Why Atari Lynx Failed...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- Atari Lynx was designed to compete with the Nintendo Game Boy, which was the dominant handheld gaming console of the time. Despite its advanced hardware capabilities, the Lynx ultimately failed to gain a significant market share and was eventually discontinued. However, it remains a beloved and nostalgic piece of gaming history for many gamers who remember it as a groundbreaking console ahead of its time.
#retrogaming #gaming #atari
It was mainly price, I wanted one when I was a kid but could not afford it and got the Gameboy which I did not want. But a few months later I loved the Gameboy and took it with me everywhere.
No one thought “the Lynx was below the Gameboy”. They just couldn’t afford the Lynx.
In one final desperate attempt at saving Lynx, Atari dropped the price down to $89.95; the same price as Game Boy. Nobody bought it then either, because everyone already had a Game Boy.
Ah. So basically it's the same situation as the 3DO. Not a bad console. Just too expensive. To be fair though, it's not like the competition was outright "bad" to begin with. Handheld gaming was still so young and there was plenty of wiggle room for imperfections. People accepted what they got for the going rate and there wasn't much demand for "something better" for so much money.
Which just goes to show how the videogame landscape was vastly different back then compared to today. Every company back then kept consistently pumping out iconic titles. So there was really no need for consoles like the 3DO or Lynx back then. But nowadays, things are very different. Companies like Microsoft and Sony are so corporate and cheap, I'm more than willing to pay out the ass for a modern day "3DO" or "Atari Lynx". The closest I can get to that is a top end PC and indie games. My price range is $5000. Not because I'm rich, but because I keep saving since all of the other companies keep disappointing me.
I got one back in 94 for $69.99. Far more enjoyment than Gameboy
@@TeeroyHammermill I also had an Atari Lynx V2. Enjoyed it way more than the Gameboy. Felt like having a home console in your hands
The first Velvet Underground album sold 30,000 copies. Vanilla Ice’s one-hit wonder album sold 15 million copies.
There’s no accounting for taste.
The Lynx was actually, technologically, more advanced than the Gameboy. The GB was roughly an 8 bit machine with no backlighting and capable of only displaying gray scale images over a green screen. The GB also used four AA batteries that lasted around eight hours. The Lynx, on the other hand, had a backlit color screen and was 16 bit. It ran on six AA batteries which lasted around five hours.
I just refurbished my original Lynx I got when it first came out to be as good as new with a modern LCD screen. It looks better than when it first came out. I purchased Robotron:2048 and it’s crazy fun. I have a couple dozen other games to keep me occupied. It’s definitely a fun game system.
I remember playing Slime World comlynx with a friend on a two and a half hour train trip. We had so many laughs and so much fun.
On an airplane I lent my Lynx to a bunch of young boys and they just loved it. One commented it was better than a game boy. Wow. On long trips I used the D-cell battery pack.
The Lynx is on my bucket-list to buy. I always wanted one as a kid and didnt know anyone who owned one. The games look great.
ITs a truly bizarre system....One of the most unique in history..back when companys THOUGHT DIFFERENTLY...
I happened to find one by chance. It was at a local Charity Shop, and they had a Lynx Model II in a little case with two games. For $5AU, I could not resist. And given it now costs upwards of $400AU nowadays, I consider myself lucky to get it.
@@craigdavidson5613 I'm trying to get a few more Genesis games that I wanted but never had and then I'll start collecting for the Lynx. I'm trying to do it now before Lynx's become too unaffordable like most retro consoles. It's insane.
Your getting a little confused on the hardware side of things.
The Lynx as standard, displays 16 colours from a palate of 4096,clever coding routines in games like Awesome Golf display 40+ on static screens, other more than 16 in-game.
It's CPU is an 8-bit CPU.
It's in the area of Graphics where it's 16-bit.
Mikey" (WDC 65SC02 8-bit CPU + Sound processor + LCD driver)
Memory
64 KB RAM
Display
Backlit 3.5" color LCD; 160 × 102 standard resolution (16,320 addressable pixels)
Graphics
"Suzy" (16-bit custom CMOS)
U forgot about the 32- Bit sound processor. IT had the best sound of any of the handhelds including TURBO express. I still have my lynx and JUST played it last year...right after I fell off my dinosaur...lol...There seemed to be like 30+ stuck pixels now...but kinda seem to come and go. ITs still in pretty close to perfect shape. My Turbo express also pretty close to perfect shape FAIRED much worse...Just boots to PEA green soup..
Even tho the lynx had the second lowest resolution screen after the gameboy @ the time..U got some nifty graphics because of the way the graphics were used, with HARDWARE scaling..and other FX....when I play it now the graphics are ridicuklous..but U quickly fall back into disbelief like the old days..and within 10 minutes yer enjoying the games again...
