Showcasing the history And games of Atari's excellent handheld Please visit my Patreon at / pdbowl Follow me on Twitter at / pdqc1971 Follow me on Facebook at Patmanqc-His...
To this day I still throw out the occasional “let’s play Awesome Golf!” to friends and family. My wife possibly questions her life choices but it makes me happy.
I was one of the very few people in my school who had a Lynx (summer job when I was 16 paid for it). Still have it. Toki and Stun Runner are the best. Good memories Patman, thanks.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-DocumentariesWell, I had patience on my side when dealing with the gaining of an Atari Lynx. I found one at a local Charity Shop here in Australia. It was in an official case with two game cartridges in its pockets. And it only cost $5AU! It still works perfectly, and I do use it from time to time. It also helps that I play it using a power supply plug. The Charity Shop I got it from was always good at getting bargains like that. I once found an original Sega Mega Drive there in a similar condition to the Lynx. Came in a carrying case, had two controllers, cost $5AU! And the year after that, I found a Panasonic Laserdisc Player. Sure it might have cost $60AU, but that's still cheaper than getting one from America, especially since it was an NTSC model, with an Australian power supply. It seems I'm always lucky with deals like this!
I couldn’t afford one at the time but they looked awesome. Saw lots in second hand shops years later gathering dust and victims of things just moving on.
I've seen a few roll through my friend's local game shop. Actually, one date I went on, she didn't know about the shop so we went and she ended up buying one for her dad as a birthday present since he had a Lynx back in the day.
My Lynx broke 3 months after I got it for Christmas, and it had been an open box item where someone ripped the serial off and my parents hadn’t noticed, so I couldn’t get it repaired. It really sucked, all my friends had them and I always liked the Lynx. To this day it has my favorite version of California Games. I love the select a game music.
@@jasonlee7816 the unit died completely, it just made weird fizzly sounds when you tried to turn it on and the screen stayed black. I don’t remember much more than that, this was like 30 years ago.
As a little kid, my girlfriend always spelt and called Lynx “Lix”. Anecdotally, she didn’t even grow up playing too many video games-ironically she DID play Chip’s Challenge on PC, and didn’t get her first game system: The NES Top-Loader until High School-after she was introduced to Super Smash Bros. Melee on a classmate’s GameCube in Middle School.
I always remember seeing Ninja Gaiden as a standout game over in the UK but the system was just too expensive at the time and ended up with the GameGear eventually but my Atari itch was scratched with a Jaguar for my sins 😂 Has it really been 8 years since you started PatmanQC? I remember watching when you were around 2000 subs and now you are a staple of RU-vid gaming nostalgia! So pleased for you Pat.🙂Onwards and upwards!
@@jasonlee7816umm.. probably the fact that this was a 16-bit HANDHELD that was released only 5 months after the original Gameboy.. why do you need this explained?
Great stuff patman! I remember being so addicted to my gameboy in 1990, and would play it all night in my nightshift job in the mainframe systems room at a University here in Australia. but when I got a Lynx, it totally blew me away, and the gameboy sat idle (well, apart from tetris, and that's still incredible on a gameboy) Atari was kicking ass back then!
I was so addicted to my Game Boy as well especially Tetris. I played Tetris so much that when I would close my eyes to go to sleep I can still see the pieces falling in my head.
Hey Pat dude man, soon as I get a chance I'm heading over to the galloping ghost arcade to check that place out. If you had not mentioned it in one of your videos, I'd never known that place existed. Rock on brother Pat, ROCK ON!!!🤟
I think we are going to hit it again in a couple of months at least for some footage for this channel. I need to figure out a way to play those old games. Thanks brother, I appreciate that
Oh he totally was a ruthless bastard. Bet you didn't know he almost bought Apple outright for Commodore but tried to hardball Steve Jobs too hard and lost out. What a very different world it would have been! He was infamous for making deals with broke devs that they would be unable to meet so he and Commodore could own them for nothing, and did the same thing at Atari. In fact, he bought Atari for peanuts after Commodore's board threw a coup d'etat and bounced him.
@@2crude2crudeofficialband3to be fair, he was definitely ruthless but he must have had something because the loyalty commodore engineers who dealt with Jack had to him was insane. Nearly every engineer followed Jack to Atari without question. It absolutely gutted commodore and they were furious - but they also expected it. Irving Gould said he wouldn't have been shocked if the entire company had followed Jack to commodore. Henry Ford was an asshole to everyone, he never had that kind of loyalty. But Jack did. So he must have had something.
@@medes5597 true words! Jack was like Ford and Jobs in that way. Some were willing so deal with the Jack Attacks just because they believed in him and his vision. Just like Jobs, not a nice guy by any means but the right guy to make stuff happen. The PC industry wouldn’t be what it is without Jack, and it could be said it wouldn’t have happened without the Jack Attacks either!
When I first saw mention of the Lynx I was in a cinema in the UK. They showed an impressive commercial, but then followed up with the price £179.99 (1990 £179.99 which is probably £500+ today) there was an audible laugh from the auditorium.
