Atari Lynx
The Atari Lynx was Atari's only handheld games console, and the first such machine with a color display. It was released in 1989, the same year as Nintendo's (black and white) Game Boy.
The Atari Lynx had several innovative features including it being the first color handheld, with a backlit display, a switchable right-handed/left-handed (upside down) config, and the ability to attach it to the Atari Jaguar (though this feature was never implemented). The latter idea was used by Nintendo in the Game Boy Advance, which may be attached to the Nintendo GameCube. The Lynx was also the first gaming console with hardware support for zooming and rotating of sprites, allowing fast pseudo-3D games with unrivaled quality at the time.
The machine was developed by Epyx as the "Handy" and completed in 1987, at which point Atari bought the rights to it. Atari changed the internal speaker and removed the thumb-stick on the control pad before releasing it as the Lynx two years later, initially retailing in the US at US$189.95. Two creators of the system, Dave Needle and R.J. Mical, were also members of the Amiga design team and much to the frustration of Atari, the Amiga was used as the software development platform.
In 1991, Atari relaunched the Lynx with new packaging, new game card designs, and a new sleek black look. The new system (referred within Atari as the "Lynx II") featured rubber hand grips and a clearer backlit color screen with a power save option.
Though technologically superior to the Game Boy, Nintendo's marketing and game releases (particularly Tetris) meant the Lynx was pushed to the side. By the mid 1990s, the Atari Lynx was no longer widely available.
As with a lot of older consoles, there's a small group of devoted fans still creating and selling games for the system.
The Atari Lynx's most famous game has to be Chip's Challenge, which has since been converted onto the PC.
Technical specifications
- Two CPU chips:
- "Mikey" - 16 bit CMOS chip @ 16 MHz, 65C02 @ up to 4 MHz
- "Suzy" - 16 bit CMOS chip @ 16 MHz
- Graphics: 4096 color palette, 16 simultaneous, 160x102 standard resolution, 480x102 artificial resolution.
- Unlimited number of sprites with collision detection and support for scaling, tilting and flipping (both horizontally and vertically)
- Hardware-supported scrolling
- Math Co-processor for multiplication and division
- Audio Processor: 4 channel, 8-bit DAC, handled by "Mikey"
- RAM: 64Kbyte
- Storage: Cartridge - 128, 256 and 512Kbyte exist, up to 2Mbyte is possible.
- Ports:
- Headphone port (mini-DIN 3.5mm stereo; wired for mono on the original Lynx)
- ComLynx (multiple unit communications, serial)
- Screen: 3.5" diagonal
- Battery holder (six AA) ~4-5 hours
Screenshots
See Also