Also U missed the part about the 16-bit Blitter processor: So it WAS 16-bit in some way...
in those days as soon as the bits increase in any Memory bandwidth path..or some form of BUS architecture ..they would jsut count hte highest BIT count of that particular part of the system and say its THIS many bits..or that many bits...
Luckily we stopped ! 64-BIT graphics Finally...otherwise we'd be @ 4096 Bit graphics now?
Some more Lynx Stats:
The Atari Lynx handheld console [1, ] has a custom 16-bit blitter for graphics. It also has an 8-bit 65C02 CPU that runs at 4 MHz. The Lynx was considered more advanced than Nintendo's Game Boy, which was released two months earlier, and competed with Sega's Game Gear and NEC's TurboExpress.
As to why it failed?...Well the games were also alot wierder then any of the other systems..so U either LIKED that or U didnt...LYNX 1 was TOO damn big...and it DEF ate BAtteries for Bfast. I had a seperate Lynx carrying case JUST for Extra batteries back then.....
Some great games, but not a big enough library.
Yeah, and when he says 79 games, keep in mind most retail outlets where this was available didn't carry anywhere near that in stock. The only place to get games around me was K-Mart. That was it. So they would only carry 5 or 10 titles. This gave the impression that "there weren't any games for it". That was a big concern in buying into a platform back then.
Never liked the Gameboy... Still have the Lynx, loved it, had better games for me. For Nintendo, only the N64, also, I still have it.
"And since then, we haven't heard from the lynx...." That's not true, there's a while cult following and companies that still produce games for the lynx like Songbird Productions.
I spent hours upon hours playing my Lynx back in the 90’s & bought almost all the games. I do recall a significant reduction of new game releases not long after the Jaguar was announced so guessed it had something to do with Atari redirecting their resources to the Jaguar. I still have all my Lynx games and even had one of my Lynx consoles modded with a McWill screen making playing games almost a completely new experience.
While there were a lot of really good games, and maybe a couple of what could be considered great games, there were never truly any AAA games for the Lynx, despite it being completely capable. If Atari had lived up on their end to allow you to connect the Lynx to the Jag and use in tandem with games, it surely would have helped given it a short revival and interest. End of the day though, the Lynx outsold even the Jaguar.
1. Nintendo was so huge, the Gameboy had a built in customer base at launch. People still equated Atari with Pac man and Space Invaders.
2. Batteries. The Lynx was never truly portable, you'd go broke buying batteries. I used an AC adapter with mine 90% of the time.
3. It cost twice as much as Gameboy.
4. Very limited marketing and no big name titles. Lots of good games, but nothing to attract buyers. Batman Returns was a big deal when it came to the Lynx, unfortunately it wasn't a great game.
Also, Nintendo threatened that they will stop shipping stuff to stores that offered to sell Nintendo's rival products. Stores were scared of Nintendo. So even if you did want a Lynx, it would be hard to find a store that will sell you one.
I got one back in 94 and had loads of fun with it. I can't call it a failure because it was in production for 6 years and had over 150games for it. It was pulled from the market because Atari was exiting the gaming business due to the failure of the Jaguar. The Jaguar failed and took all of Atari with it,,,including the Lynx.
Marketing! Nobody new it existed, except me, who got Sears catalogue straight from the US.
Wow. Tobey Maguire in the Lynx ad! I don't remember that at all.
I'm sure it didn't help that they published ads insulting the Gameboy and therefore the 15 million people who owned one. "Leave your little boy toys at home." But many little boys took it with them during the Pokemon craze.
Sega insulted the NES in their Nintendont commercials and the Genesis was a huge success so I'm not sure
It was brilliant, so many good games. My power cable broke and batteries didn't last long at all
The designers said they made it larger because the focus groups preferred that
I had a lynx and a gameboy. I loved one of the games on the lynx. The lynx died when batteries melted inside of it. Still no idea how that happened.
U played SLIMEWORLD too long,,still one of the most enjoyable..and BIZARRE games ever made...VERY creative...
They should have the Atari Lynx hook up to the TV.
NO U wouldn't want that..the resolutions is like 120x 98 something...
Fail ?! Not really ! Fail for people who compare Lynx against GameBoy or Gamegear ? Perhaps ... but for people who know the situation for Atari in the mid 80's ... near the bankruptcy ... Lynx was like a phoenix for Atari ! The last console they made and sold by million. 6M in the world ... for an entreprise who know many difficulty, it was very great ! Lynx was the console who bring money for Atari to continue to work till the end. Atari made good games on it, good commercial deal with Licence like Dracula or Batman, the Lynx was amazing at his time ! Okay, it's not power saving ... but ... who cares ?! It's was incredible ! Love this console who was NOT a fail. A fail for me is when a console is not know by the public, when there are so few games (like Super grafx ! A real damn fail ! Or GX4000 ! That's a big and real fail !) ...