Obviously being a huge Batman fan I noticed it right off the bat playing the original Commodore version of the game. Don't know where they got the idea for that to be honest
YES, please, Patman, let's have a follow-up video with more games. I had this thirty years ago with every game (I had friends help hunt them down in the clearance bins) and I Loved it! This brings back some great memories. Thanks for taking the time to make this!
My buddy had a 1 off magazine dedicated to emulation. They gave a breif mention of the consoles history and called the Lynx, and I quote, "another cat that shat on Ataris mat." end quote.
Yes, a second part please! Thanks to this video I remember having played Elvira and the Party Monsters when released 1989. "How about another ball?" 😁 Going to look up the table for pinball simulation now.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Same as for playing our favorite arcade games with MAME and other emulators today. Just mind blowing that this is possible.
I can recall downloading the very first emulator for frogger back in the mid-90s and was just blown away that we can play the actual arcade game on our PC.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Apropos Frogger. Re-watching your documentary from 5 years ago now. Awesome review to an awesome game! Similar here for MAME. Mid/late 1998 I was looking to find games similar to Galaxians and Galaga for the PC. Was asking friends if they knew one. A friend said "Don't you know MAME?". That opened all flood gates.
LOL. I had a similar situation where the emulator I was using was just for frogger and a couple of other games. It definitely wasn't Mame. A friend told me about it thing it could emulate 10 games instead of three LOL
Please do a part two. I LOVED my LYNX!! in particular Roadblasters, California games (BMX, Surfing), and Hard Drivin’ are particularly fond memories. Here’s a little something to kickstart the effort. Just remember It will take several lifetimes before I require an update on little Patman’s taint status!!😂😂
Epyx box art with the neon lines was great back on the Colecovision too. I got Pitstop from them, and a couple others. Great review of the Lynx. I remember some interesting games offered, but never got around to buying the Atari Lynx back then. Glad you enjoyed it back then and now! Thanks Patman!
My wife bought me a new (in the box) original Atari Lynx last week w/5pack in games for my birthday. She ordered the Lynx from an Atari retailer in California. I always wanted the Lynx when it was introduced in 1989. Better than my Gameboy Color, and Game Gear. The zooming, scaling, & rotation are amazing. Moreover, the sound and voice effects were so advanced during its time. Wished Atari focused more on the Lynx, which could have lasted longer, and w/more games.
More than happy to see a part 2, if you make one. Also, thanks for reminding me that APB was an actual thing. It's been completely erased from my memory! I'll head back through the Patman vaults & check out that video, too!
Hello from Cedar Rapids! I remember a friend letting me borrow his for an afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised by the construction and games. Great video as always Pat!
another great video Patman! glad to see you post content. i worry about you my friend when you are not able to upload. thanks for all of the great videos!
I always enjoy watching your videos, sir. Much respect for your passion and enthusiasm on the subject. Love the positive vibes, Patman! Keep doin' what you're doin'!
Thank you for this great video about one of my favorite handhelds. Definitely do a part 2, and talk about Turbo sub and warbirds, two of my favorites! And don't forget about Rampage, the only version of the game that has Larry the lab rat.
Around 1991 I had my original Lynx and the new Lynx II version, and I used to take them to work with me along with a Comlynx cable and two copies of the game Warbirds. My co-worker was a guy I went to high school with and was an out of work cargo plane pilot. We used to dogfight throughout our lunch breaks. It was fantastic fun, those are really great memories. Hearing my bullets fire off and then the impacts would come out of his speakers, then that great sound of his plane falling out of the sky. Bliss. I've got multiple Lynx units and games. I've been meaning to do one of the screen mods to it, but I'm a little too chicken to do it, with my bottom rung soldering skills.
I really would love a complete anthology with all games of the lynx in one video, tbh. That would be epic! Anyway - great video, thank you for making it!
I sold mine last year. Lynx 2 with the McWill LCD upgrade, sans VGA-out intrusion. Lots of carts with boxes and a bunch of OEM Lynx gear. Pretty good $$$, for sure. I hope the buyer enjoys it as much as I did but sometimes it seems that too many gaming choices just dilutes the hobby. I still play Awesome Golf, Gates of Zendocon, & Checkered Flag on the Handy emu now and then. ADHD is a helluva drug. Fantastic piece of history and a great ahead-of-its-time console. Great vid, BTW! Thanks for making this!!
Received Lynx II for bday and loved it, I still have it to this day. It now has a McWill screen & makes all games a new experience. I played Checkered Flag, Xenophobe and other games with a friend using 2 Lynx systems & ComLynx cable. Good times
Can you imagine if they'd kept the name "Handy" for this. Mom: "What do you want for Christmas, Billy?" Billy: "I want a Handy. All my friends are getting Handys so I need one too." Or how about the ad potential? "Anyone who's anyone is getting a Handy this holiday season."
