I emailed back and forth for a while with Slime World's designer. He told me a few interesting things about what's probably my favorite game of all time. There was no memory left for a pre-composed score, so he wrote an algorithm that generates randomized music according to certain rules. That music changes every time you pass a save point. The MASSIVE maps are actually stored on tiny bitmaps - he literally drew them up, pixel by pixel.This approach needed only a simple rule set to interpret said bitmaps and ultimately saved on memory. There's a near impossible room to get to that's hidden in stage 6 and rife with those snaptrap floor jaw monsters. If you made it there, you were presented with a special address and password to mail in that would get you a free Todd's Adventures T-Shirt. The developers in california at the time loved their jobs and had a blast making those early games, but Atari kind of screwed them all over in the end. I've heard this more than once from Atari programmers. Small consolation? They *did* have a remote controlled car with a camera feed built in! they used it to ferry stuff around the office and stage practical jokes upon one another. You mentioned that as a game it's not much to look at, but I must respectfully disagree. EVERYTHING in the world flowed and oozed so smoothly, from waterfalls to slime walls and ceilings. I hadn't seen this absolute totality of movement in any game before, and I guess to attribute that smooth flow to clever use of the Lynx's wonderful ability to scale and morph sprites as they were, with little to no other frames. And the lead programmer/designer is actually a pretty devout christian, hence the jesus fish you can spot after his name at the opening credits. I think he's making educational software now, and he seems really happy with life in general. I enjoyed hearing that last bit from him - the man put more hours of fun in my life than I can count. FFS, I have the model 1 console and I STILL play that game every now and again.
Wow, that was an AWESOME post. I literally had no idea there was another person on the planet whose favorite game of all time was Slime World. I grew up with the Genesis version, but later on I got the Lynx rom and eventually the TurboGrafx-CD port. I've thoroughly enjoyed them all. I always liked the music on the Lynx version. Each version has its own unique score and I love all 3 of them, but the Lynx version is particularly cool to me. My favorite thing in the Lynx was the 'Easy' mode's stage being that alien blue color, as opposed to the standard green of the other two versions. I always boot up Easy first on Lynx for that reason. And that truly makes my day that he's a devoted Christian. So am I. To think, the designer of my favorite game since childhood would actually turn out to be a brother in Christ. That's so awesome. I'm glad he's happy, and stoked to find another person who loved the game as much as I did.
In 7th grade, I practically forced my best friend to get a lynx so we could play SlimeWorld against each other on comlynx- then he forced his cousins and a friend from school to do the same. We had an EPIC sleepover and played SlimeWorld death match for HOURS! we even soldiered up an extra long comlynx cable so one dude would go into the laundry room and the other guys could strategize against him. So. Much. Fun!! (And wow, we were all Christians, and wondered if the Jesus fish was intentional) what a cool post to stumble on. Made my day.
Great comment! You're right about everything in there. I still have Slime World from when it was new and I still play it routinely. With both the procedural music and the image-based maps, it sounds like work of this sort inspired some elements of Minecraft. The algorithmic music in Slime World has been inspiring to me through the years. The tiny, almost inaudible instrument voices alone have always been interesting to me. When I make my own music, I often use a Pokey IC to make the same little clicks and blips for a percussion track. I've also messed around with procedural generated 'chip' music that certainly pulls some inspiration from the music created for Slime World. You know, I'd loooooove to see a 'Return to Slime World' on the Lynx someday! Even just a hack for custom maps would be outstanding. Maybe someone will pick up that project.
Oh boy! Fellow Slime World fans AND brothers/sisters in Christ. Where do I begin? First, I did notice the fish symbol on the title screen next to Peter Engelbrite's (?) name and made the connection. Second, I put a lot of time into this game. At that time, the maps seemed as big as Open World games are today. I figured that the maps were rendered from tile-based bitmaps. Next, the final ending in Episode 6. On the Atari Lynx version, I discovered you could transpose the third and fifth character from the passwords generated early in Episode 1, and take you to the end of Episode 6. I think the code is 118BEB or 11EB8B to go straight to the final exit to get the bonus message. I should have written in for that t-shirt! In the Sega Genesis version, you can skip most of Episode 4. You might notice right when you enter that there are "wings" at the top of the shaft. Work your way to the point just east of the starting point and shoot the wall. Then long-jump across the slippery slime (it looks like you won't make it across, but you'll slide up the slope on the far side) and shoot the wall there. Suddenly, you're at the exit! Finally, I have 8 copies of this game for the Atari Lynx and 4 working units to play multiplayer with. One friend and I used to play a LOT of 2-player Lynx games, and we kept coming back to Slime World. Time to go back to Episode 3 and shoot some Cyclops now.
Thanks for making this. You introduced me to 3 game I would have never tried otherwise (Chip's Challenge, Slime World, and Xybots). Great video, excellent narration, and very nice production quality!
This is an excellent video. It has really good production values, and does a superb job of explaining why the Lynx was a truly great, underrated system.
Thank you for making this video. The Atari Lynx was my first console and is still my favorite. I still play it to this day and I LOVE listening to other people talk about it!
Top video sir. I've just started collecting this system and the games and I'm glad to have this perfectly distilled list to start with, where every genre is covered!
Man - thanks for the memories! It's so hard to decide where to begin here. Thanks for starting with that old California Games commercial. I remember seeing that exactly once on TV, and boy did it whet my appetite! After hearing you describe Slime World, I realized you probably have played many of the multiplayer games in multiplayer. I was going to ask about that. Thank you for making no mention of Gordo 106, Viking Child, or Dirty Harry. Those games were truly forgettable. Too bad I didn't see any mention of Electrocop or Gates of Zendocon. They were right up there with Blue Lightning. Apparently you didn't know in Rygar that you can shoot and jump on the fireballs just like any other enemy. I remember beating Ninja Gaiden only because I happened to get a sword just before fighting the Stage 4 boss. The arcade had 6 stages, but I can chalk it up to limited ROM space. I loved the Lynx arcade conversions of Roadblasters and Klax in particular. Too bad there is no longer time for Klax since it's not the Nineties anymore. Want to know a secret? Hold the Option 1 and Option 2 buttons in the endgame to see a different message. Hydra is another great arcade conversion. Maybe people disliked it because it seemed like a dead ringer for Roadblasters, the same way that Power Drift was no Outrun. But by itself on the Lynx, it's another fantastic action game with a 3D perspective. The women in swimsuits are easy on the eyes too, even on the low-res display - especially the one who shows up in the endgame. Xenophobe took a lot of practice to master, but it was by far my favorite port. It also left me with some unanswered questions. I'm still convinced all those useless items can't all be red herrings. Why did you use the same verbiage in describing Steel Talons and Desert Strike? I remember finishing Steel Talons with only one OK rating. Desert Strike was just plain fun, even if I never did finish the first mission. I ought to give it another try. Rampage is fun, both in single player and multiplayer. I think you're referring to the woman in the red dress. If you're playing as George, you can hold onto her and watch your points rack up (and you can look down into her heaving bosom) until she slaps you to get free. Then you can eat her for health. The megavitamin with no label is the one that makes George invincible for the remainder of the stage. I forget which "hold" person and megavitamin mapped to the other characters. It seemed dumb that you spend 60 days working your way to New York City, just to suddenly be back in Sunnyvale, but who else paid attention to that detail? Xybots was an endurance test that took me months to beat. I hated how you moved so slow unless you spent a lot of coins keeping your speed up. Then a friend and I played for months again until we beat it in 2-player mode. I can't bring myself to play it again. Slime World is just plain fun! I don't know how many hundreds of hours I put into it. Want to see an expanded endgame message in Episode 6? Try taking some passwords from the beginning of Episode 1 and transposing the third and fifth characters. Once you find the right one, try working your way backwards to see how crazy hard the last three rooms are! BTW, don't use the invincibility cheat code or you'll just get the standard message. Chip's Challenge was fun for the whole family! It was also where I learned about Mandelbrot. I have audio rips of all the music to this day. I also applied mods to the Steam version to hear the Lynx music. I'm so glad the sequel was finally released. BTW, I thought Melinda the Mental Marvel was ugly as sin. It looked like Chip was getting it on with his Math teacher. Thanks for hearing me out. You just got yourself a new subscriber.