The single word subtitle is super irritating. I hate subtitles when I know the language. Can’t turn it off!!
I really don't know why creators do that. It serves no purpose and adds nothing to the production value.
@@sorenpx I guess it works well if they feel the viewer might have audio on mute, or for TikTok or Shorts etc. but yeah… personally I find it annoying :)
@@sorenpx Zoomers have the attention span of a goldfish. They need shit like this to keep their interest.
the lynx failed due to its lack of arcade ports
The Lynx was never truly potable, far too big and due to poor battery life, you had to tether it to the A. C adaptor.
A lot of it's titles just weren't suited to handheld play, Dracula, Shadow Of The Beast-once completed ( and SOTB can be completed in under 30 mins once you know what your doing), Lemmings missed the frantic nature by putting the icons on a pause screen.
Things like APB, Ninja Gaiden were cut down from the Arcades as the Tramiel's woukdnt allow use of big cartridges.
I read this comment on my steam deck....
NINJA Gaiden on the LYNX was THE BEST rendition of the game form the arcades..I coudlnt believe how WELL it transferred across
@@varsington Ninja Gaiden was my first Lynx 2 game as a kid, and I was hooked after that on the Lynx.
Had Atari not used a backlight , they could have easily got ten hours battery life from four batteries or better. The technically inferior Gamegear had a TV tuner and segas backing so managed to progress in the market .
The backlight essentially killed it .
The backlight is important though. In retrospect, I think Nintendo should've included a backlight in the Game Boy. The hit to the battery life would've been worth it to be able to play easily in less-than-ideal lighting conditions.
I really liked Atari stuff the lynx was way better than the game gear & the Nintendo , I loved my Atari ST computers they were like a Mac for people who couldn’t afford one & they could load PC discs so good for all those ascii files on that new thing called the internet
Still wondering why the Lynx failed....
I had the Lynx, it could have won, but they didn't have very good games with the nintendo touch like super mario, mario kart, AAA level games, the best games on Lynx are probably Gate of Zendocon, Supercop, shadow of the beast and Slimeworld, chekered flag which are A level games, if all games had been like those with 3 TIMES MORE GAMES, it would have changed!
Also, more if all games were multi player games like todd in slimeworld , it would have changed.
Once I got the Lynx, I couldn't find a reason to go back to the Gameboy
SLIMEWORLD for me is Number one..I cant remember how many Hours and hours and hours I poured into that game....Days went bye...it was crazy....
No third party support.
This is lame. Waste of time to watch.
Seemed AI generated to me
You sound like you know what you are talking about, but you don't. I read more on Wikipedia than what this video with good production value had to say. Also $179.00 of then was more like $500 of today.
The short and simple reasons:
1: It didn't have exposure
2: It kinda sucked.
It was really just something most gamers would see in the gaming magazines, that your mom wouldn't let you buy. You wouldn't know where to start to find one and buy one, and you couldn't justify it since you already had a Gameboy, and maybe you had a Game Gear(weekly allowance made it so you couldn't afford new batteries every week).
Would I have wanted one though? Hell yeah! But only because I was a collector as well as a gamer. But my allowance went towards SNES, NES, and Gameboy games, and rental of those games.
The number 1 reason by far was price, then marketing/brainwashing power was far superior with Nintendo and Sega so yes exposure played its part.
The BS reasons were size and battery life. The launch systems in '89 and I think all of '90 came with power adapter so you didn't have to keep paying for batteries all the time.
Disagree about "It kinda sucked" although its catalogue is small (71 official games) it has a really high good vs bad ratio in games and by a good margin too compared to the other handhelds and consoles of the time.
Plus it's one of very few systems in history to be way ahead of its time.
If an Amiga and PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 had mated then the Lynx would be the offspring imo.
The atari lynx didn't suck, it was ahead of its time with better graphics, control options, and sound than the gameboy. Gameboy was cheaper, had more popular titles, and had a longer battery life. That was the gamechanger.
I had all 3 and the Lynx v2 was my favourite. People who say it sucked never played it.
It absolutely did not suck lol. It was a graphics powerhouse with a fair amount of good to great games, just no triple A titles to lure people in.
Nope. It didn’t suck whatsoever. It was far better than any other handheld at the time and for many years after too.
The same way me and your mom didn't work out , cause of the lynx