Atari Lynx Appreciation Thread

[fat flatulent git]

Great.  The Lynx 2 is much nicer anyway.

[fat flatulent git]

Here's my Lynx collection.  I'll be just about done when I get Awesome Golf.

[Nathan Wind]

Nice collection.  Shadow of the Beast, Toki and Ninja Gaiden would be worth adding!

[fat flatulent git]

Got Shadow of the Beast elsewhere, but certainly I'd like Ninja Gaiden - 3 isn't very good.

 

I only ever play the same handful of games, though.  At least Awesome Golf might get some play time - think the others might just sit on the shelf.

[Nathan Wind]

Beast isn't very good but it's a hell of a showcase for the hardware.  I like Ninja Gaiden a lot - they were brave to port the arcade game.  Toki is one of the best games on the system IMO.  Superb graphics and sound, another real showcase.

[fat flatulent git]

I'll have to check Toki out then.

 

I already have Blue Lightning as a technical wonder that isn't all that much fun to play.

[Nathan Wind]

Remember the Starforce Pi dude?  He's just consolised a Lynx and it looks fricking amazing.

 

https://starforcepi.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/the-atari-lynx-1-up/

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/282545-consolized-atari-lynx-1-with-mcwill-vga-controller/

 

 

Pretty rad. Lynx games look alright ona big (ish) screen, surprisingly enough.  I don't mind playing them on my CoinOps'd Xbox, hooked up to a CRT.

[fat flatulent git]

I've never heard of him, but that does indeed look brilliant.  I'd love one.

[Nathan Wind]

Look at this!  An isometric RPG called Lacim's Legacy in development.  Looks superb! 

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/282548-isometric-rpg-in-development/

 

 

 

 

 

[Nathan Wind]

Someone made Bomberman.  Hopes and prayers for a boxed cart version.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/283377-bombercats-a-new-lynx-game-coming-fall-2018/

[Nathan Wind]

Proper curved-lip game card versions of previously chip on a board releases are now available.  If I was still a mad Lynx collector I'd be all over them

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/282544-krazy-ace-miniature-golf-among-others-finally-released-as-curved-lip-cart/

[Lorfarius]

Brand new Lynx screen and super cheap too!

 

 

[bwi]

I've been showing my lynx some love recently since i did a mcwill mod, but one thing has bnothered me the last 29 years.  Can you do 5 spins in california games in surfing. Over the years i've came what i thought was close but never landed one.

 

Is it possible?

[Nathan Wind]

Very impressed by the quality of the packaging, cart and manual for Wyvern Tales.  There are already some bastards trying to flog it on eBay for £100, despite the fact you can buy it straight from the developer for less than half that.  The fucking retro scene man...

 

[Butters]

When clearing my parents house for sale five years ago, I came across a bunch of my old gaming stuff, and threw it in a box to be sorted later. Finally got round to looking through some of it yesterday, and behold, my Atari Lynx 2 is there with all the cartridges in a bag. Sadly no boxes, but I'm happy enough for now.

 

I've still to test it, so I may be jumping the gun here, but I was considering buying an AC adaptor for it. I can't remember if i had one before and lost it, or didn't actually own one (I spent 15 minutes looking for the GBA adaptor, only to remember I ran it on batteries).

 

Does it matter which adaptor I get (as long as it is labelled to work with the Lynx obviously)? Do I need to try to get hold of an official one?

[Nathan Wind]

Nice Mortal Kombat homebrew conversion in the works.  Very impressive! The ROM is available to try out if you've got the flash cart.

 

 

[fat flatulent git]

Got this today.  Not a vintage game, but sounds quite good.  The modern releases make it hard to get an accurate idea of how many Lynx games there are exactly.

[fat flatulent git]

I've put some time into Championship Rally now.  Here's my opinion so far.

 

The packaging is nice.  It seems that early copies of this shipped in a CD case, so it's nice to get a real-looking Lynx box.  I was slightly irritated to see that the back is printed upside-down, relative to the front, but otherwise it's fine.  The manual is brief but well-printed.  The actual cart itself looks exactly like a real one, with a curved top.

 

Booting up the game, you get a screen advertising Songbird Productions, then the game start-up screen shows a rather good rally car, which implies gameplay quite different from what the game actually serves up.  From the menu, you can choose tournament, single race, time trials, and multiplayer (yeah, right, like you're going to run into anyone else with a Lynx and a copy of this, and a comlynx cable).