Ah brings back memories when I first got my lynx 😁 Been building a massive collection of lynx games (commercial and home brew) and nearly done. This video has made me pull it out and play!
this has brought back my childhood... we used to hookup lynxs and play Todd's Slimeworld with 16 player multiplayer and this at the mall in front of Babbages (a long lost gamestop like store) because all the kids would bring their lynx consoles and 3 way multiplayer cable. I was just a tadpole but the lynx was awesome for it's time.
My parents did not allow my brother and me to buy a console for the tv, so my pre teen years were spent with Lynx, Game gear, and Game boy. I had a blast with all of them, so this year I decided to reacquire all these handhelds. Today I picked up a Lynx 1 in pristine condition, with 15 games (most of them on your list), for 100 euros..great deal! Back in the day I loved playing California games, Klax and Ninja gaiden the most.
You keep saying "Mode 7 style scaling" but the Lynx actually supports full hardware scaling and rotation. Mode 7 only worked for a background layer on the SNES/Super Famicom. Some crafty devs found a way to use transparencies to make it seem like characters or objects were scaling/rotating, but the Lynx could actually do so with anything.
LS650 many systems could achieve scaling and rotation effects, but when you've only got a few seconds to portray an idea of a visual, you have to use the most commonly recognizable name for the feature - i.e. SNES mode 7.
Juganawt it's not a few seconds, the video is nearly 25 minutes. And seeing that you mentioned mode 7 style at least 12 times, you could have explained yourself and the feature more accurately than you did.
Actually the Lynx can do hardware scaling plus horizontal sheering and tapering, real-time sprite RLE decompression and display an unlimited mount of sprites of almost unlimited size (512 pixel horizontal limit). All graphics you see on the Lynx display are sprites. It cannot do any rotation though, not even 90 degrees. It also has raster interrupts, which allows it to change palette colors per scanline. It can do hardware line drawing and polygons, which work by scaling, sheering and tapering sprites. It can play four channels of 8-bit digital audio, with full stereo panning on the Lynx 2.
Excellent Top 25 video. Sad to not see Crystal Mines 2(now available on AppStore) as a few commenters have already said and an all time fave of mine Viking Child. The Lynx was my first experience with video games as a kid when I used raid my brothers room to find and play his Lynx while he was out. I own 3 of them now 25yrs later.
Me and dad were addicted to bill and teds excellent adventure back in 93 94 and till this day i have not seen him play any other game for aslong as he played that one.
Great video and the nostalgia is unreal but I’m shocked Bill & Teds excellent adventure didn’t even get a mention let alone be in the top 25. Would have been in my top 4 that’s for sure 😊 1.Chips Challenge, 2. Todd’s adventure in slime world, 3. Xenophobe, 4. Bill & Ted
Great video, and great quality. I had a Lynx when it was first released. Sold that first one to my friend so I could buy the 2nd version which had the smaller build & stereo sound. I must say, however, there is no Gates of Zendocon. That game, although one of their first, was one of the best. It was a great original shooter the likes of R-Type. Electrocop was pretty good, especially original for its time as well. A couple of other notable omissions: - Qix. Awesome version, and one of the few games from a 3rd party developer (Telegames). - Super Skweek. Great puzzle game on Lynx, only one of a few - Joust. Almost pixel perfect translation from the Arcade. All sounds were from the original. - Cyberball. Loved this version so much more than the Genesis. It actually had voices from the original and played great! Honorable mentions, you had some duds there (NFL Football, I did not care for).
Y'know, when I started drafting my top list in my head, based purely on how good I remembered games being, Gates of Zendocon was drafted in the top 10.... Until I played it again. Hoo boy, has that game not aged well. After playing for 15-20 mins. I found it extremely sluggish, derivative, and uninteresting, and wondered why I originally held it in such high regard. As for Electrocop, it was technically impressive, but it never really grabbed me. Some of the other games you mentioned are fun, but when you've only got 25 spaces, you can't fit every decent game in.
Juganawt I haven't played it in forever, I just have the nostalgia that it was a great side scroller akin to the best. A lot of people used to compare it to Gradius. So it might be me making it out to be better than it was.
Thanks very much for your support! My next video is for the Game Boy Advance. All the footage is recorded - I've just gotta edit it together and do the Voiceovers, source the box art, and upload it! It *should* be ready by the end of the month!
@@Juganawt You do great work man. However the lynx is just about whatever sega did wrong lol magnified. You could call it 25 games for the lynx and be done with it. Still you can admire it what they tried to do.
Love that you duped the voice over for Steel Talons with Desert Strike. Good list, love me some Lynx I do. Though we see Robotron through very different eyes.
Thank you for dupe appreciation. The Lynx be a wonderful if relatively unloved beast...but how could anyone not enjoy Robotron? Is it the placing on the list you disagree with? The control being buttery smooth? Or do you just not like Robotron in general? If not, can I ask why, as I think that Robotron is practically the perfect handheld game.
+Juganawt hah. Different strokes and all that I guess. I had it on the Lynx back in the day and just thought it was really basic. I never played the arcade so had no connection. I just completed my lynx collection recently and it still doesn't grab me. I enjoyed the list though. Love hearing what others think of the games. Not sure what my personal favourite is. So many good ones.
Exactly this. Every time, across loads of videos, anything scales or rotates - even when it's WAY beyond what the SNES was capable of, or before the SNES existed - it's automatically described as 'Mode 7'. I really wish that people wouldn't re-write history in the image of Nintendo. There was a lot more going on prior to the Playstation, than Nintendo and Atari.
