Atari Lynx Thread! (spun off Awesome Stuff thread)

[louisg]

OK, so I just got a Lynx. I had one back in the day, and I liked it a lot. It was one of two systems I sold for a trade, and regretted it at the time (traded it for a GameGear, which seems to have a worse screen, same battery life, yet is easily less capable). From the games I have, here's what I think of them so far:

Hydra - This is the most disappointing of the bunch. It's just poorly balanced: Easy really is easy, and lets you easily amass so much fuel that you can die over and over on the Medium levels and still win. Starting on Medium starts you with hardly any fuel on the other hand. Add to this that a lot of the later enemy attacks are nearly invisible and impossible to avoid, and you have a missed opportunity of a game. The graphics are excellent at least.

Steel Talons - Lots of fun if you can deal with the framerate. This is about as good an arcade heli sim port as you could hope for on home hardware back then. I think it runs roughly as fast as the Genesis version and seems to have all the detail. I've played up to Mission 4 so far, though I'm still hazy on what the best tactic for various situations is.

Battle Wheels - Incredible! It's a good vehicular arena game, and the car customization seems Car Wars-influenced, which is awesome for Car Wars fans such as myself. The AI is pretty good, and there are a lot of strategies you can employ. The controls make it easy to look out the side/rear windows, check the map, and cycle between front/side/rear weapons quickly (which you'll have to do well to win). There are uses for each weapon, too-- it's not just feature creep design. The action is also very crisp and it's easy to see what is happening, for the most part. My big complaint so far is that it should be more obvious when a point is scored.

Xybots - I rented this back in the day. It's a faithful port of the arcade original, though it does run a little slower. If you haven't played it, check it out-- it's one of the very first corridor shooters (ala Wolfenstein 3d).

One Q i do have though: Is it normal for the screen to have a little bit of vertical bleed?

Those listed Lynx games are ace in my book.

If you haven't tried out the prototype Lynx cart of Road Riot 4WD, it's a super smooth Lynx racing game based on it's arcade counterpart of the same name (that was developed by Atari Corp. in-house as a 1st-party killer app Lynx gaming title). It has a 1994 copyright date (considering that official Lynx software production stopped after the 1992-1993 season). The Lynx RR4WD port does have a sliky-smooth 60fps presentation from the get-go (to show off what the Lynx was capable of doing in the hands of the right dev team). It was 99% finished but there's no "final" ending screen and goes to a black colored screen upon completion of the final race (even if you cross the finish line in 1st place). The digitized speech bites, sound effects, & BGM from the arcade original is "spot on" in this Lynx RR4WD port indeed! I would've gladly bought it on day one of release if Atari Corp. had officially released it.

I think if Atari hadn't killed software support for it's Lynx platform to concentrate on the Jaguar platform only, it would've gotten a lot more 1st-party & 3rd-party software support, indeed, for the 1993-1994 timeline.

Yes, it's normal for a Lynx I/II handheld to have vertical bleed due to the LCD technology used in manufacturing the Lynx's LCD screen. However, it's not normal for an Lynx I/II LCD screen to have on-board sprite corruption issues (happened to me upon buying a Lynx II, returned it and got a 2nd one that was 100% working with no issues whatsoever). You might want to try out some of the other Lynx gaming titles such as: Blue Lightning (awesome usage of hardware scaling effects even when afterburners are implemented), Klax, Blockout, Road Blasters, Hard Drivin', Raiden (was never officially released by Atari Corp. despite being 100% finished & still has a 1992 copyright date), S.T.U.N. Runner, Checkered Flag, etc.

If Atari Corp. hadn't killed off it's upcoming 16-bit powered Panther gaming console, it would've been possible to play your favorite Lynx games inserted into the console and played on the big screen with no adapter necessary. But alas, it wasn't meant to be as Atari canned it and decided to "put all their eggs in one basket" with the 64-bit powered Jaguar console instead.

