3 replies to this topic

[Bones Justice]

Recently, a friend of mine asked me, "Hey, you collect Atari Lynx stuff, don't you?" Initially, I was a little offended by the question because I've always thought of myself as a gamer, not a collector. I don't think there is anything wrong with being a collector, mind you. I think I what bothered me was the idea that only someone collecting "stuff" would own a Lynx.

I bought my first Lynx in 1990. I was fortunate enough to have several friends that owned a Lynx, too, so we played a lot of comlynx games like Battlewheels, Warbirds, and Xenophobe. We moved apart over the years and I bought a Lynx from them when they tired of it (except two, one lost and one broken) with the idea of having my own little gaming network whenever I got together with friends, new or old. More time passed and even I moved on to other machines, especially the Sega Nomad for my portable gaming.

In some ways, I had never thought of the Lynx as a portable or handheld. It was the first dedicated videogame system I had purchased (I only played computer games up to that point). The Lynx had as good or better graphics and audio than any home consoles I had tried to that point like the NES or SMS. There was no competition for the television to play games! Real games, not watered-down handheld games; I thought Atari was creating a revolutionary way to play videogames, every player having his own screen (I had no idea that Atari had "real" home consoles, too). I had to laugh when a friend had shown me his Gameboy that he bought for a hundred dollars. But I was blown away by the Lynx and it was a steal at the same price. I figured that any software company would much rather make games for the Lynx than they would the Gameboy; I didn't really know anything about business politics.

So back to my friend's recent question -- I realized that I had not even taken my Lynx out in years. When I got home, I took it out and spent a couple of hours re-playing some brilliant games. And now that I've checked out Atari Age, I know that I'm not just a collector because there are plenty of Lynx games that I never bought simply because I wasn't interested in them. But I'm proud of my Lynx collection that I show off when I get the chance, especially because it often leads to some comlynx sessions.

I am a Lynx gamer but I guess I'm also a bit of collector, too. How about you -- gamer, collector, or both?

[the.golden.ax]

Why not be both? I know I am. Whenever I get obsessed with collecting (often) my wife says, "hey, go play a game, and stop trying to figure out how to buy one" and you know what... I have more fun If you are going to be both, fine, but be a gamer first!

AX

[Atari_afternoon]

Gamer. I want all the games I´m interested in, do not strive for a complete collection (I sold the very few duds I had) nor do I care especially for them boing boxed or not, I only need the cartridges (tho of course I never throw boxes away). So right now there are just two games left (four, at most) that I really really want and have already ordered them resp. hopefully am on the list
From a completist´s point of view I have stopped at about 60% of the whole Lynx library.

[Bones Justice]

Yeah, I'm probably more of a gamer than a collector, too. I keep my boxes, too, but I'd buy a game without it if it's cheaper.

On the other hand, I have some games that I have no reason to keep because I don't play them. Most of them came with a Lynx that I bought off a friend, games like Toki or Block Out. But some that I bought new like NFL Football or Hockey, which are not bad games but I've got better games of the sort for my Nomad. I'd probably trade any of 'em for the right games but I guess I'm enough of a collector not to actively sell them. Or maybe I'm just lazy!

Now that I've joined Atari Age, I've seen a few games that I might be interested in, like Zaku, but it doesn't seem to be available anymore.

Either way, I think the Lynx could appeal to both gamers and collectors but not enough people seem to know about it.

Edited by Bones Justice, Sat Jun 18, 2011 8:46 PM.