I didn't know if anyone else mentioned this, but pretty sure that's the multiplayer cable not a power cable, on the full length version of the ad, I'm sure he was playing 4 player across the cubicles
It's a shame the lynx didn't sell well. The games looked leaps and bounds better than Sega and Nintendo's handhelds. The fact that it was 16 bit was awesome too 😊
Crystal Mines II is in my top ten of best games ever. The first and till this day only game that I played straight through the night. I was a mess the next day, but I didn’t care, the game was just to much fun. :-)
A good video showcasing a number of fun games. Back in the day I kept an eye on the Lynx having been an Atari gamer previously, VCS-Atari400-AtariST. However, although it had some solid titles, nothing sparked my imagination to really consider purchasing one ... not in the same way that the Game Gear did ... hence I went with Sega's handheld, of which I'm still a fan to this day Looking forward to watching some more of your videos :-)
Thanks very much! I had a Game Boy as a kid, but a few years into my secondary school age, I was given a second hand Game Gear... What a system that was, and it NEVER gets the love it deserves.
Oddly enough, I enjoyed Awesome Golf. The only Golf video game you ever need. None of that Tiger Wood's Pro Golf or Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge. :)
I know it's a joke, but in the clip of the commercial at the beginning, that's not the PSU cable plugged in, but the comlynx networking cable. I remember seeing this commercial when it originally aired and the general premise was that some boys were skipping class playing networked lynx games in the toilet stalls. I'll have to search for the full length version to see if it's how I remember it.
Great video and I like your style. What you say is thought out and clearly heartfelt. I subbed after watching this one and will be getting myself a Lynx soon. Totally agree that Battle Zone is a must. It's gotta be my fav arcade game from my youth and with that hidden version in there too I'm sold on it.
Thanks for the sub and the support. I don't think things out. I can't make a script sound honest and heartfelt, and, to be honest, even if I could, I don't have the time to write any... I'm more of a "wing it" kinda guy. When I record the voice over commentary, I play the footage in the background and just let my feelings come forth. For me, it feels more sincere.
Recht_voor_zijn_raap Gates of Zendocon was my favorite Lynx game as a kid. So many levels, different enemies, cool special weapons, good soundtrack, scary final boss.
I have one of those gameboy clones that works through emulation, one of the emulators was this lynx, never heard about it so I had to check that out sometime. Well I loved the style of this, and it fits perfectly on a tiny GB screen. Thanks a lot
I have battle zone 2000 & you mentioned that you would have a code to get the modern version that you showcased in your game reviews. Can you let me know what to do to get the modern version please?
Nice! I would have to agree with Todd's adventure in slime world " to be in top 5. But I guess my personal favorite in my collection for Lynx is Ms Pacman. ..Checkered Flag is nice too. Worst is Pit(iful) Fighter...lol.
By the way ...yes commentary is very nice during video. It's very interesting to know people's personal favorites on these old classic consoles and portables.
+Dad72hthorn Thanks very much. It seems like commentary polarises a lot of people - some love hearing the reason why I placed the games where I did, whereas others just want to be lost in the moment and relive their memories of the classic games of yesteryear!
found it: Press Option 1(2) at the tank customization screen with the red flashing bars, then hold Option 1 and press Pause. A 3D version of the game with 2000 levels may now be played.
I’m surprised that one of my favourite Lynx space shooter games didn’t even make the honourable mentions and that game is The Gates Of Zendocon but my favourite puzzle game made it on the list however that was Klax I LOVE Klax and I think the two best versions of Klax (besides the arcade version) are the Lynx version and the version that was on a game for the original Xbox, PS2, and GameCube called Midway Arcade Treasures I have both those versions as well as a version for the Gameboy Advance which is still a pretty decent version but still not as good as the Lynx and Midway Arcade treasures versions but I too have a serious case of the Klax
My list would've included Double Dragon, Switchblade II, Ms. Pac-Man and Super Asteroids & Missile Command. But each to his own. :) (Although I'm going to tip my hat to you for having Rampart so high in this list) Anyways, I would like to see a Top 50 C64 games or Top 50 PS2 games. :)
+Highretrogamelord I'd love to do a top 50 C64, but I have no idea how I'd shrink my list down to just 50 games! I think it'd have to be a Top 100, and that'd be the same for PS2 as well due to the decent multiformat games available for it.
Highretrogamelord I have a few ideas up my sleeve. Next on the cards are Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games, and then I hope to get an Amiga and Dreamcast list done, but I am awaiting for higher quality cables for recording before I can start capturing footage for those!
I only had two friends who the Lynx but they didnt have the more interesting games you've show.Good thing I have them emulated on my XBOX.I'll check them out.
+Alianger of tough one. I'm not a huge fan of Atari Lynx's sound, but I remember Shadow of the Beast, Zarlor Mercenary and Electrocop all used the sound chips well.
+DoggoneNexus Shanghai is good but it's kinda ruined a bit by being difficult to see the pieces clearly due to the resolution of the Lynx. In daylight it's virtually impossible to play
My brother had a Lynx my Favourites where California games and Scrapyard Dog, though they where the only games we had he might have had a robot american football game but cant remember.
+Gecko Jenkins That sounds like Cyberball to me. Kinda fun, but it's shortlived enjoyment. I wasn't big on Scrapyard Dog - it just didn't gel with me. California Games rocks though!
Yeah, it's a 16 bit handheld. It's only flaws were its low resolution and battery life. Aside from that, technically it was leagues ahead of the competition.
The atari lynx is an 8 bitter like the C64. The resolution is a bit lower, but the audio and video hardware a lot better. I think they also clocked the 6502 on 16 MHz instead of 1.
Not sure why Shadow of the Beast only gets an honourable mention, it was a great port of the Amiga original and hands down one of the best looking games on the system. Two other games which didn't appear in your video at all, not even as honourable mentions, are Electrocop and Gates of Zendocon, both games developed exclusively for the system and were fantastic. Lastly, you mentioned Ninja Gaiden but didn't mention Ninja Gaiden III, and I'm not sure why because the Lynx port was amazing. An incredibly faithful port of the NES game (just at a lower resolution) that even included CUTSCENES which was basically unheard of on the Lynx.
Mr.Logic23 that would be very hard and expensive to do. That'd involve me buying a second lynx and modifying it for VGA out so that I can capture footage, then buying a link cable and another copy of every 2 player game. I'd then have to record the footage and do some editing to show both systems at once, and I would need to rope a second person in to actually move player 2 about (I have no help with these videos... I do everything myself). Unfortunately it'd be too expensive and too difficult to demonstrate. Sorry.
It's visual scaling, basically. Most people recognise this as "Mode 7" style graphics nowadays. Regardless of whether the SNES was available at the time or not, "Mode 7" is the most commonly known, recognisable buzzword for this particular style of features. If you say to someone "Mode 7" they exactly know what subset of visual effects you're talking about, rather than saying Hardware Scaling and Rotation. Sometimes, to portray an idea across to a wider audience, you have to simplify it a little.
John Wills I live on an island. My arcade game options have always been rather limited. We had many of the classics available but the more obscure, niche games never got a look in. I’m just glad that many of the games I wanted to play got home or handheld conversions.