Atari Lynx Factoid: The LCD screen used in the Lynx I was designed & manufactured in Japan. Originally, it was supposed to debut with an MSRP of $149.99 USD but ending being an MSRP of $179.99 instead at launch. The sharper TFT-based LCD screen used in the NEC PC GT/Turbo Express handheld was made by Epson of Japan.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Yeah, I can't help but think Atari would've been better off making a 16-bit console instead of the Jag,. The Lynx is almost proof: the software is pretty high quality and the hardware is cutting edge. It's pretty much the opposite of the Jaguar! Even though I know it's by Epyx, you would've thought that the Lynx was developed with games like Roadblasters in mind. I wonder how much game development drove the development of that platform (if not Atari's development, then Epyx's).

Blue Lightning does have amazing graphics, but I felt like the gameplay needed some work. And as much as I liked STUN Runner as a kid, it also seems to be a bit easy -- it's balanced to expect you to get hit over and over, sort of like my complaints with Hydra. But this is off emulator.

Of the ROMs I've previewed so far, the ones that seem to be really good are Rampart, Roadblasters (though I think it does run fast on emu), Chip's Challenge, Klax, Cali Games (of course! ), Warbirds, Checkered Flag, and then some of the ports of 8-bit era arcade games like Qix or Robotron. Toki also seems pretty underrated. AFAIK it's the only actual port of that one, and it's well done too. And Slime World seems like it was fairly groundbreaking at the time, though I think I disagree with the insta-death-happy respawn gameplay.

One thing that really sticks out at me is how far ahead of the time this machine was in anticipating 3d LAN gaming. It's obvious that the developers came from the computer world, where it wasn't long before games like Air Warrior hit the mainstream. Too bad it was kind of a chicken-egg scenario for Atari: The system needs link play to really be fully appreciated, but to do that, it has to sell well in the first place!

BTW have you tried CyberVirus? I *almost* want to obtain a real cart, but I'd hate for it to suck. It's hard to find in, uh, preview form.

[jonny5]

Get Stun Runner for sure! Out of all the games I had for Lynx back in the day, I definitely played that the most. So addictive!

Electro Cop was kind of cool too. Batman Returns was fun. Gauntlet was good. Gates of Zendocon was shit!

I know I had more games than that but I can't think of them off the top of my head. Lynx was definitely way ahead of it's time, but just wasn't marketed properly, at least here.

[headcaseGames]

Hey I liked Zendocon

For shmuppers, check out Zarlor Mercenary. It's probably constructed in a way that most traditional shmup-enjoying folks would hate, but I actually found myself enjoying that quite a lot more than expected. Don't know if it really holds up so well these days, but back in the day it was great for letting off some steam.

There's quite a few really fun games for Lynx, it really was something else back in the day; sadly it never really got the needed support to take on Gameboy even though the tech was quite jaw-dropping. It just had too many factors against it to really stand a chance, but it will always stand out as a very unique system with an unusually strong library for it's period (in fact, it was hard to buy a game at random and "feel burned")

I do want to argue with the point made above, that "if Atari hadn't concentrated on Jaguar, the Lynx would have received more support" - there's no way it would have made a difference, GB's lead was too big and there were almost 0 external devs for Lynx which is poison for any system. It was just a matter of time until the thing died one way or another. I kind of like the legacy it left behind however - a very powerful period piece, small and collectible library with a great variety of titles, and they had that amazing Atari Games link; at the time, Atari was sitll one of the best developers on the arcade scene, and you always knew the cream of the crop would be well-represented on this platform, often markedly more so than anywhere else

[Estebang]

Batman Returns was fun.

Ugh, have you actually played it within the last 20 years? It makes Kung Food (also on the Lynx) look like a certifiable masterpiece.

