RVG Forum

One of the Jaguar’s most popular and most famous games, many people don’t know that the programmers Rebellion were also working on a Lynx version too. While this version was sadly never released a prototype has since made its way onto the market and although its not even 50% complete there is certainly a lot to see here. The Lynx version was to follow a similar plot to the Jag version with you able to play as the Marine, Alien or Predator. This proto only allows you to choose between the Marine or the Predator but several years ago another prototype was also discovered that swaps the Predator for the Alien. The first thing you will notice is that in this version the marine is a woman! Clearly taking inspiration from the classic Aliens film that starred Sigourney Weaver. There is no collision detection it seems with these enemy soldiers and they appear and disappear at will! The objects you collect don’t seem to do anything either. As a graphics demo this game is stunning and really does show just how powerful the Lynx is in the right hands. The engine is amazingly quick with the scaling chip in full effect. If you own a Lynx then I can’t help but recommend this despite the limited gameplay purely because of the wow factor involved.

Alpine Games is a winter Olympics style game that consists of nine separate events; Bobsleigh, Figure Skating, Slalom, Freestyle Aerials, Ski Jump, Speed Skating, Snowboard Rush, Snowboard Halfpipe and Biathlon. Each of the games may be played separately in the practice mode or you can take part in the full competition where you are even awarded medals! Unlike many of these multi-event type affairs some of these individual sports are good enough to be a game in their own right. Especially the brilliant downhill events that use an amazing engine that would be good enough to grace any racing game and the Figure Skating which plays a bit like one of those dance games. Each event really is excellent and while you are bound to have your favourites there isn’t a weak one among them. In the main Olympic style mode you are also able to choose your character too from a selection of both male and females each representing a different country. As good as the game is the graphics are another matter, they are just so good I can’t even find a word to describe them. The shading, scaling, rendered characters and reflections on the ice will simply blow you away! The sound is also top notch too with lots of great MOD tunes and sound effects. Alpine Games is not just the best homebrew game on the Lynx it is one of the best games for the console full stop. I can only imagine what people would have thought of this game back in 1989 . . . . .

Better known as simply A.P.B. the original coin-op, by the Atari Games division, was praised for both its humour and originality upon release. The Lynx version loses none of this in translation and is a really unique game for the machine. In essence this is a top down viewed driving game but there is so much more to it than that. As officer Bob your mission is to rid the highways of criminals, you do this by finding them then moving your target over their car to arrest them. You must also be careful not to hit any of the other drivers on the road or crash because this will earn you demerits. Get too many of these and you will get fired in fantastic style! You also need to collect fuel, money and even donuts along the way to keep you going. You will also see hitchhikers by the side of the road that are looking for a lift, sometimes you are required to help them too as part of your mission. The first thing I must mention about this game is the speech, it’s utterly fantastic. The other drivers on the road scream at you, the criminals insult you and your boss berates you! This adds so much to the game and makes it even more enjoyable than it already is. Nice clear visuals and precise controls also help but the originality and comedy value are the biggest winners in what I regard as one of the best games on the Lynx.

The Atari Lynx is always talked about for its incredible arcade conversions but it also has some superb sports games too, especially as far as handheld are concerned. Handmade were responsible for quite a few of these and without doubt Awesome Golf is their finest moment. This game card features 3 different 18-hole courses (Japan, England and America) all with their own unique styles and a full selection of clubs. You can play on your own or with up to 3 friends via comlynx and choose your own handicap too. My favourite feature however is your caddy, a cheeky little gopher that not only helps you choose clubs if needed but also talks to you too! The speech really is excellent and there is loads of it for all sorts of different situations. The graphics work brilliantly too with an overhead view for lining up your strokes and a behind the golfer view for taking them. Full use of the scaling chip is made here. I have always been a sucker for golf games anyway but I think that to this day Awesome Golf is still my favourite one, the name really does say it all.

Meh, baseball games – it might be America’s favourite past time but they can keep it. Not only is the sport just rounders for big boys and dull as dishwater to watch but it’s even more boring when turned into a video game. Unfortunately for us Lynx fans Baseball Heroes is not just a simulation of this tedious sport but also a very bad one. You start the game by selecting your team from a very small selection of fantasy franchises. They have names like The Penguins, The Stars and The Satellites – WTF? Each team also has a bunch of made up players with their own stats and you can choose which one you want to bat or pitch with. The game switches between a nice close up view when you are batting or pitching to a zoomed out view of the whole field after the ball is hit, or not as may be the case. The players are really well animated and the game is also accompanied by digitised speech calling the action! Organ music plays in the background on suitable occasions along with the roar of the crowd. When it comes to the gameplay this game is brutally hard, the computer always wins and it’s played at far too slow a pace for my liking. Baseball Heroes might be enjoyable for die hard baseball fans but the rest of us will soon be switching it off, there is also the much better Relief Pitcher available for the Lynx too making this title even more pointless.