Juganawt I didn't know anyone else with a lynx growing up so I lived on a proverbial island. I just remember xenophobe was 3 players on 1 screen divided horizontally
+tina lima No. There was a version of Mortal Kombat II being made for the Lynx in 1992, but it got cancelled in 1993 when it was 60% complete. It was such a shame, because Atari were going to release a bundle with a special edition Atari Lynx and the MK2 game. I'd have loved to have seen it! More information (and pictures) can be found here: www.ataritimes.com/index.php?ArticleIDX=314
Cos when I record the footage I get a frame per second reading. According to my recorder, Road Blaster sticks at a constant 60fps, and is the only game to do so on the Lynx
Juganawt Recording footage is not the game's FPS. You'll get 60fps shown in FRAPS or whichever you're using regardless. You are capturing at 60fps which is seperate from what the game is running. The actual FPS on the Lynx itself is not the same as emulation less you have a cycle accurate emulator
I don't use FRAPS for that very reason (I feel it's extremely over-rated and resource heavy too). It only captures the refresh rate of the screen/window you're using, not the actual frame updates themselves. When I had my Geforce card (When I made this video and all videos up to 2016 - RIP) I used a recording software that was compatible with FCAT, but now that I reluctantly have a cheap AMD Radeon stop-gap card until I update my PC at the end of the year, I just use Bandicam and accept it's not going to be 100% perfect. As for cycle accuracy, yeah, I try to use cycle accurate emulators whenever recording of real hardware isn't feasible, much like I did with my Game Gear and Game Boy lists.
+sci3ntologist I think there's approximately 75 Lynx games officially released to retail during the time that the system was on sale in retail outlets. There's about 100 games available for it now though of you factor in reproduction cartridges of prototypes. Add in some home brew and you're looking at 125-150 games for the system in total - A modest sized library, but a stellar one !
Finally someone else who actually liked Gauntlet: TTE, and Dracula: The Undead on Lynx. I would've also added Dirty Larry: Renegade Cop. Nothing special about that game, but it was really fun.
No Electro Cop or Gates of Zendocon???? I miss my 1st gen Lynx. while all my friends got a Nintendo gameboy, I got a Lynx. they were jealous of my color screen. Awesome handheld.
I'm sorry, but Zarlor Mercenary is a must buy for this handheld. Warbirds is also good, but also a bit limited unfortunately. Scrapyard Dog is also great fun !
Very unpopular opinion but my favorite game for the Lynx was Viking Child. Yeah I know now that it was nothing more than a lackluster port of an already mediocre game that plagiarised stuff. Yet being the first platformer that I owned, poured countless hours in and finally completed, the nostalgia is real for me. Funny how these things work, eh?
I wanted to originally include Gates on the list...until I recorded footage for it and realised that it hasn't aged well. Like, at all. As for the other games, yeah they have their appeal and I'm sure you enjoy them, but they don't get any love from me.
I emailed back and forth for a while with Slime World's designer. He told me a few interesting things about what's probably my favorite game of all time.
There was no memory left for a pre-composed score, so he wrote an algorithm that generates randomized music according to certain rules. That music changes every time you pass a save point.
The MASSIVE maps are actually stored on tiny bitmaps - he literally drew them up, pixel by pixel.This approach needed only a simple rule set to interpret said bitmaps and ultimately saved on memory.
There's a near impossible room to get to that's hidden in stage 6 and rife with those snaptrap floor jaw monsters. If you made it there, you were presented with a special address and password to mail in that would get you a free Todd's Adventures T-Shirt.
The developers in california at the time loved their jobs and had a blast making those early games, but Atari kind of screwed them all over in the end. I've heard this more than once from Atari programmers. Small consolation? They *did* have a remote controlled car with a camera feed built in! they used it to ferry stuff around the office and stage practical jokes upon one another.
You mentioned that as a game it's not much to look at, but I must respectfully disagree. EVERYTHING in the world flowed and oozed so smoothly, from waterfalls to slime walls and ceilings. I hadn't seen this absolute totality of movement in any game before, and I guess to attribute that smooth flow to clever use of the Lynx's wonderful ability to scale and morph sprites as they were, with little to no other frames.
And the lead programmer/designer is actually a pretty devout christian, hence the jesus fish you can spot after his name at the opening credits. I think he's making educational software now, and he seems really happy with life in general. I enjoyed hearing that last bit from him - the man put more hours of fun in my life than I can count. FFS, I have the model 1 console and I STILL play that game every now and again.
What friggin game r u talking about.
Wow, that was an AWESOME post. I literally had no idea there was another person on the planet whose favorite game of all time was Slime World. I grew up with the Genesis version, but later on I got the Lynx rom and eventually the TurboGrafx-CD port. I've thoroughly enjoyed them all. I always liked the music on the Lynx version. Each version has its own unique score and I love all 3 of them, but the Lynx version is particularly cool to me. My favorite thing in the Lynx was the 'Easy' mode's stage being that alien blue color, as opposed to the standard green of the other two versions. I always boot up Easy first on Lynx for that reason.
And that truly makes my day that he's a devoted Christian. So am I. To think, the designer of my favorite game since childhood would actually turn out to be a brother in Christ. That's so awesome. I'm glad he's happy, and stoked to find another person who loved the game as much as I did.
In 7th grade, I practically forced my best friend to get a lynx so we could play SlimeWorld against each other on comlynx- then he forced his cousins and a friend from school to do the same. We had an EPIC sleepover and played SlimeWorld death match for HOURS! we even soldiered up an extra long comlynx cable so one dude would go into the laundry room and the other guys could strategize against him. So. Much. Fun!! (And wow, we were all Christians, and wondered if the Jesus fish was intentional) what a cool post to stumble on. Made my day.
Great comment! You're right about everything in there. I still have Slime World from when it was new and I still play it routinely. With both the procedural music and the image-based maps, it sounds like work of this sort inspired some elements of Minecraft. The algorithmic music in Slime World has been inspiring to me through the years. The tiny, almost inaudible instrument voices alone have always been interesting to me. When I make my own music, I often use a Pokey IC to make the same little clicks and blips for a percussion track. I've also messed around with procedural generated 'chip' music that certainly pulls some inspiration from the music created for Slime World.
You know, I'd loooooove to see a 'Return to Slime World' on the Lynx someday! Even just a hack for custom maps would be outstanding. Maybe someone will pick up that project.
Oh boy! Fellow Slime World fans AND brothers/sisters in Christ. Where do I begin?
First, I did notice the fish symbol on the title screen next to Peter Engelbrite's (?) name and made the connection.
Second, I put a lot of time into this game. At that time, the maps seemed as big as Open World games are today. I figured that the maps were rendered from tile-based bitmaps.
Next, the final ending in Episode 6. On the Atari Lynx version, I discovered you could transpose the third and fifth character from the passwords generated early in Episode 1, and take you to the end of Episode 6. I think the code is 118BEB or 11EB8B to go straight to the final exit to get the bonus message. I should have written in for that t-shirt!
In the Sega Genesis version, you can skip most of Episode 4. You might notice right when you enter that there are "wings" at the top of the shaft. Work your way to the point just east of the starting point and shoot the wall. Then long-jump across the slippery slime (it looks like you won't make it across, but you'll slide up the slope on the far side) and shoot the wall there. Suddenly, you're at the exit!
