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RetroMo: Atari Lynx
Written by Señor Cha Cha on Friday, May 26, 2006
Ok, so the Lynx was HUGE, had horrid battery life, and an astonishingly bad button layout, but it had Klax. KLAX!
RetroMo Part 1: NEC Turbo Express
RetroMo Part 2: Sega Game Gear
You Are Here: RetroMo Part 3: Atari Lynx
The Senor has many fond memories from his youth: GI Joe, his grandma's chicken fajita nachos, his girlfriend Liliana Gonzalez, Menudo. He also remembers the Atari Lynx, the world's first portable videogame system with a color screen. Although it was eventually de-clawed by Nintendo's little taquito, the Game Boy, the Lynx successfully managed to find its audience. That audience may have been nothing more than foolish collectors that loved to play with large black objects (hey now), but nevertheless, fun times were had with the likes of Batman Returns, Robo Squash, Klax, Rampage, and a host of other quality gems. But much like most of Atari's experiments, the Lynx was unfortunately put to sleep.
The system was originally created by Epyx, makers of the popular California Games. Supposedly, the Lynx was completed in 1987, and for whatever reason, Epyx rolled it out at the 1989 CES. The company enlisted the help of Atari, which swiftly changed the name of the system (it was originally called Handy) and prepared to unleash it on a populace that had re-embraced videogames.
Lynx had a hell of a lot going for it. Not only was it backed by Atari, which was still a rather popular name at the time, for better or worse (probably worse), but its 3.5 inch backlit screen was an attention grabber and the unit draws from an available palette of 4,096 colors. Plus, it was and possibly still is the only system that allows the gamer to play lefty or righty, meaning that for the first time in their dreary existences, left-handed people could almost feel normal.
Considering that the Game Boy had a black and white screen that was roughly half the size of the Lynx's, Atari's new toy was truly ahead of its time. With that being said, it should have sold like a fresh stack of Johnny Cakes, except that it had one small problem, that being the Game Boy's existence. Nintendo's hand held debuted at about the same time with three important things on its side. First, it was published by Nintendo, the company that single handedly resurrected the fallen videogame industry, so right away, consumer perception may have doomed the Lynx since Atari symbolized the disappointing 80's crash. Second, it also didn't help that the Game Boy was sold for less than $115 while the Lynx sold for a hefty $190, give or take. Finally, and this was the real hot tamale in the weak digestive system, the Game Boy had Tetris, the greatest puzzle game in the history of puzzle games.
It also didn't help that the Game Boy came with Tetris. Lynx had California Games, but let's not be stupid. California Games is no Tetris. Also, the Lynx consumes batteries like Jaws eats drunken sea captains. You're looking at four to five hours max on six AAs. And (I keep thinking of shortcomings), the Lynx is big as hell. You're not just going to whip one out in tight quarters and be comfy with it. I enjoy having my hands spread out (the Game Boy's set up tends to cramp the fingers), but the Lynx is a bit over the top, as in it takes more than three DS Lites stacked on top of one another to equal its thickness.
posted May 28, 2006