Back in the days of the Lynx Atari had a bit of a thing about combining violence with sports and released a series of games which all ended up being pretty average as they kind of got caught between genres. Basketbrawl is the Lynx's only basketball game, which is a great shame because it’s not a very good one. Its all set on street courts with a few people watching you who often interfere in the games. There are weapons lying around and power-ups appear from time to time like extra strength or speed-up. Its really rather easy too, you just knock out your opponents and then score. I actually completed the game on my first go although it does offer a bit more longevity in comlynx mode. It was also released on the 7800 and there is very little difference between the 2 versions, this is almost a straight port. I actually prefer the 7800 version for its bigger graphics and ability to play multi-player on the same TV. It’s not a terrible game but its certainly very average and really only one for the ardent collectors.

This film was a massive success in the cinemas and is still highly regarded as a bit of a cult classic even today. In many theatres it also featured a 10 minute advert for the Lynx game, the first version on a console, which not only helped really sell the Lynx but also showed people just how impressive the machine really was. Atari’s version of the game is a scrolling beat ‘em up that captures the moody feel and dark atmosphere of the film very well indeed. From the moment you start the game you are presented with a digitised logo followed by our hero next to his trusty Batmobile. All the enemies are taken straight from the film, including the bosses, as are the locations. Batman can use his fists, feet or his limited Baterangs to defeat the evil foes. There are also a few moments that take up by surprise such as when the shop front explodes and you need to hide behind the mailbox. The only real fault with the gameplay is that your attacks are fairly limited and it’s easy to complete once you know what to do. Still Atari must be commended for making a game that captures the movie in this way paying real attention to the look with it’s excellent graphics. They also added some really nice moody music too while you play to add to the experience. Beat ‘em up fans will love Batman Returns, I know I did when I first played it!

A third party title from Beyond Games, Battlewheels plays much like a cross between Roadblasters and Doom. You start the game by selecting from a number of options that allow you to customise your vehicle and the game itself. These range from simple things like the colour of your car and character to choosing how your car is set up and number of opponents. You then need to choose a class to compete in that range from heavily armoured tank like vehicles to braving it on foot! Then you are launched into the first location where it is kill or be killed. You simply drive around blowing the crap out of your rivals from a first person perspective. Money is awarded according to your placing and this can be used to upgrade your car. I love the way that you can jump out of your car before it blows up and try to finish the battle on foot, really unique feature. Graphically Battle Wheels is a real tour de force that uses the Lynx’s custom graphics hardware to the max. Scaling, rotation, cut scenes and super smooth frame rate pave the way. It’s not quite so impressive when it comes to the sound though with just a title tune and some in game sound effects, you won’t be too bothered though. Battle Wheels is a storming game for the Lynx that can also be played in 6-player ComLynx mode for some real hardcore multi-player carnage!

The launch of the Atari Jaguar saw the introduction of the “2000” series of games, updates of Atari arcade classics. The Lynx was actually supposed to get several games of its own in this series including Star Raiders, Breakout and Space War but this was the only title released. Lynx Battlezone retains all the things that made the original coin-op so great with the radar, UFO’s and trademark 3D vector graphics. It adds a selection of tanks, new enemies, new war zones and new weapons. Now the tanks are equipped with shields, missiles and all have their own different attributes. The real star of the show here though is actually a hidden mode that can only be accessed via a cheat code. This gains you entry to a new version of the game that really does deserve the 2000 moniker. In this part of the game everything has been upgraded even further and most impressive of all the vector graphics have been replaced with shaded polygons visuals, very impressive indeed for a 1989 handheld console! Another superb feature of this Lynx game is the ComLynx mode that supports up to 4-players for some serious metal carnage! If you loved the original Battlezone then you are going to adore this. B2K is a great remake of a timeless classic that while now quite hard to find, due to its very late release, is well worth tracking down.

In this game based on the hit movie the main aim is to collect all the musical notes that are scattered around each level before you run out of time. The game starts in old Egypt and from there Bill and Ted can travel to the next timeframe by collecting 16 musical notes or a page from the phonebook. Each level represents a different period and place in time with its own enemies and unique characters. In essence this game is an old school top down RPG that is more geared towards adventuring than any kind of fighting. One great feature of the game is that players can save their progress by using a unique 16-character password. This system works very well and saved on the costs of putting non-volatile memory into the Lynx game card. It is also possible to play a co-operative multi-player game too, with one player as Bill and the other as Ted, by use of a ComLynx cable. I actually found this game to be a bit rough in the graphics department but when it comes to sound the game excels. Each level has different music that fits the theme and feel of the stage perfectly. There aren’t many RPG’s on the Lynx so if you are a fan of the genre then Bill & Ted is a game you really should have in your collection.