Finally, I have 8 copies of this game for the Atari Lynx and 4 working units to play multiplayer with. One friend and I used to play a LOT of 2-player Lynx games, and we kept coming back to Slime World.
Time to go back to Episode 3 and shoot some Cyclops now.
Electro cop was a beast of a game, so hard, but great when you finally finish it. Scrap yard dog was also, surprisingly good.
Thanks for making this. You introduced me to 3 game I would have never tried otherwise (Chip's Challenge, Slime World, and Xybots). Great video, excellent narration, and very nice production quality!
This is an excellent video. It has really good production values, and does a superb job of explaining why the Lynx was a truly great, underrated system.
Thank you for making this video. The Atari Lynx was my first console and is still my favorite. I still play it to this day and I LOVE listening to other people talk about it!
Loved the verbatim repetition of the Steel Talons talons for Desert Strike. Very funny!
Top video sir. I've just started collecting this system and the games and I'm glad to have this perfectly distilled list to start with, where every genre is covered!
Loved Every minute of this. I played all of these games!!
This was a fantastic nostalgia trip for me! All your Top # videos are amazing!
Man - thanks for the memories! It's so hard to decide where to begin here.
Thanks for starting with that old California Games commercial. I remember seeing that exactly once on TV, and boy did it whet my appetite!
After hearing you describe Slime World, I realized you probably have played many of the multiplayer games in multiplayer. I was going to ask about that.
Thank you for making no mention of Gordo 106, Viking Child, or Dirty Harry. Those games were truly forgettable. Too bad I didn't see any mention of Electrocop or Gates of Zendocon. They were right up there with Blue Lightning.
Apparently you didn't know in Rygar that you can shoot and jump on the fireballs just like any other enemy.
I remember beating Ninja Gaiden only because I happened to get a sword just before fighting the Stage 4 boss. The arcade had 6 stages, but I can chalk it up to limited ROM space.
I loved the Lynx arcade conversions of Roadblasters and Klax in particular. Too bad there is no longer time for Klax since it's not the Nineties anymore. Want to know a secret? Hold the Option 1 and Option 2 buttons in the endgame to see a different message.
Hydra is another great arcade conversion. Maybe people disliked it because it seemed like a dead ringer for Roadblasters, the same way that Power Drift was no Outrun. But by itself on the Lynx, it's another fantastic action game with a 3D perspective. The women in swimsuits are easy on the eyes too, even on the low-res display - especially the one who shows up in the endgame.
Xenophobe took a lot of practice to master, but it was by far my favorite port. It also left me with some unanswered questions. I'm still convinced all those useless items can't all be red herrings.
Why did you use the same verbiage in describing Steel Talons and Desert Strike? I remember finishing Steel Talons with only one OK rating. Desert Strike was just plain fun, even if I never did finish the first mission. I ought to give it another try.
Rampage is fun, both in single player and multiplayer. I think you're referring to the woman in the red dress. If you're playing as George, you can hold onto her and watch your points rack up (and you can look down into her heaving bosom) until she slaps you to get free. Then you can eat her for health. The megavitamin with no label is the one that makes George invincible for the remainder of the stage. I forget which "hold" person and megavitamin mapped to the other characters. It seemed dumb that you spend 60 days working your way to New York City, just to suddenly be back in Sunnyvale, but who else paid attention to that detail?
Xybots was an endurance test that took me months to beat. I hated how you moved so slow unless you spent a lot of coins keeping your speed up. Then a friend and I played for months again until we beat it in 2-player mode. I can't bring myself to play it again.
Slime World is just plain fun! I don't know how many hundreds of hours I put into it. Want to see an expanded endgame message in Episode 6? Try taking some passwords from the beginning of Episode 1 and transposing the third and fifth characters. Once you find the right one, try working your way backwards to see how crazy hard the last three rooms are! BTW, don't use the invincibility cheat code or you'll just get the standard message.
Chip's Challenge was fun for the whole family! It was also where I learned about Mandelbrot. I have audio rips of all the music to this day. I also applied mods to the Steam version to hear the Lynx music. I'm so glad the sequel was finally released. BTW, I thought Melinda the Mental Marvel was ugly as sin. It looked like Chip was getting it on with his Math teacher.
Thanks for hearing me out. You just got yourself a new subscriber.
really surprised you don't have more viewers and subscribers! Very high quality material. Loving your channel so far! :)
+Lee Hyatt Thank you very much. Please feel free to spread the word!
Ah brings back memories when I first got my lynx 😁 Been building a massive collection of lynx games (commercial and home brew) and nearly done. This video has made me pull it out and play!
"Team Hydra" is basically like "Road Blasters" but on the water and with pit-stops. Nice video, by the way!
Great video and fantastic comments of the games! My favourite game of atari Lynx, is "Checkered flag" :)
this has brought back my childhood... we used to hookup lynxs and play Todd's Slimeworld with 16 player multiplayer and this at the mall in front of Babbages (a long lost gamestop like store) because all the kids would bring their lynx consoles and 3 way multiplayer cable. I was just a tadpole but the lynx was awesome for it's time.
My parents did not allow my brother and me to buy a console for the tv, so my pre teen years were spent with Lynx, Game gear, and Game boy. I had a blast with all of them, so this year I decided to reacquire all these handhelds. Today I picked up a Lynx 1 in pristine condition, with 15 games (most of them on your list), for 100 euros..great deal! Back in the day I loved playing California games, Klax and Ninja gaiden the most.
You keep saying "Mode 7 style scaling" but the Lynx actually supports full hardware scaling and rotation. Mode 7 only worked for a background layer on the SNES/Super Famicom. Some crafty devs found a way to use transparencies to make it seem like characters or objects were scaling/rotating, but the Lynx could actually do so with anything.
Also, didn't the SNES come out after the Lynx? So would it really be the SNES using "Lynx mode" graphics..?
LS650 many systems could achieve scaling and rotation effects, but when you've only got a few seconds to portray an idea of a visual, you have to use the most commonly recognizable name for the feature - i.e. SNES mode 7.
Juganawt it's not a few seconds, the video is nearly 25 minutes. And seeing that you mentioned mode 7 style at least 12 times, you could have explained yourself and the feature more accurately than you did.
Actually the Lynx can do hardware scaling plus horizontal sheering and tapering, real-time sprite RLE decompression and display an unlimited mount of sprites of almost unlimited size (512 pixel horizontal limit). All graphics you see on the Lynx display are sprites. It cannot do any rotation though, not even 90 degrees. It also has raster interrupts, which allows it to change palette colors per scanline. It can do hardware line drawing and polygons, which work by scaling, sheering and tapering sprites. It can play four channels of 8-bit digital audio, with full stereo panning on the Lynx 2.
Mode 8 scaling was common at the time
Hydra was awesome! In my TOP5 games for LYNX.
Thank you so so much for this video!!! ❤️
Excellent Top 25 video. Sad to not see Crystal Mines 2(now available on AppStore) as a few commenters have already said and an all time fave of mine Viking Child. The Lynx was my first experience with video games as a kid when I used raid my brothers room to find and play his Lynx while he was out. I own 3 of them now 25yrs later.