Of course, there's always Gordo 106 The Mutated Lab Monkey (see bottom of page).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

OK, so I just got a Lynx. I had one back in the day, and I liked it a lot. It was one of two systems I sold for a trade, and regretted it at the time (traded it for a GameGear, which seems to have a worse screen, same battery life, yet is easily less capable). From the games I have, here's what I think of them so far:

Hydra - This is the most disappointing of the bunch. It's just poorly balanced: Easy really is easy, and lets you easily amass so much fuel that you can die over and over on the Medium levels and still win. Starting on Medium starts you with hardly any fuel on the other hand. Add to this that a lot of the later enemy attacks are nearly invisible and impossible to avoid, and you have a missed opportunity of a game. The graphics are excellent at least.

Steel Talons - Lots of fun if you can deal with the framerate. This is about as good an arcade heli sim port as you could hope for on home hardware back then. I think it runs roughly as fast as the Genesis version and seems to have all the detail. I've played up to Mission 4 so far, though I'm still hazy on what the best tactic for various situations is.

Battle Wheels - Incredible! It's a good vehicular arena game, and the car customization seems Car Wars-influenced, which is awesome for Car Wars fans such as myself. The AI is pretty good, and there are a lot of strategies you can employ. The controls make it easy to look out the side/rear windows, check the map, and cycle between front/side/rear weapons quickly (which you'll have to do well to win). There are uses for each weapon, too-- it's not just feature creep design. The action is also very crisp and it's easy to see what is happening, for the most part. My big complaint so far is that it should be more obvious when a point is scored.

Xybots - I rented this back in the day. It's a faithful port of the arcade original, though it does run a little slower. If you haven't played it, check it out-- it's one of the very first corridor shooters (ala Wolfenstein 3d).

One Q i do have though: Is it normal for the screen to have a little bit of vertical bleed?

Those listed Lynx games are ace in my book.

If you haven't tried out the prototype Lynx cart of Road Riot 4WD, it's a super smooth Lynx racing game based on it's arcade counterpart of the same name (that was developed by Atari Corp. in-house as a 1st-party killer app Lynx gaming title). It has a 1994 copyright date (considering that official Lynx software production stopped after the 1992-1993 season). The Lynx RR4WD port does have a sliky-smooth 60fps presentation from the get-go (to show off what the Lynx was capable of doing in the hands of the right dev team). It was 99% finished but there's no "final" ending screen and goes to a black colored screen upon completion of the final race (even if you cross the finish line in 1st place). The digitized speech bites, sound effects, & BGM from the arcade original is "spot on" in this Lynx RR4WD port indeed! I would've gladly bought it on day one of release if Atari Corp. had officially released it.

I think if Atari hadn't killed software support for it's Lynx platform to concentrate on the Jaguar platform only, it would've gotten a lot more 1st-party & 3rd-party software support, indeed, for the 1993-1994 timeline.

Yes, it's normal for a Lynx I/II handheld to have vertical bleed due to the LCD technology used in manufacturing the Lynx's LCD screen. However, it's not normal for an Lynx I/II LCD screen to have on-board sprite corruption issues (happened to me upon buying a Lynx II, returned it and got a 2nd one that was 100% working with no issues whatsoever). You might want to try out some of the other Lynx gaming titles such as: Blue Lightning (awesome usage of hardware scaling effects even when afterburners are implemented), Klax, Blockout, Road Blasters, Hard Drivin', Raiden (was never officially released by Atari Corp. despite being 100% finished & still has a 1992 copyright date), S.T.U.N. Runner, Checkered Flag, etc.

If Atari Corp. hadn't killed off it's upcoming 16-bit powered Panther gaming console, it would've been possible to play your favorite Lynx games inserted into the console and played on the big screen with no adapter necessary. But alas, it wasn't meant to be as Atari canned it and decided to "put all their eggs in one basket" with the 64-bit powered Jaguar console instead.

