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Admittedly I have never tried the real hardware, only emulators. I wasn't even aware of the Lynx's existence during my youth until years after its demise. I hav

Admittedly I have never tried the real hardware, only emulators. I wasn't even aware of the Lynx's existence during my youth until years after its demise. I have seen the unit on a few occasions out in the wild though. On paper, the hardware looks amazing and was way ahead of any portable game system at the time. Not only could it display in color, but it also supported scaling and rotation effects. The story of its creators, Epyx, is a sad one though. Epyx was traditionally a software company, not hardware, having released hit games like "California Games". They signed a deal with Atari that basically gave Atari the rights to delay releases of Epyx software for any QA issues Atari found. Atari was being run by Commodore founder Jack Tramiel at this point, and he was known for his shady business practices. Atari abused this part of the contract with Epyx, forcing Epyx to delay their software releases until the company was bled dry. And then Atari took what was left of Epyx for a bargain, including ownership of what would become the Atari Lynx (originally the "Handy"): Facing financial difficulties, Epyx sought out partners. Nintendo, Sega, and other companies declined, but Atari Corp. and Epyx eventually agreed that Atari Corp. would handle production and marketing, while Epyx would handle software development. Epyx declared bankruptcy by the end of the year, and Atari essentially owned the entire project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx#History I am glad that Atari imploded a few years later. Good riddance. Sega also ended up lifting a lot of the Lynx's design for the Game Gear after the Handy was pitched to them by Epyx. There is also an amusing story about how Epyx's pitch to Nintendo of Japan went terribly wrong, though I can't find it now.

