Atari Lynx

For emulators, see Atari Lynx emulators and Emulators on Atari Lynx, and for system information, see Atari Lynx.

"The most fun you can hold in your hands."

The Lynx is a handheld designed by Epyx and produced by Atari. More precisely, its development was led by Amiga veterans Dave Needle and R.J. Mical, who later also designed the 3DO.

This system was extremely advanced for the time, with innovative features such as a backlit color LCD, a large color palette, sprite scaling capabilities, and the ability to flip the machine to play left-handed or right-handed (and a few games even ran vertically). However, it cost twice as much as Nintendo's Game Boy (launched a month before), was far more battery-hungry, and had a rather small game library. So it sold poorly, ultimately a distant third place well behind the Game Boy and the Game Gear. Still, it had several quality games that are still worth checking out.

If you want to get an actual Lynx, the second model is recommended for its smaller shell and enhanced battery life (five hours out of six AAs, as opposed to four hours on the original). There are mods for screen replacement and adding a rechargeable battery, as well as a flash drive.

The list

Cover	Title	Genre	Description	Screenshot
	Battle Wheels	Racing/Combat	Game's setting is in a post-apocalypse world. Your goal is to toast others racers on a small (or not so small) arena while racing your car. Or going on foot. In first-person. This game really shows what hardware of Atari Lynx was capable of, while being really awesome.
	Blue Lightning	Shoot'Em'Up	Launch title for Lynx. This game shows the raw power of handheld videochip. Think After Burner but with missions.
	Bubble Trouble	Action	Similar to Sega's Pengo but with Lynx graphics and stuff.
	Crystal Mines II	Puzzle	Sequel to an unlicensed NES game. 181 total levels of puzzle fun where you have to navigate through mines and collect power ups and such while using your brain to decide the best way to get through certain terrain.
	Cyberball	Sports	Fixed up all the bugs and stuff from the original. Hella fun football game.
	Eye of the Beholder	RPG	A highly acclaimed PC game, ported rather well to your Atari Lynx. Go through dungeons and fight monsters, in a similar way to Shining in the Darkness! This game was actually cancelled at the time, but a prototype was dumped, and there are replicas based on it now.
	Ms. Pac-Man	Pac-Man	A great port of Ms. Pac-Man enhanced from the original.
	Ninja Gaiden	Beat em' up	A well done arcade port. It's totally different from the NES game, because that was totally different from the arcade, but by all means don't let that deter you!
	Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom	Platformer	Same game as on the NES, but like all Ninja Gaiden games expect some differences here and there.
	Robotron: 2084	Fixed Shooter	A good port of the arcade classic.
	S.T.U.N. Runner	Racing/Shooter	Chase the time limit and dodge your enemies at high speed. A lot of levels and high difficulty awaits.
	Shadow of the Beast	Platformer	Not too shabby. Has been compared to Castlevania. Pretty nice in the graphics department, especially for a Lynx game. Uses lots of effects to show off the lynx's power. Said to be the easiest version (except for maybe the Japanese Mega Drive version).
	Todd's Adventures in Slime World	Platformer, action-adventure	Hands down the best game on the Lynx, you must explore large slime-filled caverns and collect items. Whenever you kill enemies they will release slime which will stick to your character and slowly hurt him, so you must find water puddles to wash yourself.
	Xybots	Arcade/Shooter	A good arcade port. Run around a maze and destroy evil robots, then upgrade yourself at the end of the level.
	Zaku	Shoot em' Up	A rather fine-looking homebrew shooter, quite similar to Air Zonk for the TG-16, and possibly the best game the Lynx has ever had. Runs super smoothly and fast, animation is magnificent, the bosses are huge, and has a tongue in cheek humor type, like Parodius.

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