I had two Lynx, the OG, and the smaller version. You mentioned some of these games in previous vids but I also enjoyed Rampage, Rygar (which IMO was better than the NES version), and Paperboy. Also, games that I remember fondly that probably didn't age well, but I remember Chips Challenge and Slime World. Slime World definitely deserves a modern update.
I don't know how many times I've asked my wife for a Handy . It's always a " No " . So my collection suffers . All joking aside . Your videos are always the best !!!!
I had a Lynx and really did like it. I don’t miss not playing any of the games I had but can also say I don’t regret having bought any of the ones I had either. It was just a pretty solid system.
I had to work so hard to get a Lynx as a kid and everyone else had Gameboys. Klax and California games, good times :) Didn't see a 2nd gen one until many years later at a museum.
I used to have one of the old dog bone shaped Lynx. My personal favorite game was Xenophobe, it was a improved port of the arcade including an ending and extra characters.
I've heard that thanks to being designed by former Amiga engineers, the Lynx used Commodore Amigas as game development systems, which bothered Atari to no end.
Great topic!!!! Ah the Lynx. I distinctly remember being in Good Guys(remember that store...it was like a smaller circuit city) and the salesman showing my mom and I the different handheld gaming systems and I don't know for sure but I think he talked us into the Lynx over the Game Gear. I already knew about the Game Boy and the Lynx just seemed so much better(especially since I wasn't the one paying for batteries). In hind sight, the Lynx was a really good handheld for the time with some really great games. I think the Game Gear overall may have had it beat on the amount of great games, but there were a ton of exclusives for the Lynx and it was cool going to day care, bringing the Lynx and no one had heard of it or played the games, so I traded my Lynx for their Game Gear for the day. Good times!
Some of my favorites are California Games, Crystal Mines II, Ninja Gaiden, Chip's Challenge, Tournament Cyberball 2072, Rygar, Desert Strike, Shanghai, Klax, Pinball Jam, and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom.
I graduated HS in 89, started my first job that summer, so I bought the first model and absolutely loved it, but yeah, it came with some compromises. As it was my at home handheld due to its size and poor batter life. I also had the Gameboy and that was my go to riding the bus and having something to play on breaks at work. Even when the Lynx got the smaller refreshed unit, it still stayed home mostly, but without a doubt, the Lynx is one of my favorite systems of all time. Sadly for everything it did right, Nintendo knew that power wasn't the issue, so much as price, long battery and portability. And they kept that philosophy across several more generations and it proved correct each time. Lynx, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, PSP, Vita all met the same fate to varying degrees all because of Nintendo and their handheld lines. As for my favorite games, Chips Challenge was probably my most played, as I loved that game. Paperboy and Xybots two absolutely amazing arcade ports, that I still play regularly. I was never a huge Rampage fan, as it was rather repetitive, but the Lynx version is one of the best home versions ever. Rampart, Toki, Stun Runner, Rygar and Ms. Pac-Man were also some of the greats, and my biggest regret was that Rolling Thunder never got released. Hopefully a homebrew fan can take up the mantle and make it happen someday, as the prototype looks rather solid.
You and I are essentially alike. I purchased the lynx with my first job at Hardee's or Carl Junior's with my first paycheck. Mine was a stay at home console as well whereas the Game Boy went on the road with me. Yes, rolling thundder would have been great
The lynx is incredibly impressive from a hardware standpoint. At the time no hardware outside of the arcade could do sprite scaling,let alone on a handheld.electrocop and blue lightning were mind blowing to my ten year old self.
My favourite game of the Lynx was by far Defenders of Oasis. I was getting into RPGs at the time and was hooked on that game. Great trip down memory lane! Of course I’m high when watching this! I’m glad I am!❤
Patman, would you consider doing a 'Games that were Lost then Found' video series? Would love to know more about Rolling Thunder on the Lynx, and I bet there are loads more games in similar circumstances
I love ❤ Gates of Zendocon! Cool music and the game was easy enough for me to beat. My dad told me a rumor that the model 1 started much smaller, but investors (?) balked at the price for such a small "toy" so they made the shell way bigger, thats why the inside is almost entirely empty! I still have his model 1 and 2 and all his games 😂
I have never had this console in my hands, but I know the game library through emulation (and yes, there are very good games, where we have fun). Thanks for the video, and thanks for mentioning Pinball Dreams on the Amiga.
I loved my Lynx. I bought the system mainly for Rygar but got California Games free with it. As with most retro games, these games are not done justice in RU-vid videos, you really need to see them on the actual system screen to appreciate how good the games can look. BTW Patman, I've always had a thing for Elvira's Double Pack!
I agree, that'ss why I did not maximize the screen size otherwise they just look like a pixilated mess in full screen. I've Always had a thing for those airbags as well
I still have an unmodded Lynx 2, with an almost complete collection of carts. I also have a shrink wrapped copy of Missile Command/Asteroids on display on my bookshelf. I really wanted the original Lynx as a kid, but $200 was out of my range back then. Crystal Mines II is my goto game, along with Awesome Golf. I am really tempted to sell my collection since I fear the caps failing.