tkjef 7y ago
the Game Gear was awesome! obsessed over the writeup for that in Consumer Reports for Kids until i could save up for one.
- ngold 7y ago
  The game gear was awesome. When the lynx came out it was pretty neat, sorta. I had one friend with one. But it paled in comparison to even the game boy, which had tons of games.
RickSanchez2600 7y ago
Atari like Commodore didn't market their new systems that much. It was mostly magazines and word of mouth. At least in the USA it was that way. Still they both controlled the home computer market in the 8 bit areas.
- seventhtiger 7y ago
  Atari's dominance is a major factor of the video game crisis in the 80s. The home console industry almost collapsed because all the consoles were licensing without quality control. Games would be broken or just badly designed for full price. It's archaic now, but when the NES came that golden "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality" saved the industry. Amazingly, the Nintendo CEO who was granting this seal did not play video games. He would have an employee play the game in front of him and he would decide whether it was a good game or not.
  - chungus_khan 7y ago
    It's also worth noting that this crash was largely North American, as the European gaming market was dominated by home computers. If you have any experience with home computer games of that era, you'll know that the quality control wasn't actually better, it's just that games came on cassette tapes and floppies, and so were vastly cheaper mistakes when you bought one (plus you could fix the bugs yourself on the ones written in BASIC, fun!!).
    - ajsnigrutin 7y ago
      Well.. in some countries, games/programs were even broadcasted on public FM radio stations.
      - reaperducer 7y ago
        Like the United States, where you could download on both AM and FM stations.
    - seventhtiger 7y ago
RetroSpark 7y ago
> Not only could it display in color, but it also supported scaling and rotation effects. IIRC the Lynx was designed at a time (1986-87) when this was feasible for portable systems but not for consoles, because of its low resolution (160 x 102 - the height seems strange until you realize that it gives you almost exactly 16 * 1024 pixels). > Sega also ended up lifting a lot of the Lynx's design for the Game Gear after the Handy was pitched to them by Epyx. The external design, maybe, but the internals of the two machines are very different. The Game Gear uses a Z80 to the Lynx's 6502 and has tile-based graphics where the Lynx uses a bitmapped display. The Game Gear is essentially a portable Sega Master System - a console that predates the design of the Lynx. > There is also an amusing story about how Epyx's pitch to Nintendo of Japan went terribly wrong, though I can't find it now. It's here: https://www.retrogamer.net/profiles/hardware/atari-lynx/ https://www.retrogamer.net/profiles/hardware/atari-lynx/ “We were the first non-Nintendo people to learn of the existence of the Nintendo Game Boy,” Needle says, recoiling even at the memory. “We were crushed. Joe was infuriated. The Nintendo boss left the room and we just sat there, wondering what to do next.”
- codesushi42 7y ago
  Interesting about the resolution, since that was 1/60th the number of pixels as the NES. The Lynx did have a 16 bit graphics chip though. The Epyx guys claim that Sega lifted their design for the Game Gear some time after their pitch. I think this meant the look and feel of the system-- both the horizontal orientation and idea of using a color display. According to Epyx, Sega still got it wrong and produced a crappy design in comparison. To be fair, the Lynx was a far more capable system.
  - 867-5309 7y ago
    >Interesting about the resolution, since that was 1/60th the number of pixels as the NES. surely you mean 1/4
  - RetroSpark 7y ago
    > According to Epyx, Sega still got it wrong and produced a crappy design in comparison. To be fair, the Lynx was a far more capable system. Making the Game Gear more-or-less a portable Master System was probably the right decision though. It enabled easy porting of existing Master System games, and development of new games to run on both platforms. Although the SMS was dead in Japan and North America before the Game Gear's release, it was still going strong in Europe and other markets. It also made possible the Game Gear's SMS mode, in which the machine behaves exactly like a Master System. This allowed backwards compatibility with existing SMS games via an adapter (which seems to have been important to Sega - the Genesis has a similar capability), and enabled an even simpler method of porting SMS games: a few Game Gear games [1] are really SMS games with a built-in adapter. The Game Gear therefore had a stronger software library than the Lynx, despite being technically inferior. And, ultimately, the overwhelming success of the Game Boy showed that it is the games (and battery life) that really matter. [1] http://www.smspower.org/Tags/SMS-GG http://www.smspower.org/Tags/SMS-GG
eloisant 7y ago
A friend of mine had a Lynx, it was really massive. Bigger than a Game Gear that was already much bigger than the GameBoy. Apparently the Lynx is even bigger than a Nintendo Switch, despite having a screen not much bigger than the Gameboy. Well, my friend was proud that you could play it reverse, dpad on the right if you were left handed. Not sure if left handed players really want to play reverse anyway.
- codesushi42 7y ago
  Yes, the original Lynx is massive, I have a held one myself. I have also held the Lynx 2, which is a much smaller system that's around the size of the Game Gear. Though even the Game Gear seems massive by today's standards.
  - pygy_ 7y ago
    The Game Gear was massive at release, by my own standards (expectations calibrated by Game and Watch and the original Game Boy).
walkingolof 7y ago
Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore and savior of Atari was a very tough guy to negotiate with, but from this, it sounds like the Epyx management did not have a clue of what they were doing...
- codesushi42 7y ago
  That is very likely. They were brilliant engineers, not good businessmen.

tkjef 7y ago

the Game Gear was awesome! obsessed over the writeup for that in Consumer Reports for Kids until i could save up for one.

ngold 7y ago
The game gear was awesome. When the lynx came out it was pretty neat, sorta. I had one friend with one. But it paled in comparison to even the game boy, which had tons of games.

RickSanchez2600 7y ago

Atari like Commodore didn't market their new systems that much. It was mostly magazines and word of mouth. At least in the USA it was that way. Still they both controlled the home computer market in the 8 bit areas.

seventhtiger 7y ago
Atari's dominance is a major factor of the video game crisis in the 80s. The home console industry almost collapsed because all the consoles were licensing without quality control. Games would be broken or just badly designed for full price. It's archaic now, but when the NES came that golden "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality" saved the industry. Amazingly, the Nintendo CEO who was granting this seal did not play video games. He would have an employee play the game in front of him and he would decide whether it was a good game or not.
- chungus_khan 7y ago
  It's also worth noting that this crash was largely North American, as the European gaming market was dominated by home computers. If you have any experience with home computer games of that era, you'll know that the quality control wasn't actually better, it's just that games came on cassette tapes and floppies, and so were vastly cheaper mistakes when you bought one (plus you could fix the bugs yourself on the ones written in BASIC, fun!!).
  - ajsnigrutin 7y ago
    Well.. in some countries, games/programs were even broadcasted on public FM radio stations.
    - reaperducer 7y ago
      Like the United States, where you could download on both AM and FM stations.
  - seventhtiger 7y ago