 

Racing is from a top-down perspective.  There are four cars in a race, red, blue, yellow and green.  You always start at the back.

 

Tournaments asks you if you want to load a previous tournament or start a new one.  I haven't saved any yet, but I assume it's done with a password.

 

Looking at the single race menu, three of seven tracks are unlocked from the start.  The others seem to unlock if you progress through tournament mode.  There's a fantastic range of customisation in single race mode.  You can change your car's colour (default is red, but you can make a CPU car red instead), you can raise or lower the top speed and the acceleration of your car and your opponents' cars, and you can alter the damage.  Damage has never been an issue yet - maybe it is in later tracks.  You can't alter your starting position.

 

However, no such options exist for tournament mode, and that's a shame, because it is very difficult indeed.  The first track (desert) is a dog leg shape, then the second (forest or meadow or something) is a straight rectangle.  But the third track is set in a town, and it's all too easy to take a wrong turn and have to reverse out of a dead end.  You need a certain number of points to progress in the tournament, and so far I've never had enough to get past the third race.

 

When the race starts, the computer cars always pull away faster than you do.  The first car, so far always green, invariably disappears into the distance and is never seen again, but I can usually make second place on the first two tracks.  There are no one-track indicators that a turn is coming up, making it impossible to anticipate them.  It helps if there is a CPU car ahead of you, otherwise you're guaranteed to go way off the track.  Fortunately, that doesn't spell disaster.  If you hit a tree, both you and the tree will bounce away.  Sometimes two or three judges knock the tree out of your way, and something I go so wide that I go around the scenery, so I get back on track with very little loss of speed.  Every turn so far has been a right angle.  Get one right, and it feels great, but that is rare.  Hit another car, and you just bounce apart slightly.  The physics are unrealistic but don't hinder the gameplay.

 

The cars are tiny.  There are some bonuses and hazards in the track, RC Pro Am style, but they are hard to distinguish.  There's no music, but there is a satisfying ding when you complete s lap.  The scenery looks ago, but this is not a good example of Lynx graphics.

 

The tournament menu keeps track of which season (year) you're in as well as which race and your points total, so it seems it's meant to be a long-term game.

 

I'd say this is much better than Super Off Road, where hitting scenery usually means game over.  However Super Off Road looks better.  Chequered Flag is the best racer, even though it is frustrating that the slightest touch on another car means spinning and stopping.

 

Championship Rally is OK but really on for Lynx collectors.

 

[Swainy]

New SD card solution from BennVenn: https://bennvenn.myshopify.com/products/elcheaposd-lynx-pre-order?_pos=1&_sid=83b721320&_ss=r

[Camel]

It's a good price.

[Oracle]

FFS pre-ordered. I don't have a lynx 

[Myshkin]

5 hours ago, Oracle said:

FFS pre-ordered. I don't have a lynx 

i lol'd at you then did the same. My Lynx died a few years ago and not even Das could revive it.

 

EDIT: Couldn't go through with it. $24 for shipping?? Too rich for my blood.

[Swainy]

 

[fat flatulent git]

Couple of new purchases.

 

Had a play on Cybervirus.  It's spectacular.  Unbelievable that it runs on a handheld from 1989.

[Nathan Wind]

It is very impressive looking.  I never bothered with it when I was collecting for the Lynx though because it always struck me as paying £50 for what's essentially a reskin of Battle Wheels.

[strider]

I’m hoping all these homebrew games turn up on evercade as I no longer own a lynx and don’t want to go down that rabbit hole again. Does anyone have the winter sports homebrew game? That always looked amazing.

[Nathan Wind]

I don't think I would part with my Lynx 2 and SD cart combination in spite of the Evercade.  You'll never replace the feel of holding a Lynx, or the buttons and pad.  It's a very unique system.

[strider]

27 minutes ago, Nathan Wind said:

I don't think I would part with my Lynx 2 and SD cart combination in spite of the Evercade.  You'll never replace the feel of holding a Lynx, or the buttons and pad.  It's a very unique system.

Absolutely, but I don’t enjoy playing roms on a sd cart as I find I don’t actually play anything for more than five minutes before getting bored. I was tempted by the new screen but the high price of games is putting me off.

[Nathan Wind]

While I hear you, that's the beauty of the Lynx, I don't get that problem thanks to the limited library.

[strider]

1 hour ago, Nathan Wind said:

While I hear you, that's the beauty of the Lynx, I don't get that problem thanks to the limited library.

I always play my next to a wall socket when I had it as I found rechargable batteries to be pretty pants.