Any Atari Lynx shooters worth playing?

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:06 am

I just happened to come across an Atari Lynx at a pawn shop, with a game (Zarlor Mercenary!) for $30. So I'm having fun getting my ass kicked in ZM, and was wondering if there's any more good shooters for it. I already know about Gates of Zendocon (gonna place a bid on Ebay for it sometime tonight), and Blue Lightning (though it's a rail shooter, and i'm really looking for scrolling shooters).

So, does anyone know some good Lynx shmups, and if so, could you give me your impressions on them? ^^; Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. ^.^

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:19 am

I've never played them but I think Battlezone was updated for the Lynx. And, I think there was a Raiden port.

BenT · Post by **BenT** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 4:55 am

I was prepared to say, "No, there are no good shooters on the Lynx (and few good games, period.)" But you like Zarlor? Okaaay. ^_^ Well, I have nothing to add then, except that Zendocon is f'ing weird and slow.

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:29 am

BenT wrote:I was prepared to say, "No, there are no good shooters on the Lynx (and few good games, period.)" But you like Zarlor? Okaaay. ^_^ Well, I have nothing to add then, except that Zendocon is f'ing weird and slow.

I've read bad things about Zendocon (a review by some dumb fuck on gamefaqs), but he was mainly bitching about the lack of weapon upgrades. Ikaruga, Shiki, and many others didn't need weapon upgrades, and they still kicked ass. :/ So yeah, gonna get Zendocon on ebay. ^.^

sjewkestheloon · Post by **sjewkestheloon** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:13 am

from what i understand the raiden port is pretty much unavailable, as it was unreleased, or there were only a stupidly small batch, or something along those lines. also i've heard that it's pretty impossible to play due to the small screen and the resulting blur.

however you need klax. everybody needs klax. not a shmuip though

D · Post by D » Fri Sep 23, 2005 10:13 am

sjewkestheloon wrote:from what i understand the raiden port is pretty much unavailable, as it was unreleased, or there were only a stupidly small batch, or something along those lines. also i've heard that it's pretty impossible to play due to the small screen and the resulting blur.
(

I've sen it on ebay, it has no label.
played it on a emu, the collision detection is terrible. If you are within 3 pixels of anything you die, I still kept on playing though. Screen size is no issue, blur dunno, played on a emu so I would't know about blur

Just to have the title screen tated on a lynx is allready something. This will be worth more $'s in the future.

PFG 9000 · Post by **PFG 9000** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:11 pm

I have both Gates of Zendocon and Raiden for the Lynx. I honestly cannot recommend GoZ unless you're completely starved for portable hori shmupping. It's very slow and rather easy. The one cool feature IMO is that your rear thrusters act as a weapon. You can kill stuff behind you by backing into it, provided you do so slowly enough. And whoever said the game lacks powerups didn't play it enough. GoZ's powerup system is like R-Type in that it takes several levels to get fully powered up. The game is fun and the music and effects are pretty good, but as a shooter...it's mediocre at best.

Raiden on the other hand is pretty good. Your hitbox is the outline of your craft, so you do have to be careful not to graze too many bullets. I don't think it's as drastic as D put it, but it's not as forgiving as other shooters. There's no music beyond the title screen, and IMO this brings the game down more than anything else. But it's very playable. I tend to suck at Raiden, but I was able to get to the fourth stage on my first session. Emulation doesn't do the game justice, as it comes off much too choppy on the computer.

I only emulated Zarlor Mercenary and Blue Lightning, so I can't say too much about those. I didn't care too much for either, but Blue Lightning tends to be one of the most popular games on the Lynx.

*edited for spelling*

fraggore · Post by **fraggore** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 2:33 pm

haveing owned a lynx and all the shmups on it i can say only Zarlor Mercenary is any good with raiden being second butts its not very good all the rest suck

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 8:37 pm

thanks for all the help. ^_^ i know Lynx ain't exactly THE portable system for shmupping, but hey, IMHO the Lynx is sexier than the PSP. ...IMHO. Yeah, definitely gonna get Gates of Zendocon. thanks again! ^.^

fraggore · Post by **fraggore** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 10:21 pm

its a bit crap tho

Dice · Post by **Dice** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 10:29 pm

The Lynx blows for shmups. The strength of the system lies in it's arcade ports IMO....oh, and Warbirds.

Zweihander · Post by **Zweihander** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:49 am

Changed subject heading to better suit this thread.... ^^; I don't care if they're not up to Treasure/Cave/Konami/Irem level of greatness. ^^;;;

ccovell · Post by **ccovell** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 11:34 am

Robotron 2084 might not be classified as a true "shmup", but it's one of the best games on the Lynx.

Soldato J · Post by **Soldato J** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:58 pm

So how do you control the shots in Robotron?

Danny · Post by **Danny** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 4:46 pm

...with great difficulty lol.

PFG 9000 · Post by **PFG 9000** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:56 pm

You have your choice of three controls schemes, none of which are ideal. The one I use, Type A, has you moving with the D-pad and shooting with the A button. When you first push the A button, you'll shoot in the direction you're moving/facing. As long as you hold down the button, you'll continue to shoot in that direction while you move around. To shoot in a new direction, you have to let off of the A button, tap the direction you want to shoot if you aren't facing that way already, and then hold down the A button again. IIRC, hitting the B button switches your shooting direction 180 degrees.

It sucks when things start getting rough a few waves in, but it's doable. I think the farthest I've gotten in the game is the 14th wave.

One of the other control schemes has you shooting constantly, moving with the D-pad, and cycling through the eight directions of shots with the A button. I never tried this control scheme much because it seemed too unnatural. I think the other control type just has you shooting in whichever direction you're moving/facing, but I can't quite remember.

Even with the less-than-perfect controls, the game is addictive as hell.

Frogacuda · Post by **Frogacuda** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:13 pm

Brian wrote:I've never played them but I think Battlezone was updated for the Lynx. And, I think there was a Raiden port.

The Battlezone "update" is very worth owning but it's a very strange sort of update. It was originally supposed to be a total overhaul with dozens of levels and updated gameplay and stuff, but the suits said they wanted something more like the original, so they made a slightly updated deathmatching game based on the original, and they hid the "real" game... So you need to enter a code to get to the real meat of Battlezone. It's dumb that they had to do things that way, but it's worth it.

Cybervirus is another great vehicular FPS for Lynx that I'd highly reccomend.

As far as traditional shooters go, Zarlor Mercenary and Raiden are pretty much where it's at.