Atari Lynx Factoid: The LCD screen used in the Lynx I was designed & manufactured in Japan. Originally, it was supposed to debut with an MSRP of $149.99 USD but ending being an MSRP of $179.99 instead at launch. The sharper TFT-based LCD screen used in the NEC PC GT/Turbo Express handheld was made by Epson of Japan.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Yeah, I can't help but think Atari would've been better off making a 16-bit console instead of the Jag,. The Lynx is almost proof: the software is pretty high quality and the hardware is cutting edge. It's pretty much the opposite of the Jaguar! Even though I know it's by Epyx, you would've thought that the Lynx was developed with games like Roadblasters in mind. I wonder how much game development drove the development of that platform (if not Atari's development, then Epyx's).

Blue Lightning does have amazing graphics, but I felt like the gameplay needed some work. And as much as I liked STUN Runner as a kid, it also seems to be a bit easy -- it's balanced to expect you to get hit over and over, sort of like my complaints with Hydra. But this is off emulator.

Of the ROMs I've previewed so far, the ones that seem to be really good are Rampart, Roadblasters (though I think it does run fast on emu), Chip's Challenge, Klax, Cali Games (of course! ), Warbirds, Checkered Flag, and then some of the ports of 8-bit era arcade games like Qix or Robotron. Toki also seems pretty underrated. AFAIK it's the only actual port of that one, and it's well done too. And Slime World seems like it was fairly groundbreaking at the time, though I think I disagree with the insta-death-happy respawn gameplay.

One thing that really sticks out at me is how far ahead of the time this machine was in anticipating 3d LAN gaming. It's obvious that the developers came from the computer world, where it wasn't long before games like Air Warrior hit the mainstream. Too bad it was kind of a chicken-egg scenario for Atari: The system needs link play to really be fully appreciated, but to do that, it has to sell well in the first place!

BTW have you tried CyberVirus? I *almost* want to obtain a real cart, but I'd hate for it to suck. It's hard to find in, uh, preview form.

Running Blue Lighting on real hardware is great along with Warbirds (another cool old-school bi-plane sim with impressive scaling effects put to good use). The Lynx pinball title of Pinball Jam with it's two solid pinball tables based on the original Williams pins of Police Force & Elvira & the Party Monsters is ace. I've noticed that when in multi-ball mode, the CPU seems to have a hard time keeping track of both balls with a penchant to have one ball go down the drain rather quickly.

The 3rd-party Lynx shmup title of Zaku with it's solid 60fps framerate shows off what the Lynx could do if given enough time to code a game to it's fullest potential. It would've done quite well, sales-wise, if it was coded & properly released back in the early 1990s.

I've haven't had the chance to try out Cybervirus yet...sounds like it'd be a cool multi-Lynx game to play with others. It's still available on GoodDealGames.com site if you want to purchase a legit cart to play.

Playing an 8-player session of Checkered Flag or even Battlewheels would be awesome. I've only just played a two-player session of CF & BW myself with a cousin back in the day.

Tis a shame that Atari Corp. never made a Lynx game that could properly interface with the Jaguar, that would've been cool to have seen implemented back in the day.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[louisg]

I've haven't had the chance to try out Cybervirus yet...sounds like it'd be a cool multi-Lynx game to play with others. It's still available on GoodDealGames.com site if you want to purchase a legit cart to play.

Playing an 8-player session of Checkered Flag or even Battlewheels would be awesome. I've only just played a two-player session of CF & BW myself with a cousin back in the day.

Tis a shame that Atari Corp. never made a Lynx game that could properly interface with the Jaguar, that would've been cool to have seen implemented back in the day.

Yeah, CV might be OK. What gives me pause is that it's an FPS game minus corridors. I'm just envisioning the same kind of thrown-together level design from bad GameBoy Advance FPS attempts.

It's really too bad no emulator seems to support ComLynx play. These really are some of the only first person 4+-player competitive games from before the Doom era, and there is no way I'll ever convince any of my other friends to spring for a Lynx! I'm sure the Lynx was more of a blast at trade shows than anywhere else for this reason

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I've haven't had the chance to try out Cybervirus yet...sounds like it'd be a cool multi-Lynx game to play with others. It's still available on GoodDealGames.com site if you want to purchase a legit cart to play.

