7 replies to this topic

[Cousin Vinnie]

Who thinks that the Lynx was the highest quality system put out by Atari?

I know I do.

Cousin Vinnie

[Sauron]

What do you mean by that exactly? Quality of the hardware? Software? I think cases could be made for just about any of Atari's systems. For me, the Lynx has always been one of my favorite systems, but it's hard to qualify it's "quality" against the other Atari systems, especially since it's the only hand held system out of the lot.

[TheBizDude]

The Lynx II, moreso than the Lynx.
The original Lynx itself was ga'bage - cheap paint, no stereo, battery hog, ergonmically incorrect - should I continue?
Handhelds are volatile, by nature.
I think the Jaguar was Atari's shining moment.
I've only heard of rare cases of failures and have never heard of a CD failure.
What about Atari's coin-ops?
That's probably where their efforts were concentrated on quality.
Their biggest failure were the joysticks for the 5200 and 2600 systems.
Those things were designed to break the day the warranty expired.

[eric_ruck]

How about best designed? The easier it is to make games for it, the better the games will be.

Eric

[wapchimp]

It's a shame - Atari could have been bigger than Sega & Nintendo & even Sony's PS2 today, if they hired the right marketing guys & were still going strong today - that was what let them down - all Atari fans know what great games & systems they made.

The lynx the best???? It was better than the Sega Game Gear in my opinion - except for the TV tuner that had.

I don't have or saw a Jaguar in action - but I'm gunna buy 1 soon to add to my collection.

[Brian R.]

I'd have to rate the Lynx II as better than the Jaguar because I have yet to buy a Lynx game as down right god awful as some Jag games. There are some Jag games that I can't honestly see how anyone in their right mind would have allowed them to hit the street in the condition they did - Checkered Flag, anyone???

I mean, the 2600 is the original and the king. The 5200 was a nice system, I love just looking at it, but they went for patents with the controller instead of user friendly, and simply updating 2600 games was not enough. The 7800 might have turned heads if had been released when it was ready, and it's great that it's backwards compatible with the 2600 (think about it, the third system is compatible with the first, not the second) but again, gaming attitudes changed to the type of games Nintendo was putting out, and the 7800 was still featuring games like Ms. Pac-Man and Dig Dug.

Don't get me wrong, I love all three consoles. But the Lynx does stand out as different. I know the 7800 was a half-hearted attempt. I wonder how much of an effort Atari really put into the Jaguar, considering that by that time most people had forgotten Atari for dead. But the Lynx could have been different, only if Atari had pushed it more.

[Cousin Vinnie]

I guess what I meant was, it seems like there are several great games, and very few terrible ones for the Lynx. The 7800 was half-ass, the 2600 was pirated to death, the 5200 was just too clumsy, and the Jag's library of games was the biggest diappointment in the early 90s. Everyone was jacked about the Jag...and it just went away.............

Cousin Vinnie

[ZylonBane]

TheBizDude said:

I think the Jaguar was Atari's shining moment.

Only if you mean that in the "going out in a blaze of glory" sense.

Otherwise... no. Buggy hardware, buggy software, hostile developer relations, clueless management, terrible quality control... bleah. I'm a huge Jag fan but I'd never call it a shining moment for Atari.