34 replies to this topic

[baize]

i like the lynx alot better even though the game gear has more titles. there seems to be more quality titles on the lynx. the lynx and turbo express are my favorite handhelds.

[Emehr]

Lynx, hands down. No contest. Game Gear has more games but it's all stuff you can play elsewhere. I'd rather play Streets of Rage on my Genesis. Lynx has more unique titles that didn't appear on other systems. These games were perfectly suited for the Lynx. The NES Xybots prototype is a joke (finally tried the ROM recently, yecch! Yes, I know it was not the finished version but I didn't like where it was going). Xybots on Lynx is near arcade perfect. STUN Runner is MIA on pretty much everything except the Lynx. The Lynx also has the best (IMHO, of course) version of Klax. Toss is a little Road Blasters, California Games, Lemmings (again, one of the better ports) and some Warbirds and you've got an experience you can't get with a Game Gear.

The best thing about the Game Gear is its ability to play Master System games. Even though the screen is a blurry mess, that Master System converter is really the only saving grace for the system (again, IMHO). I picked my Game Gear up at a yard sale for a dollar and that's the only reason I still hang onto it.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

For people who like game-music and sounds, and think that's an important aspect, there's one thing I would like to add. The Lynx has a MUCH better sounding sound chip than the game gear. It's not as good as the sid chip, but it sounds much more powerful and versatile than what the other earlier handheld's sound chips have to offer. I actually sold my game gear and Neo Geo pocket color 'cause I couldn't get the right feeling playing them as I was used to the much better sounding Lynx (and c64). In my opinion good chip music can really take a game to another dimension, and there's some really good tunes in many Lynx games.

Here's the Lynx soundtrack rip thread:

Edited by Turbo Laser Lynx, Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:27 AM.

[King_Salamon]

Got my Lynx in the mail this week (yes I went with the Lynx) and will be giving Viking Child and Warbirds a go this weekend!

Now to get myself some more games! High on the list is Xenophobe, Qix and Robotron. Also, for the cheaper titles available, I'm going to be getting Xybots, Cyberball (only because I love the game) and other $3 games. lol

[ls650]

I've owned a Sega GG, and own a couple of Lynxes now. IMHO the Lynx has the better library: it has a fantastic collection of excellent arcade conversions, a fair number of puzzlers, and some decent shooters like Blue Lightning.

Go with the system that gives you what you like to play. I suspect the GG is better for things like sports or RPGs, so if that's what you are into then the GG might be the better choice.

[Sauron]

I've owned both a Lynx and GG myself, and the Lynx easily wins hands down. Yes, the GG has a much bigger library including a few gems, most of it is either "meh" or can be found better on other systems. The Lynx has a rather quirky library that really sets it apart from any other system. Plus, I will agree that the ratio of quality games on the Lynx is much higher than the GG, even though it has very few "AAA" games.

[Atari_afternoon]

A bit late entry but now after one month of Game Gear gaming experience myself, the Lynx wins in many respects. I do not dislike the GG at all, the Sonic games are good, Columns is pretty good and a regular as are a few of the Disney jump and runs but all the other games go in and out pretty quickly, right now I can´t even remember many game names names without looking them up, which is radically different with the Lynx and its library. I find myself playing the GG about a third as much as the Atari handheld. As long as you circumvent the big danger of buying a GG that has the aforementioned age problems, no reason to say why not, the GG fits well in the hands and has some exciting and colourful looking action stuff; yet, the "personality" argument counts and nothing would motivate me to praise any GG game that much as I would rave about cartridges like Xenophobe, Checkered Flag, Rampage or Steel Talons.
Nevertheless, the GG is a good addition. Like the dot on the i as far as, for me, 1990ies handhelds are concerned. It has many colourful and beautiful jump and runs, which is good; however, as others have said, if you get a GG you won´t learn or see much new. The Lynx is more special.

[Kiwi]

Hardware durability wise, Lynx.

All the the Game Gear out in the wild now are broken. It's due to the SMS mount that plague the system and it needs to be replace in order for the Game Gear Screen and sound to be functional. I wrote about my capacitor issue in my blog and just fixed it last year after starting this project 2-3 years ago due to anxiety. If you want to get a Game Gear and you're good at soldering circuitry stuff, I would just buy random Game Gear system that can power on off Ebay. Then do surgery on it, it's the only way to get a perfectly functional Game Gear.

http://members.optus...b/ggrepair.html - has the info for it.

The Atari Lynx doesn't suffer from it capacitor drying out, 90% sure. Yet, I read that one component can render it broken.

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Atari Lynx uses a 65SC02 series processor while the Game Gear uses z80 processor. Which is better, I don't know LOL.

The Atari Lynx has 64KB of RAM, which is a lot of a handheld system and it's worth it. Game Gear has 8KB of RAM and 16KB of VRAM.

Atari Lynx has a color pallete of 16. GameGear 32 colors. It can color change the pallete per scan line like Shadow of the Beast and that football game Cyberball. Game Gear has the ability to do this as well, Sonic Blast, Gunstar Heroes first stage. Only draw back is the little fuzzy dots that hovers around the region where the color has change(only on the GG screen not emulator.)

The Lynx has variable width text and the Game Gear can do so too. Only problem for the Game Gear, it has to take some room on the tile sheet to print the text into.

Parallax scrolling, Lynx wins. Game Gear can do this, but like most 8bit system they animate the tile to simulate this feature.

The Game Gear is restricted to a name table and tile sheet while the Lynx can seems to draw any size graphic anywhere on screen.

The feature that the Game Gear lacks is the ability to scale graphics.

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It all come down to the games.

Edited by Kiwi, Fri Feb 18, 2011 1:17 AM.

[The_Laird]

The Lynx can do more than scale graphics, also flip, destortion, zooming etc.

The Lynx also has a better sound chip and the CPU is faster.

Hardware wise the Lynx wipes the floor with the GG but also in my opinion software wise too.

[A_Locomotive]

The Lynx II IMO beats Game Gear on Ergonomics, it just doesn't feel as right in your hands as a Lynx does and the large D-pad is more comfortable to use as well since its more recessed and rounded. The only area I think the Game Gear wins is with its huge library of titles. I'm sure there are a ton of duds like with any popular system but its got a lot of gems as well. All the Sonic games are gold and Ecco the Dolphin is loads of fun. But I'm really loving my Lynx so far and have so far enjoyed most of the games I own for it. Even the ones I didn't think I would like such as Robotron. It looked at first to be a little to simple of a game. But I keep finding myself reaching for its box when I bring it down to play so I've definitely developed a taste for it. Even Hydra which at first to me was unplayable I'm starting to enjoy.