Playing an 8-player session of Checkered Flag or even Battlewheels would be awesome. I've only just played a two-player session of CF & BW myself with a cousin back in the day.

Tis a shame that Atari Corp. never made a Lynx game that could properly interface with the Jaguar, that would've been cool to have seen implemented back in the day.

Yeah, CV might be OK. What gives me pause is that it's an FPS game minus corridors. I'm just envisioning the same kind of thrown-together level design from bad GameBoy Advance FPS attempts.

It's really too bad no emulator seems to support ComLynx play. These really are some of the only first person 4+-player competitive games from before the Doom era, and there is no way I'll ever convince any of my other friends to spring for a Lynx! I'm sure the Lynx was more of a blast at trade shows than anywhere else for this reason

Yeah, I can just imagine have an 8-player Lynx setup and playing against complete strangers at the CES and elsewhere. Is sure to plant a huge grin on folk's faces when doing so. It brings out the competitive nature as well making for some serious portable gaming at it's best.

I think if Atari hadn't pulled the plug on it's Lynx platform, we would've seen some cool Lynx games that took advantage of the crisp 60fps framerate option. Can't get any better than that, folks.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[dan76]

I own a lynx and have a emu running on my dingoo. Pacland was the game I played most all those years ago. Really good port. Shanghai gets lots of attention these days on the tube.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I tricked out my Lynx II with an optional sun shade visor + external battery box. It's been said that by using the Lynx battery box, gameplay will last about an averge 80 hours of run time with a new set of six D batteries (compared to using six AA batteries which last, on the average, of about 4 to 5 hours before going downhill). And having access to an Lynx A/C adapter is a must as well. Toys-R-Us was selling those optional Lynx battery boxes for a mere $1.99 on clearance back in 1993-1994 -- so I picked up one at that super low pricepoint.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Kakizaki]

I received a Lynx along with Rampage and Ninja Gaiden Christmas of '91. I remember being blown away by the continue screen for Ninja Gaiden (I believe Ryu is tied down while a circular saw blade slowly descends towards his chest). Also, kind of odd, but one of the first few memories of my Lynx was that great warm new electronics smell it had as you held it in your hands.

Rampage was a personal favorite but I played a ton of Klax and Guantlet (usually while sitting on the toilet ). I really can't believe I never snagged Road Blasters for Lynx. Still curious to try the Lynx versions Xybots and Xenophone.

[louisg]

Rampage was a personal favorite but I played a ton of Klax and Guantlet (usually while sitting on the toilet ). I really can't believe I never snagged Road Blasters for Lynx. Still curious to try the Lynx versions Xybots and Xenophone.

Xenophobe is one of the best versions of the game, if not the best. The controls are spot-on, and if you have a link cable, one person can play as the alien.

I think if Atari hadn't pulled the plug on it's Lynx platform, we would've seen some cool Lynx games that took advantage of the crisp 60fps framerate option. Can't get any better than that, folks.

I dunno. It went for a while, didn't it? 1989 to 1993 or so?

[JBC]

I really love Todd's Adventures in Slime World and have been playing all 3 versions through emulation lately. The Lynx is my favorite so far but the Mega Drive & PCE CD ports aren't without thier merits.

[Estebang]

Don't put my name in front of PC Engine Fan X's posts, guys!

[Austin]

The Lynx is a nice little handheld. Admittedly I have little urge to play it these days (a reason why I stopped seeking out games to add to my collection), but it's certainly a good system. My favorites on it are S.T.U.N. Runner, both Ninja Gaidens, and Shadow of the Beast. Tack Rygar on the list, I guess, but that one does get repetitive.

Shadow of the Beast is, IMO, one of the most polished games on the system. It features lots of background scrolling, lots of scaling, excellent animation and a great soundtrack. It shows off what the Lynx can do in almost every way possible, but it doesn't overdo anything either.

[Drum]

Rygar is repetitive but Beast isn't, that's a new one!
Gates of Zendocon is not shit, it is THE shit.