We all know Tetris right? Well Block Out is just Tetris but in 3D! While it might not seem so to those who haven’t played the game this actually makes Block Out quite a different affair. You view the pit from above and the different shapes can be rotated in all 4 directions as you drop them down. So you can see the layers of the pit better each one of them uses a different colour, this works really well. Just like Tetris you have to form lines to remove a layer but now this is much harder as you are filling every hole in that 8x8 area (or whatever dimensions you set in the options). This requires much more thought into where you are placing the bricks, especially as you can no longer see the layers underneath. The 3D graphics look nice with the shaded polygons and good use of colour. When it comes to sound however this game is really disappointing with just a few lame sound effects, the lack of music in a game like this is quite frankly criminal. Block Out is certainly not as easy to pick up and play as Tetris but is quite rewarding once you get the hang of it and puzzle game fans will be in their element.

Here we go with another Lynx review and this time it's the Epyx classic and Afterburner clone Blue Lightning. The basic premise of this game for those who don't know is to fly a plane into enemy territory and shoot down other planes using your guns and missiles. Just like Sega's game you can attain "lock-ons" which give you perfect missile accuracy as long as they don't get out of it. In Blue Lightening, unlike Afterburner, you also get ground targets too some of which also try to shoot you down! And another added feature over the arcade inspiration is that this game has more varied mission types such as courier, seek and destroy or protection. This was one of the first games to be released for the machine and still really shows what the Lynx can do. The graphics are stunning with beautiful colours, great 3D effects, multiple views, super-smooth scaling and amazing attention to detail. It also has a brilliant intro sequence with some amazing music. The missions are really varied and all have a password but unfortunately there are only 10 of them so you might finish it quite quickly. A great early Lynx title and one to show off to your mates that only falls down on its lack of missions.

Like Raiden and Fat Bobby is this another after market release for the Lynx by Telegames. The game was originally programmed for Atari by Lore Design, who also made Fat Bobby as well as Kung Food and Hot Dog for the Lynx. The first strange thing about this game is that the brilliant intro (something Lore put in all their titles) doesn’t actually match the plot detailed in the manual! I can only assume Telegames made up their own story without actually paying any notice to the game! All you really need to know though is that you are a man trapped inside a bubble and must explore 5 different germ infested worlds trying to find the particles needed to help you escape. Because you are in a bubble in a water world you float around until you stop yourself and will bounce of anything you hit. This makes controlling our hero very difficult at first but you will soon get used to it. He can also shoot bubbles to take out enemies but if he hits them he will lose some energy. When your energy bar is depleted you lose one of your 3 lives. Thankfully you can also collect energy pods along the way and you will definitely need them! Graphically the game is a bit dull, especially after the terrific intro. The choice of colours is very boring and there is little variation to the levels, the vibrating effect is nice though. Bubble Trouble does win points for sound though with both in-game music and effects present. Overall this is a pretty decent arcade adventure that will certainly provide some enjoyment but doesn’t provide the long term appeal of stuff like Slime World and Xenophobe.

This was the very first game produced for the Lynx and originally came free with the unit. It’s a conversion of the very popular 8-bit computer and console game of the same name but, like many of the other versions, it still has its own unique style. While the original game had 6 events this Lynx version very strangely has only 4 of them (like the 2600 release) which are: Halfpipe Skateboarding, Surfing, Footbag and BMX. The missing events are the Roller Skating and Frisbee. Each one plays differently on the Lynx to any other version, especially in ComLynx mode where you are often on the same screen. The Halfpipe makes great use of scaling to zoom in and out, Surfing has some of the best music you will hear on the Lynx (sounds a bit like Wipe Out by the Beach Boys), the BMX course is more varied and the Footbag lets you fight with other players! California Games is great in small blasts and while it does feel a bit lacking, due to only having 4 events, they are all a lot of fun and in multi-player link-up mode this title takes on a whole new life!