Me and dad were addicted to bill and teds excellent adventure back in 93 94 and till this day i have not seen him play any other game for aslong as he played that one.
Love it 😎 still own mine
Great video and the nostalgia is unreal but I’m shocked Bill & Teds excellent adventure didn’t even get a mention let alone be in the top 25. Would have been in my top 4 that’s for sure 😊 1.Chips Challenge, 2. Todd’s adventure in slime world, 3. Xenophobe, 4. Bill & Ted
Great video, and great quality. I had a Lynx when it was first released. Sold that first one to my friend so I could buy the 2nd version which had the smaller build & stereo sound. I must say, however, there is no Gates of Zendocon. That game, although one of their first, was one of the best. It was a great original shooter the likes of R-Type.
Electrocop was pretty good, especially original for its time as well.
A couple of other notable omissions:
- Qix. Awesome version, and one of the few games from a 3rd party developer (Telegames).
- Super Skweek. Great puzzle game on Lynx, only one of a few
- Joust. Almost pixel perfect translation from the Arcade. All sounds were from the original.
- Cyberball. Loved this version so much more than the Genesis. It actually had voices from the original and played great!
Honorable mentions, you had some duds there (NFL Football, I did not care for).
Y'know, when I started drafting my top list in my head, based purely on how good I remembered games being, Gates of Zendocon was drafted in the top 10.... Until I played it again. Hoo boy, has that game not aged well. After playing for 15-20 mins. I found it extremely sluggish, derivative, and uninteresting, and wondered why I originally held it in such high regard.
As for Electrocop, it was technically impressive, but it never really grabbed me.
Some of the other games you mentioned are fun, but when you've only got 25 spaces, you can't fit every decent game in.
Juganawt I haven't played it in forever, I just have the nostalgia that it was a great side scroller akin to the best. A lot of people used to compare it to Gradius. So it might be me making it out to be better than it was.
Cough cough cough. Gates of Zendecon is no where near like as good as R-type. Stop this fake news now!
Great video bro I just brought a Atari Lynx thank u keep up the great work 👍🏿🤙🏿❤️😎
Amazing! I can hardly believe there are actually as many as 25 games on the Lynx!
This was one of the best vids ive seen in a looong time! Great job mate, look forward to see what you make next. Perfect
:)
Thanks very much for your support!
My next video is for the Game Boy Advance. All the footage is recorded - I've just gotta edit it together and do the Voiceovers, source the box art, and upload it! It *should* be ready by the end of the month!
@@Juganawt You do great work man.
However the lynx is just about whatever sega did wrong lol magnified.
You could call it 25 games for the lynx and be done with it.
Still you can admire it what they tried to do.
Excellent intro the the Lynx. Thank you so much for making this!!
Love that you duped the voice over for Steel Talons with Desert Strike. Good list, love me some Lynx I do. Though we see Robotron through very different eyes.
Thank you for dupe appreciation. The Lynx be a wonderful if relatively unloved beast...but how could anyone not enjoy Robotron? Is it the placing on the list you disagree with? The control being buttery smooth? Or do you just not like Robotron in general? If not, can I ask why, as I think that Robotron is practically the perfect handheld game.
+Juganawt hah. Different strokes and all that I guess. I had it on the Lynx back in the day and just thought it was really basic. I never played the arcade so had no connection. I just completed my lynx collection recently and it still doesn't grab me. I enjoyed the list though. Love hearing what others think of the games. Not sure what my personal favourite is. So many good ones.
18:08 where is the cheat code?
Crystal Mines 2?
damn this little handheld could do things that only the Neo Geo could do at the time. Amazing!
I realy like your reviews! I missed crystal mines in This review! It,s my Numbers one lynx game! Keep it up thanx! 👌🏻🙌🏻
I do wish people would stop referring to rotation and scaling as 'Mode 7'.
Intelligent people should call it support for affine transformations ;)
Sadly that's how genericization works. Where a product or feature gets mentioned so commonly it becomes the catch all term.
Exactly this. Every time, across loads of videos, anything scales or rotates - even when it's WAY beyond what the SNES was capable of, or before the SNES existed - it's automatically described as 'Mode 7'.
I really wish that people wouldn't re-write history in the image of Nintendo. There was a lot more going on prior to the Playstation, than Nintendo and Atari.
I had called it "scaling & rotation" before the SNES came along and it came to be known as "Mode 7." I agree that calling it Mode 7 today is silly.
It is the "cel-shaded" of the early 90s. It's shorthand vernacular at this point.
I didn't know if anyone else mentioned this, but pretty sure that's the multiplayer cable not a power cable, on the full length version of the ad, I'm sure he was playing 4 player across the cubicles
Great work, brother.
It's a shame the lynx didn't sell well. The games looked leaps and bounds better than Sega and Nintendo's handhelds. The fact that it was 16 bit was awesome too 😊
I agree with the statement on the game boy but I prefer the game gear to this
Game Gear was a master system with enhanced colours. Lynx was a powerhouse with lots of RAM
Though it had the lowest resolution of all the handhelds.
I still have mine :) what a great system. Thanks for the memories
Todd's was my go to, hands down on this system. Loved the hours I've played this game!
someone hasnt played crystal mines 2
spawnfree BEST Lynx Game!!
spawnfree I was looking for this comment somewhere haha
Crystal Mines II is in my top ten of best games ever. The first and till this day only game that I played straight through the night. I was a mess the next day, but I didn’t care, the game was just to much fun. :-)
A good video showcasing a number of fun games. Back in the day I kept an eye on the Lynx having been an Atari gamer previously, VCS-Atari400-AtariST. However, although it had some solid titles, nothing sparked my imagination to really consider purchasing one ... not in the same way that the Game Gear did ... hence I went with Sega's handheld, of which I'm still a fan to this day Looking forward to watching some more of your videos :-)
Thanks very much! I had a Game Boy as a kid, but a few years into my secondary school age, I was given a second hand Game Gear... What a system that was, and it NEVER gets the love it deserves.
Well done, thanks for the awesome effort!
+Ed Rogers (Logan, UT) Thanks for watching!
I love that the kid in the advert has an absolutely enormous pocket, custom-added to fit the Lynx model 1.
Raider was not a commercial release, its not on the 72 official releases.
Very good job man , just amazing, thank you.
Oddly enough, I enjoyed Awesome Golf. The only Golf video game you ever need. None of that Tiger Wood's Pro Golf or Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge. :)
Thank you for making this.
I had lots of fun making it. Any excuse to play retro games is fine with me!
So many memories !
Ramparts ramparts, blue lightning were great. Chips challenge was awesome.
But how did you not mention Slime world ?
I know it's a joke, but in the clip of the commercial at the beginning, that's not the PSU cable plugged in, but the comlynx networking cable. I remember seeing this commercial when it originally aired and the general premise was that some boys were skipping class playing networked lynx games in the toilet stalls. I'll have to search for the full length version to see if it's how I remember it.
i have a atari lynx 2 in the year 1992 with road blaster and blue lightning. :) thanks for your good video and greetings from germany :)
Güten tag mein Freund! Danke!
