61 replies to this topic

[babble]

http://www.theregist...t/54/29106.html

"The latest version of the GameBoy will launch in Japan on February 14, with 300,000 units of the hardware available at launch, retailing at 12,500 yen - approximately £68 - and fully equipped with an oft-requested internal lighting system for the screen, as revealed earlier this month. "

[AtariX]

Back in the day, the Lynx was a WAY more impressive peice of hardware than the GBA is today. Ya, the GBA is better and more powerful than the Lynx, but you have to put each system into perspective. The games on the Lynx were comparable to the 16-bit console and computer games of the day when it was on the market. The GBA on the other hand is just blown away by todays consoles, such as the Xbox, PS2 and GC. You would have to have like a 64 or 128bit GBA for it to be as impressive as the Lynx was. The Lynx was a very high end peice of hardware and if I remember right, it cost like $199 or $249 when it first came out. I was young and just starting out on my own back then and I know I couldn't afford a Lynx till it came down in price to $129. The GBA on the other hand is a very entre level, mass market peice of hardware. The GBA is cool for old school 16-bit 2D gaming, but nothing on the cutting edge. I love both my Lynx and GBA, they both have great games.

[Atariman]

Geez, once I get my Computer Engineering degree (and possibly double majoring in Electrical) I'll just have to design a Lynx that can finally put the whole "who has more balls? Gameboy or Lynx" debate to rest. (of course, it wouldn't be an official Atari product... ... but those are minor details. ) (yeah, I know. it's a far fetched idea.)

[SwedenLynxer]

Sounds good But if If atariman should run into problems, how realistic is it that someone else someday makes a new Lynx? The Lynx hardware won´t last for ever. We have seen JAKKS new Atari 2600 handheld. A new Lynx, any chance it could it be done?

[babble]

I was never really convinced by the GameBoy....

But this is quite different, and altogether more impressive:

http://www.n-gage.com/n-gage/home.html


Atlast, a true Lynx beater.... And only 10yrs after they stopped making it!

[karri]

Thanks for the url.

I have been teasing my friends at Nokia R&D for a long time to squeeze out info but they don't admit anything. Security seems to be in high respect at Nokia.

Porting the Handy to this platform is a must!

Illuminated full color 176x208 pixels!
64MB games card. Currently all Lynx stuff ever made fits into about 20MB - uncompressed.
mp3-level audio player
wireless bluetooth networking for games

It's a dream come true...

I have been waiting for quite a while to see when something like this will pop up. There are some small R&D units doing accelerators for 3d-stuff on mobile phones and to my surprise even the original Lynx designer R.J.Mical has been mentioned more than a few times in discussions I have heard here in Finland.

But I don't know if he has been involved with this Nokia design or not.

Anyway, I will buy one as soon as it is available. (And sign up for a SDK developers kit.)

--
Cheers,

Karri

[SwedenLynxer]

Looks like Nokia has a real winner here. I have to take off my hat for Nokia and Finland once again

Acually R.J Mical worked for Ericsson (Redjade) on their handheld game console before the project was delated

Well I hope Ericsson under Mr Svanberg soon will regain its strength, create a better system and be nr 1 again

[Dracula-X]

Harry_Dodgson said:

THE NGPC and the GBA have similar technology screens...
Except the NGPC programmers knew to use light backgrounds so that
people could actually play the games in the less than optimal lighting
conditions that we live in.  The GBA programmers are of a different
mindset as can be witnessed by "castlevania" which is unplayable under
almost all but direct sunlight.

In the case of the original castlevania (gba) it is interesting to note that there was actually a display disparity between the development kits (the type being used at that time) and the retail units which konami was unaware of until it was already too late and the game was shipped - and that's why castlevania is extraordinarily dark, moreso than most other games.

Regards,

-DX

[ziggystar]

The GBA really is a nice peice of hardware aside from it's no backlight. They could of went Pocket PC and made it reflective and/or backlight if they were that woried about the batteries. I would of paid $99 for the unit with that feature.

The lynx was hands down the best portable game unit until the GBA came along. I think at this point its a tie. The Lynx is bigger but it also has cool factor.

Besides Nintendo makes me mad Re-Releasing the old tired games. They need to move on. I like the fact it plays old school games. I really like Super Mario World. They should oh atleast made the world different In the GBA port.

[Atariman]

Decided to change my major (found out that Computer Engineering deals more with Data transfer, communication, etc. rather than with the hardware aspect.) Found out that Electrical Engineering is more my type, so to speak. So now I'll be at least going in the right direction if I ever DO want to make a Lynx III (rather than a program that happens to trasfer data really fast. lol)(I'm just a Dreeeeaaammeerrr... (Ozzy song))

[cryptik76]

Excuse the long post:

I'm sure my opinion will be unpopular at this point but I think that, aside from the aforementioned lack of backlighting (which is extraordinarily frustrating), the GBA is a better console than the Lynx. The lack of backlighting is definitely a problem with certain games, like one of my favorites (Doom, the reason I bought the GBA in the first place), although there are other games I have for the system (Super Mario World, Zelda, Jazz Jackrabbit, Breath of Fire, Duke Nukem Advance, Ecks vs. Sever, Wolfenstein 3D), which are generally brighter and much easier to see under less-than-optimal lighting conditions. Still, it's not perfect.

And I don't necessarily mind the rehash of certain titles, because I never bought a Super NES so I never got a chance to play a lot of the re-released games before. Sometimes you just want to have a portable version of a game you really love (I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Super Mario 3). Other things I like are that I don't have to buy batteries in bulk all the time just to power the thing. Plus it can fit in my pocket and it feels good in my hands.

That being said, I have a Lynx (which I bought last year on E-bay for $75, and it came with 10 games [including Warbirds, Blue Lightning, Battle Wheels, and Xenophobe], a pouch, and an AC adapter), and I have around 30 games for it so far and am planning to buy more. I really like the Lynx and the GBA will never be able to replace my need to play classics like Roadblasters and Rampage.

I'm glad I have both systems (plus a Sega Game Gear, for Sonic games) because there are certain strengths to each platform, and the Lynx is a pretty darn awesome (and affordable) piece of Atari history, to boot. I never could have afforded one in 1989 (I was in junior high at the time), but I'm glad I have one now and would not trade it for anything, including a front-lit (which is not to be confused with the superior back-lighting of the Lynx) Game Boy Advance SP.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

I sold my gba to get more Lynxes and Lynx games and I´m very happy I did it. The gba dídn´t impress me at all, it is so nintendo-cheap, bad screen, too small (hands cramp). the Lynx has class and in my opinion better games. And nowadays songbird fill the gaps in the Lynx game library, hope they continue for a long time. Maybe someday we´ll even see wolf3d (or clone) on the Lynx.