RetroSpark 7y ago

> Not only could it display in color, but it also supported scaling and rotation effects. IIRC the Lynx was designed at a time (1986-87) when this was feasible for portable systems but not for consoles, because of its low resolution (160 x 102 - the height seems strange until you realize that it gives you almost exactly 16 * 1024 pixels). > Sega also ended up lifting a lot of the Lynx's design for the Game Gear after the Handy was pitched to them by Epyx. The external design, maybe, but the internals of the two machines are very different. The Game Gear uses a Z80 to the Lynx's 6502 and has tile-based graphics where the Lynx uses a bitmapped display. The Game Gear is essentially a portable Sega Master System - a console that predates the design of the Lynx. > There is also an amusing story about how Epyx's pitch to Nintendo of Japan went terribly wrong, though I can't find it now. It's here: https://www.retrogamer.net/profiles/hardware/atari-lynx/ https://www.retrogamer.net/profiles/hardware/atari-lynx/ “We were the first non-Nintendo people to learn of the existence of the Nintendo Game Boy,” Needle says, recoiling even at the memory. “We were crushed. Joe was infuriated. The Nintendo boss left the room and we just sat there, wondering what to do next.”

codesushi42 7y ago
Interesting about the resolution, since that was 1/60th the number of pixels as the NES. The Lynx did have a 16 bit graphics chip though. The Epyx guys claim that Sega lifted their design for the Game Gear some time after their pitch. I think this meant the look and feel of the system-- both the horizontal orientation and idea of using a color display. According to Epyx, Sega still got it wrong and produced a crappy design in comparison. To be fair, the Lynx was a far more capable system.
- 867-5309 7y ago
  >Interesting about the resolution, since that was 1/60th the number of pixels as the NES. surely you mean 1/4
- RetroSpark 7y ago
  > According to Epyx, Sega still got it wrong and produced a crappy design in comparison. To be fair, the Lynx was a far more capable system. Making the Game Gear more-or-less a portable Master System was probably the right decision though. It enabled easy porting of existing Master System games, and development of new games to run on both platforms. Although the SMS was dead in Japan and North America before the Game Gear's release, it was still going strong in Europe and other markets. It also made possible the Game Gear's SMS mode, in which the machine behaves exactly like a Master System. This allowed backwards compatibility with existing SMS games via an adapter (which seems to have been important to Sega - the Genesis has a similar capability), and enabled an even simpler method of porting SMS games: a few Game Gear games [1] are really SMS games with a built-in adapter. The Game Gear therefore had a stronger software library than the Lynx, despite being technically inferior. And, ultimately, the overwhelming success of the Game Boy showed that it is the games (and battery life) that really matter. [1] http://www.smspower.org/Tags/SMS-GG http://www.smspower.org/Tags/SMS-GG

eloisant 7y ago

A friend of mine had a Lynx, it was really massive. Bigger than a Game Gear that was already much bigger than the GameBoy. Apparently the Lynx is even bigger than a Nintendo Switch, despite having a screen not much bigger than the Gameboy. Well, my friend was proud that you could play it reverse, dpad on the right if you were left handed. Not sure if left handed players really want to play reverse anyway.

codesushi42 7y ago
Yes, the original Lynx is massive, I have a held one myself. I have also held the Lynx 2, which is a much smaller system that's around the size of the Game Gear. Though even the Game Gear seems massive by today's standards.
- pygy_ 7y ago
  The Game Gear was massive at release, by my own standards (expectations calibrated by Game and Watch and the original Game Boy).

walkingolof 7y ago

Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore and savior of Atari was a very tough guy to negotiate with, but from this, it sounds like the Epyx management did not have a clue of what they were doing...

codesushi42 7y ago
That is very likely. They were brilliant engineers, not good businessmen.