Great video and I like your style. What you say is thought out and clearly heartfelt. I subbed after watching this one and will be getting myself a Lynx soon. Totally agree that Battle Zone is a must. It's gotta be my fav arcade game from my youth and with that hidden version in there too I'm sold on it.
Thanks for the sub and the support.
I don't think things out. I can't make a script sound honest and heartfelt, and, to be honest, even if I could, I don't have the time to write any... I'm more of a "wing it" kinda guy. When I record the voice over commentary, I play the footage in the background and just let my feelings come forth. For me, it feels more sincere.
+Juganawt Yeah I sensed that and didn't imagine you scripted your voiceovers. Just that it comes clearer compared to some others I watch.
+lordsofkoble Also on the subject of hidden tank games. Do you know Death tank on the Saturn?
Great list m8 ... But I miss 2 games : Gates of Zendocon. . And Electrocop. .. Did you never play those games ? My childhood right there 😊
Recht_voor_zijn_raap omg..those. were the best 2. games
What about Shanghai? Great game!
Recht_voor_zijn_raap Gates of Zendocon was my favorite Lynx game as a kid. So many levels, different enemies, cool special weapons, good soundtrack, scary final boss.
I have one of those gameboy clones that works through emulation, one of the emulators was this lynx, never heard about it so I had to check that out sometime. Well I loved the style of this, and it fits perfectly on a tiny GB screen. Thanks a lot
So that's where Dead Space got the health bar idea from XD
I love how the review dialogue from Steel and Talons is just copy and pasted onto the review for Desert Strike.
I have battle zone 2000 & you mentioned that you would have a code to get the modern version that you showcased in your game reviews. Can you let me know what to do to get the modern version please?
Cracking video, thank you.
great console, no wonder batteries didnt last long with a 3Watt audio amp was really loud! my personal fav games are roadblasters and awesome golf
+dan w I never owned one as a kid - I grew up with the Game Gear and Game Boy....but I rectified it as an adult and snapped one up on eBay!
deja vu there on desert strike!
Q: Deja Vu?
A: No, that's just the way I walk ;)
lol u did just repeat yourself so baltantly, just watching again, but i love this video.
Wow I've never seen that Dracula game before. I would've LOVED that back in the day.
Nice! I would have to agree with Todd's adventure in slime world " to be in top 5. But I guess my personal favorite in my collection for Lynx is Ms Pacman. ..Checkered Flag is nice too. Worst is Pit(iful) Fighter...lol.
By the way ...yes commentary is very nice during video. It's very interesting to know people's personal favorites on these old classic consoles and portables.
+Dad72hthorn Thanks very much. It seems like commentary polarises a lot of people - some love hearing the reason why I placed the games where I did, whereas others just want to be lost in the moment and relive their memories of the classic games of yesteryear!
+Juganawt Well...anyway we look at it I enjoy your videos AND I subscribed. I really like collecting for Lynx and Jaguar at the moment.
+Dad72hthorn Thanks again! More videos coming soon. Not as soon as I originally planned before I lost 1tb of video footage, but fairly soon....
The very first game for the Lynx I ever had was "Super Skweek". Still love it. :-)
where's the battlezone cheat?! that is awesome! i've had that since day one and never knew i played that game until it was no longer fun on the lynx.
found it:
Press Option 1(2) at the tank customization screen with the red flashing
bars, then hold Option 1 and press Pause. A 3D version of the game with
2000 levels may now be played.
Is there a lynx emulator for smartphones * where the heck do you locate roms?
I’m surprised that one of my favourite Lynx space shooter games didn’t even make the honourable mentions and that game is The Gates Of Zendocon but my favourite puzzle game made it on the list however that was Klax I LOVE Klax and I think the two best versions of Klax (besides the arcade version) are the Lynx version and the version that was on a game for the original Xbox, PS2, and GameCube called Midway Arcade Treasures I have both those versions as well as a version for the Gameboy Advance which is still a pretty decent version but still not as good as the Lynx and Midway Arcade treasures versions but I too have a serious case of the Klax
Maximum RD sent me .... Subbed and enjoyed
great video
My list would've included Double Dragon, Switchblade II, Ms. Pac-Man and Super Asteroids & Missile Command. But each to his own. :) (Although I'm going to tip my hat to you for having Rampart so high in this list)
Anyways, I would like to see a Top 50 C64 games or Top 50 PS2 games. :)
+Highretrogamelord I'd love to do a top 50 C64, but I have no idea how I'd shrink my list down to just 50 games! I think it'd have to be a Top 100, and that'd be the same for PS2 as well due to the decent multiformat games available for it.
+Juganawt Hhhhhmmmmm...what could be a Top 50 (or 25) list then? Maybe Top 25 / 50 3DO games ? Or Atari Jaguar...
Highretrogamelord I have a few ideas up my sleeve. Next on the cards are Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games, and then I hope to get an Amiga and Dreamcast list done, but I am awaiting for higher quality cables for recording before I can start capturing footage for those!
Juganawt Dreamcast...awesome! One of my favourite consoles. :)
Wow, great vid
I only had two friends who the Lynx but they didnt have the more interesting games you've show.Good thing I have them emulated on my XBOX.I'll check them out.
Richard Bustamante
Emulation is for noobs
Which games do you think had the best music?
+Alianger of tough one. I'm not a huge fan of Atari Lynx's sound, but I remember Shadow of the Beast, Zarlor Mercenary and Electrocop all used the sound chips well.
Thanks for the video
Atari For Ever
Agree with your list.
I will add Vinking Shield//Scrapyard dog// and Gates of Zendocon.
✌️🙏
Nice list, if I were making my own then one title I'd include would be Shanghai, a fun mahjong game well-suited for the handheld.
+DoggoneNexus Shanghai is good but it's kinda ruined a bit by being difficult to see the pieces clearly due to the resolution of the Lynx. In daylight it's virtually impossible to play
memory lane :D great overview.....
Crystal Mined was one of my favorites on the Lynx.
The Lynx was so advanced, and youtube videos do not do justice to how awesome it looks on hardware
Agreed. This is about the best quality I could muster
Sure good attempt. Although I think recording the hardware screen is the best way, but it's not easy I know!
My brother had a Lynx my Favourites where California games and Scrapyard Dog, though they where the only games we had he might have had a robot american football game but cant remember.
+Gecko Jenkins That sounds like Cyberball to me. Kinda fun, but it's shortlived enjoyment. I wasn't big on Scrapyard Dog - it just didn't gel with me. California Games rocks though!
Yep think it was Cyberball i was too young to make head or tail of it, Scrapyard dog probly was crap but they were the only 3 games we had.
Never seen a Lynx in action before, and I gotta say damn, I'm impressed. Is it 16 bit?
Yeah, it's a 16 bit handheld. It's only flaws were its low resolution and battery life. Aside from that, technically it was leagues ahead of the competition.
It was absolutely amazing. So amazing that I had to wait 15 years for TH-cam to be invented so I could relive the glory days.
