6iqer2s
Correct. Shame on me. Fixing it.Quote:
Originally Posted by cleeg
HOLY SHIT! I'll check it when I come back home from work!Quote:
Originally Posted by axel
I saw that, thanks for reminding me! Is it a complete game now?
https://atarigamer.comQuote:
Originally Posted by cleeg
For this kind of info, you could do worse than visit this site above. As for this game in question,
https://atarigamer.com/lynx/play/Luc...in3D/621711080
I've been busy these days and find it was about time to give these posts a little love. This is a game that I don't know if it's supposed to be some kind of self parody of Gauntlet by Atari and Epyx, but The 3rd Encounter is crazier, trollier - OMG, THOSE TRICK WALLS - and more hilarious than any other game in the series (at least until the relatively recent Slayer Edition by WB Games came out with its meta, non-sequitur and self-referential jokes). I mean, you can be a nerd, a robot, a gunslinger, a pirate (that has parrots as his weapon) or a samurai, as well as the classic four characters.
Colourful and surprisingly varied levels (as varied as Gauntlet can be, that is), terrible music, nice sound FX, nifty if a bit useless zooming effects and vertical screen display and menus that soon become second nature to the player. Many people dislikes it, but I find T3E to be a worthy addition to the franchise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHO-4kYFogw
And a little extra: this advert we've seen on multiple videos that showcases this game's 4-player link option.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUNdX-qEEk8
I have a Lynx II and play Xybots and S.T.U.N. Runner semi regularly. They are two of my favorite coin-op games of that era and the Lynx versions are excellent.
Sure they are. I find the latter to be especially remarkable with its sense of speed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gentlegamer
I got one second hand bitd and managed to acquire a few games for it over time (all from the same second hand dealers, as it happens). Apart from California Games, I ended up with Gates of Zendocon, Zarlor Mercenary, Klax, Gauntlet third encounter and that biplane one.Klax is superb on the machine, great voice.
Had fun with it at the time, but the resolution and frame rate on some of the games are just too low. The ilbrary looks to have some good Atari arcade ports going on but it's pretty limited in comparison to GG.