And looks not a day over 21... The most advanced handheld machine in my mind, at least until the Gameboy Advance/SP Models released in 2001. Sadly hampered by a lacklustre games lineup and short battery life, but there are some gems in there ( Klax anyone? ) and now with modern rechargeable batteries able to keep on gaming now my Lynx II still gets a run out every week. I would like to get the McWill LED screen mod but it’s expensive and the Lynx SD Card remains on my want list. Anyone else feel the same?
Had a Lynx in its carry case with a load of games but traded it with one of Andy's mates, I just never felt like playing it. I've always been odd about handhelds. Liked the GB but not the advance, have a 3DS but never a DS...I'm the same with laptops, can't abide them, I gave one of the two I inherited to Serena for work and the other one is sat in the cupboard...Very thin, Touch screen etc but I can't take the keyboard and the lack of proper mouse..(I know I could use a USB one but I'd still have problems with the keyboard.. But the Lynx was always heralded as being the next best thing and it certainly was clever...Played Blue Lightning on it (think that was the name) and found it clunky.. Still its all personal..
It was way ahead of it's time in portables, to be sure, and I agree with you @Vyper68 , definitely nothing could compare until the Gameboy Advance in power. I still have one here I need to do a cap replacement job on, but it's way down a long list. I also hope to do the VGA mod output and modern active LCD mod to it one day too. Like @Paul "Mclaneinc" Irvine , I've never been real comfortable playing games on portables, or smart phones, hence why I want the VGA mod and so it is more like a controller than a portable. Though I did appreciate it back in the 90's when I was doing a lot of traveling for work on the road, trains, buses and planes.But even back then, I generally brought a game console along too, that I hooked up in my hotel rooms. I worked for a company called Event Solutions International back then, after college, doing auto shows all across the country and Canada. With laptops I'm also the same as Paul, but I do use one in my truck for the business and also for SIO2PC so my Atari doesn't have to be in proximity to my PC, but that's it. These days though, with my XL command center, I have the PC tucked away underneath so I really don't use the laptop for SIO2PC anymore either. In fact, since I have CF card drives for both of my computers now, I don't use the SIO2PC much anymore either, except to use APE's Prosystem for writing ATR's back to real floppies and diagnostics. Happy Birthday Lynx!
I've never been one for handheld gaming consoles, I did have one passion which was the Psion 5, I used this with a suitable interface to reduce what I would carry when travelling on Public Transport (Mainly as I didn't enjoy driving or parking in central London.) I could use this as a terminal to connect to some of the Radio stations or even the Base Site Controllers, which could have several hundred sites on them. I also wrote programs for these to display data for each site, no pretty colours but a very useful tool. I had the full Psion C compiler and Psion documentation. Think it was all these folders that were water damaged along with much Atari Mags and documents.
I have to admit I didn’t play handhelds a lot in the main but I have owned quite a lot, culminating in the Nintendo Switch. I love the Lynx as it was my first handheld console and I spent a lot of time playing California Games, Electrocop and Gate of Zendocon. The Epyx games were pretty good but they were the designers of the hardware. I did tend to use the power adapter rather than batteries so it was not so mobile as it was designed. The first one I used as a portable proper was a Nintendo Gameboy Pocket and that was only for playing Tetris. I always came back to my Lynx though it was a really impressive machine for it’s time. I did want a PC Engine GT but they were import only and very expensive...
Well I know Pam's grandson can't be parted from his Nintendo switch for very long, but computers have always held my attention from the very early days, and I've always gone about updating them to do something beyond their normal capabilities, 10-11 years back I had three major back operations, as I was off work so long and was bored I purchased two Acer One 9" screen laptops (one was meant for my Ex(well my excuse)), never one to hold back, one ended up with additional memory, a 250GB hard disk, and also a touch screen. Internally I tied into spare pins on a chip that gave additional USB ports and that along with a tiny USB hub gave me an internal keyboard/ mouse wireless connection etc. I still have them both and although meant to be running a Linux ended up with Windows XP. They are too slow for anything modern today. As an update Pam had spotted some folders I'd put up in the loft some time back.. Never guess the whole suite of 'C' software and documentation for the Psion, no hardware though.
The Lynx was (still is) a great machine. The sprite scaling on games like Blue Lightning was really good. Probably my favourite handheld up until the PSP came out. It's interesting that two of the most awaited cartridges for the new Evercade retro handheld are the Lynx compilations coming out at the start of November. They've got a pile of the classics between them, looking forward to revisiting some old favourites
While I enjoyed the Epyx games, and yes, they did know how to use the hardware, and I really loved Warbirds, my favorite games, and ones that really show off the Lynx's sprite scaling are the games released as proto's by B&C or Songbird's publishings: Battle Wheels and Cyber Virus. Both are 360 degree sprite scalers, one , Battle Wheels, you are mainly in a car, with 4 first-person views, but sometimes also running around and battling on foot. In Cyber Virus you are a foot soldier ala DOOM, but with specific missions to solve and in an open environment, not enclosed spaces. These games looked and played almost as good as even Game Boy Advance games!