+Kelly Herbert I had one back in the day (as well as a gameboy). Best way of describing it is that it's like a lower resolution Gameboy Advance.
The atari lynx is an 8 bitter like the C64. The resolution is a bit lower, but the audio and video hardware a lot better.
I think they also clocked the 6502 on 16 MHz instead of 1.
It's basically a portable Amiga, which is not surprising since it was designed by the original Amiga guys, R.J. Mical and Dave Needle.
Not sure why Shadow of the Beast only gets an honourable mention, it was a great port of the Amiga original and hands down one of the best looking games on the system. Two other games which didn't appear in your video at all, not even as honourable mentions, are Electrocop and Gates of Zendocon, both games developed exclusively for the system and were fantastic. Lastly, you mentioned Ninja Gaiden but didn't mention Ninja Gaiden III, and I'm not sure why because the Lynx port was amazing. An incredibly faithful port of the NES game (just at a lower resolution) that even included CUTSCENES which was basically unheard of on the Lynx.
And another new homebrew for the Atari Lynx: th-cam.com/video/p5-_Z0nvBFY/w-d-xo.html
Enjoy ;-) Free ROM available via links in the description.
Can you demonstrate of multi-player version of Atari Lynx games? thanks
Mr.Logic23 that would be very hard and expensive to do. That'd involve me buying a second lynx and modifying it for VGA out so that I can capture footage, then buying a link cable and another copy of every 2 player game. I'd then have to record the footage and do some editing to show both systems at once, and I would need to rope a second person in to actually move player 2 about (I have no help with these videos... I do everything myself).
Unfortunately it'd be too expensive and too difficult to demonstrate. Sorry.
You should have researched what type of scaling the Lynx actually used. Hint: Not mode 7, or mode 7 style. The SNES was not yet available anyways.
It's visual scaling, basically. Most people recognise this as "Mode 7" style graphics nowadays. Regardless of whether the SNES was available at the time or not, "Mode 7" is the most commonly known, recognisable buzzword for this particular style of features. If you say to someone "Mode 7" they exactly know what subset of visual effects you're talking about, rather than saying Hardware Scaling and Rotation. Sometimes, to portray an idea across to a wider audience, you have to simplify it a little.
did you try scrapyard dog, gates of zendocon or electrocop?
Damian Scrapyard Dog was awesome. Loved all the hidden items, warpzones, the vehicle sections, the bosses. Underrated platformer!
lol Steel Talons and Desert Strike has exactly the same commentary :D
You truly missed out on xenophobe in the arcade. I was just thinking about how unique its cabinet was just the other day.
John Wills I live on an island. My arcade game options have always been rather limited. We had many of the classics available but the more obscure, niche games never got a look in. I’m just glad that many of the games I wanted to play got home or handheld conversions.
Juganawt I didn't know anyone else with a lynx growing up so I lived on a proverbial island. I just remember xenophobe was 3 players on 1 screen divided horizontally
great vid I come back to this, I have started a few lynx playthroughs on my chan too :) cheers,
is there a atari lynx version of mortal kombat
+tina lima No. There was a version of Mortal Kombat II being made for the Lynx in 1992, but it got cancelled in 1993 when it was 60% complete.
It was such a shame, because Atari were going to release a bundle with a special edition Atari Lynx and the MK2 game. I'd have loved to have seen it!
More information (and pictures) can be found here: www.ataritimes.com/index.php?ArticleIDX=314
@@Juganawt That was an April Fools day joke lol There was never any MK being produced for the Lynx
Very nice. But no Joust? It’s my fave on the Lynx.
Blake Patterson I’m not a fan of joust. I appreciate its merits but I always found the game more annoying than fun.
Nice mate
How do you know that Road Blaster runs at a constant 60fps?
Cos when I record the footage I get a frame per second reading. According to my recorder, Road Blaster sticks at a constant 60fps, and is the only game to do so on the Lynx
Juganawt Recording footage is not the game's FPS. You'll get 60fps shown in FRAPS or whichever you're using regardless. You are capturing at 60fps which is seperate from what the game is running.
The actual FPS on the Lynx itself is not the same as emulation less you have a cycle accurate emulator
I don't use FRAPS for that very reason (I feel it's extremely over-rated and resource heavy too). It only captures the refresh rate of the screen/window you're using, not the actual frame updates themselves. When I had my Geforce card (When I made this video and all videos up to 2016 - RIP) I used a recording software that was compatible with FCAT, but now that I reluctantly have a cheap AMD Radeon stop-gap card until I update my PC at the end of the year, I just use Bandicam and accept it's not going to be 100% perfect.
As for cycle accuracy, yeah, I try to use cycle accurate emulators whenever recording of real hardware isn't feasible, much like I did with my Game Gear and Game Boy lists.
Woah. Warbirds only an honorable mention? That game was so fun linked.
Did you intentionally use the same script for both Steel Talons and Desert Strike?
yup
@@Juganawt Why?
Out of all titles, why would you bundle it with California Games XD. Great stuff guy!
It's a bit of a weird choice but hey... Whatever works!
Thanks for the support!
NESSNESMASTER in my area California games was a big deal, it was what made me get a lynx tbh.
NESSNESMASTER Why wouldn't you bundle it with it??
did you never play vikingchild and scrapyard dog?
Wow, great video! I never knew the Lynx had such an awesome library. I wonder many titles total there are?
(not including home-brew etc,)
+sci3ntologist I think there's approximately 75 Lynx games officially released to retail during the time that the system was on sale in retail outlets. There's about 100 games available for it now though of you factor in reproduction cartridges of prototypes. Add in some home brew and you're looking at 125-150 games for the system in total - A modest sized library, but a stellar one !
Finally someone else who actually liked Gauntlet: TTE, and Dracula: The Undead on Lynx. I would've also added Dirty Larry: Renegade Cop. Nothing special about that game, but it was really fun.
Here to make a list for my MiSTer. Wow I had no idea
No Electro Cop or Gates of Zendocon???? I miss my 1st gen Lynx. while all my friends got a Nintendo gameboy, I got a Lynx. they were jealous of my color screen. Awesome handheld.
#1 lol. How did 'Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure" not make it in there?..
I'm sorry, but Zarlor Mercenary is a must buy for this handheld. Warbirds is also good, but also a bit limited unfortunately. Scrapyard Dog is also great fun !
I bought Warbirds as my first cartridge. I was not disappointed, it looked good and was fun.
Very unpopular opinion but my favorite game for the Lynx was Viking Child. Yeah I know now that it was nothing more than a lackluster port of an already mediocre game that plagiarised stuff. Yet being the first platformer that I owned, poured countless hours in and finally completed, the nostalgia is real for me. Funny how these things work, eh?
Nice video, but with so many games including the honorable mentions no love for Gates Of Zendocon, Robo-Squash, Block-Out, Shanghai, Crystal Mines II?
I wanted to originally include Gates on the list...until I recorded footage for it and realised that it hasn't aged well. Like, at all. As for the other games, yeah they have their appeal and I'm sure you enjoy them, but they don't get any love from me.