[louisg]

Rygar is repetitive but Beast isn't, that's a new one!
Gates of Zendocon is not shit, it is THE shit.

Wait, so what's Gates of Zendocon all about? There's gotta be some gameplay twist I didn't catch onto...

[stryc9]

So Gates of Zendocon. Exactly what is good about it after you take into account the stupid level design, gluggy controls and ridiculous enemy graphics? I won't mention the poor music cos just about every Lynx game sucked when it came to tunes. It was a poor man's shmup even back then, I mean fuck, Gradius and R-Type already existed. The only thing it had going for it was that it was a shooter for your Atari Lynx. Let's face it; they were in short supply...

Seriously Drum try playing it again today. I play heaps of shooters from that era and they still hold up, but this, this just sucks.
Funny how no ones tried defending Zarlor Mercenary yet. It had a few things right (like good graphics) and it was tough as leather, but MAN your shots are slow. What is it with Euroshmups and slow shots? Even Soldner X2 has slow shots. I don't get it.


I cut this out of the Shmup stinkers thread for you to use in conjunction with a youtube video of this abomination to convince you not to touch GOZ

It's for your own good.

[Drum]

Gates of Zendocon is awesome and you are fat.

[louisg]

Gates of Zendocon is awesome and you are fat.

OK, I know better than to feed trolls, but I was genuinely curious what makes GoZ good. It does seem pretty slow and dull, but I was intrigued by some of the ideas in it: I like that each level is an extremely short snippet of enemy patterns, and you can choose not to exit the level early, which branches the game out into different (harder) levels. Each level is strictly surreal, which is a plus in my book (though I know that it's because the game is all programmer-art ). Levels like the one with the growing plants show some promise, so it's possible that it gets interesting if I stick with it. I thought that section was worthy of a game like Gradius or R-Type, and was a pretty advanced segment for 1989. Where the game seems to fall down are the hordes of uninspired enemies following siner patterns.

It has a similar charm to early computer games somehow, too-- definitely a bedroom programmer kind of game for better or worse. The super-chunky graphics and zoomed in perspective give the game some personality. Reading the manual, I see that you can capture enemies, which might make it a lot more interesting than I initially gave it credit for. It *does* seem to be a shooter that's mostly ignoring any advances in gameplay made after 1983 though. I think in general that computer action game developers have almost always been behind the curve when they attempt arcade styles, IMO a trend that continues to a lesser degree today. Epyx of course was at their best when they were executing original concepts like Impossible Mission, Roguelikes, or the Games series.

So, yeah, I'm not writing it off even though it seems pretty rough (like, "holy shit, can you make a shooter really quick that's ready at launch?"). I could actually see myself wanting to spend time with this one, just to see all the different levels if nothing else.

[stryc9]

Gates of Zendocon is awesome and you are fat.

Lovely.

@louisg
Look at the end of the day, I am and always have been an arcade player, and so back in 1989 the games that were closer to the arcade experience were always preferable to the ones that tried something else.

So the Lynx being pretty advanced for what it was ports like Rygar and Double Dragon were appreciated, and games like GOZ got left by the wayside (despite some admittedly nifty scaling effects with those crystals that grew towards you and so on). I just ended up hating the gluggy controls.

Hey man, I'm glad you can enjoy the game, Hell I think I was probably a fan of it myself for about two hours on a rainy sunday afternoon back in '89, but my willingness to spend any more of my time in it's gaudy world has long since evaporated

[headcaseGames]

positive or negative, it's pretty invigorating to see some honest-to-goodness discussion on gates of freakin' zendocon in here, probably more than i have ever seen it talked about anywhere - ever, really..

those picking it apart should keep in mind that handheld gaming was absolutely in it's infacy when zendocon arrived. Sure, seriously heady advances had been made for some time in the general shmup scene by the time this game arrived (Gradius, R-Type were not exactly *new* anymore) but other than what had shown up on those wretched Tiger LCD games, and even then honestly, hand-held shmupping was just not even a thing yet.
I do know that Nemesis ("Gradius" essentially) arrived on GameBoy shortly after launch, and between these two games I couldn't really tell you which was 1st to market (it was undoubtedly close!) Not hard to guess which was the better game, but that is sort of beside the point. That being, Zendocon was particularly enjoyable because of it's bone-simple pick-up-and-play simplicity. Lynx batteries guaranteed that you weren't going to be gaming on this thing for long sessions, so it was just neat to have something "pretty and blasty" that you could take with you. That was actually something they nailed quite well with nearly all of the original lynx games - they were pretty, gimmicky, and definitely shallow, but that was fine for what handheld gaming was back then.

[Drum]

Gates of Zendocon is awesome and you are fat.

OK, I know better than to feed trolls, but I was genuinely curious what makes GoZ good. It does seem pretty slow and dull, but I was intrigued by some of the ideas in it: I like that each level is an extremely short snippet of enemy patterns, and you can choose not to exit the level early, which branches the game out into different (harder) levels. Each level is strictly surreal, which is a plus in my book (though I know that it's because the game is all programmer-art ). Levels like the one with the growing plants show some promise, so it's possible that it gets interesting if I stick with it. I thought that section was worthy of a game like Gradius or R-Type, and was a pretty advanced segment for 1989. Where the game seems to fall down are the hordes of uninspired enemies following siner patterns.

It has a similar charm to early computer games somehow, too-- definitely a bedroom programmer kind of game for better or worse. The super-chunky graphics and zoomed in perspective give the game some personality. Reading the manual, I see that you can capture enemies, which might make it a lot more interesting than I initially gave it credit for. It *does* seem to be a shooter that's mostly ignoring any advances in gameplay made after 1983 though. I think in general that computer action game developers have almost always been behind the curve when they attempt arcade styles, IMO a trend that continues to a lesser degree today. Epyx of course was at their best when they were executing original concepts like Impossible Mission, Roguelikes, or the Games series.

So, yeah, I'm not writing it off even though it seems pretty rough (like, "holy shit, can you make a shooter really quick that's ready at launch?"). I could actually see myself wanting to spend time with this one, just to see all the different levels if nothing else.

It's definitely rough, definitely flawed. I think you mostly covered what I like (and don't like) about it, I'll only add that the laser is satisfying to use, the power-down system is pretty cool, and I quite like the landing minigame. The screen is too zoomed-in, and the game is terribly easy even if you pick the hard routes. That's pretty much all I have to say about Gates of Zendocon.

I was just kidding about the fat thing, stryc9. I have no idea how much you weigh.

[stryc9]

Now, onto Zarlor Mercenary!

Once again it's a flawed soft, but I distinctly remember being impressed by certain aspects of this one back on release. The audio was cool for one thing and I liked the presentation and visuals on the various levels. Wasn't it 4-player link up or something?

I played it about a year ago on Handy, it seemed to have aged OK.

Not sure what other verts are available for Lynx, I know there is Raiden (from Telegames)? but I haven't played this port.

What are your thoughts on ZM?

[louisg]

Now, onto Zarlor Mercenary!

Once again it's a flawed soft, but I distinctly remember being impressed by certain aspects of this one back on release. The audio was cool for one thing and I liked the presentation and visuals on the various levels. Wasn't it 4-player link up or something?

I played it about a year ago on Handy, it seemed to have aged OK.

Not sure what other verts are available for Lynx, I know there is Raiden (from Telegames)? but I haven't played this port.

What are your thoughts on ZM?

Oof. I dunno about that one. It seems very similar in gameplay actually to something like Xenon 2 (including the shop screen). I do like the powerups and ships, but the reliance on the hitbar is inexcusable, and the player shots are painfully slow. The graphics of course are great, and I like the art. Unlike GoZ, there's nothing very unique about it. I think I'm done with GoZ now too haha.

Some food for thought though: Other genres (FPSses, etc) rely on the same kinds of hit absorption gameplay, cruddy firing rates, and are generally not very fine tuned. Like ZM, a lot of times, more thought is given to the "feel" (atmosphere), environments, and artwork than to the nuts and bolts of the gameplay.

So what is it about a shmup that makes it so much less acceptable? Is it the potential that the genre has for accuracy, or is it just that all the "mainstream" games we're playing are pretty much the equivalent of Zarlor Mercernary and we don't realize it? After all, there was a time when Xenon 2 was hailed as an amazing game, and there's a reason so many Western shmups derive their gameplay from Amiga shooters and not Japanese arcade/console releases...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I did, at one time, have the Telegames release of Lynx Raiden but have long since sold it. It's a tate shmup title indeed. It plays like a typical Raiden game with both red & blue colored power-ups circling around the screen. I'd say the framerate is around 30fps at best. If you launch a bomb, it takes a couple of seconds to detonate. There's an option to flip the screen 180 degrees if so desired.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[greg]

Here's my list of Lynx games. The ones with the + are ones I have played the most. The ones with a * are ones I've only recently obtained from a chain of used bookstores called Bookmans in the Phoenix/Mesa area.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Block Out *
Chip's Challenge
Electrocop *
Gates of Zendocon
Gauntlet: The Third Encounter *
Ishido: The Way of the Stones (I actually beat this a couple of times) +
Joust *
Klax +
Qix +
Rampart +
Road Blasters +
Rygar *
Shanghai +
S.T.U.N. Runner +
Xenophobe *
Xybots +
Zarlor Mercenary

I was very happy to find a nice collection of Lynx games at the local used media store for rather cheap. I really wanted to get Missile Command/Asteroids, but could never find it.

This thread is very cool because I never knew that Ninja Gaiden was ever released on the Lynx, nor Double Dragon. Looking at Wikipedia's list of Lynx games, I was also surprised to see Eye of the Beholder and Desert Strike were released for the system. Wow.

[louisg]

Hey greg, does RoadBlasters on Lynx run way faster than the arcade/genesis ones? I've been playing it on the Mednafen and Handy emulators and it's running super quick; almost unplayably so, especially on Mednafen. I'd order a copy but I sorta want to make sure it's not going to be some berzerk ultra-fast version.

Yeah, Shanghai is great! I used to play an Amiga version a lot.

BTW how's Rampart? Are the Lynx controls accurate and responsive enough during the castle rebuilding part?

.. just ordered Slime World, S.T.U.N. Runner and Toki.

Oh, Re: Eye of the Beholder, I think that was going to be released but got canned. You can order a copy of it (and Raiden's CES version) from some online shops that deal with homebrews and reproductions like good deal games.

[Drum]

Off-topic but it's a handheld game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rxJ6S4Gl-Q

Anybody played this? Just saw it real cheap. Looks rad as hell. Look at those sprites and bgs, don't see too much stuff like that nowadays.

[moonblood]

Thor DS is lots of fun, best brawler on the system if you ask me. Buy it

[greg]

Hey greg, does RoadBlasters on Lynx run way faster than the arcade/genesis ones? I've been playing it on the Mednafen and Handy emulators and it's running super quick; almost unplayably so, especially on Mednafen. I'd order a copy but I sorta want to make sure it's not going to be some berzerk ultra-fast version.

Yeah, Shanghai is great! I used to play an Amiga version a lot.

BTW how's Rampart? Are the Lynx controls accurate and responsive enough during the castle rebuilding part?

.. just ordered Slime World, S.T.U.N. Runner and Toki.

The Roadblasters game isn't slow at all. It may be close to the arcade. However, S.T.U.N. Runner on the Lynx is not as fast as the arcade. In the arcade, you can easily swing up to the top of the tube, but on the Lynx, you have to really build up speed to do that. Still, it is an otherwise faithful port, and after practicing on the Lynx, I can really kick ass on S.T.U.N. Runner in the arcade.

Rampart on the Lynx is fantastic. It's the only version of the game I've ever played, so I have nothing really to compare it to.