What happens when you cross Arkanoid with a cat? Catkanoid for the Lynx of course! This first time homebrew from Sebastian Mihai is a take on Atari’s classic Breakout. This game does have a few unique twists though that set it apart. Above you bat and ball set-up are the usual rows of blocks but these blocks are square and set apart from each other. When you ball hits these bricks it doesn’t remove the whole block, it just chips away at it. This means you have to repeatedly hit each one of these coloured blocks from different directions to get rid of it completely. On the left-hand side of the screen you also have a power bar. This builds up as you play and when it’s at full you can press the button to make your ball explode and release a multi-ball. This only lasts for a short time but if you time it right you can cause chaos and remove tons of pixels at once. I found Catkanoid incredibly fun to play but it does have a few problems. The first is that you only get one life and this game is not easy! The main one though is that the psychics are pretty screwed up. Your bat seems to be able to only hit your ball at certain angles and these don’t change even if you use different parts of the bat, it always goes left then right. This means that using your multi-ball is essential to clear the blocks. If the programmer sorted out the physics and upgraded the graphics and sound then Catkanoid would be a really good game for the Lynx, as it stands it’s just an interesting and fun demo.

Although the arcade game was by Atari themselves strangely this Lynx conversion was sub-licensed to Williams Shadowsoft and was never finished or released. This proto was made available to the public a few years ago thanks to B&C and is also available from Nick at 16/32 Systems. One of only a few games like Klax, Gauntlet 3 and NFL Football to use the Lynx so it is played vertically, it means it retains the long screen of the arcade version, but strangely still scrolls slightly from side to side which is both pointless and annoying. The garden on this version almost seems too long and a bit overcrowded with far too many mushrooms and literally no gap to move between you and them. Quite obviously very unfinished other problems include slow and unresponsive firing, cheap deaths from spiders and it cuts off part of the screen when you enter high scores. There is no sound and the graphics lack colour and variation. My suggestion is too stick with the awesome 7800 version. One for collectors only.

Following on from Ponx, Championship Rally, was just the second homebrew game to be released for the Lynx by Carl Forhan at Songbird. It is said that Powerdrive Rally on the Jaguar inspired this game and you can certainly see more than a few elements of that excellent game included here. This game also uses a top down viewpoint and has a variety of different tracks that take part in different parts of the world in different conditions. There are actually 7 stages in all but only the first 3 can be played from the start, you have to unlock the other 4 by completing these races. As well as the standard rally championship there is also a time trial mode, single races and the all important versus mode. This allows you to connect together two machines via ComLynx to compete against a friend. As good as this is, I couldn’t help but feel that they could have added support for even more players, just like the 6-player ComLynx ability of Checkered Flag on the Lynx. This game is not easy and does take a bit of mastering, especially the breaking/turning, but once you get to know the tracks you will find it much easier. The graphics are small but perfectly formed and move at a rapid pace without any blur problems. I was a little disappointed with the sound though, it would have been nice to have different music for each of the tracks and not just sound effects. Still, even with its small flaws, Championship Rally is great fun and a worthy homebrew title for Atari’s wonderful 16-bit handheld.

When it comes to ComLynx games on the baby Atari this is without doubt one of the best. Allowing for 6-player racing this is always a favourite at Jagfest events all round the world. The only Lynx game that allows more simultaneous players is Slime World, which allows you to link up 8 machines. A formula 1 style racing game of the highest order, Checkered Flag, plays very much like all the great arcade games of this type, think Final Lap, Super Monaco GP or Continental Circus. Aside from the multi-player mode this game has a number of other options too that allow you to choose the type of race, number of cars, colour of car, transmission and even the sex of the driver! The courses are really varied with different weather conditions and levels of difficulty. One really nice touch is that when you complete a race you see the winning driver awarded a trophy by either male or female models (this is where your sex matters!). Graphically Checkered Flag is excellent with very fast, detailed and super smooth scaled graphics. In the sound department it possibly impresses more with some of the best speech you will here in an early 90s video game. This is a brilliant game in every way and racing fans will really lap (sorry I couldn’t resist!) it up.

Now this is a real first for not just the Lynx but also a retro handheld, it’s an emulator with 6 games included! CHIP-8 was an interpreted programming language that was developed by Joseph Weisbecker. It was initially used on the COSMAC VIP and Telmac 1800 8-bit microcomputers in the mid-1970s. All CHIP-8 programs are run on a virtual machine, it was made to allow video games to be more easily programmed for these early computers. It was also later included on many graphic calculators to give them simple games. The program itself and most of the games made for it are now public domain so one clever chap decided to port it to the Lynx. The games included for play are very simple versions of Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Pong, Breakout, City Bomber and Tetris. They all use very basic black and white graphics that are made up of blocks. Some of them are better than others, for example Space Invaders just has 4 enemies who don’t even shoot back but Tetris is barely different to any other version. As you may already expect the games don’t have any sound either, given that early computers didn’t even have sound chips in them this shouldn’t be a surprise. It might be very simple but it’s still a brilliant achievement to have the Lynx emulating another system. This program can be downloaded for free for play on flashcards or emulators and there are also several sellers offering the game on a cart now. Well worth taking a look at for fans of video game history like myself.

One of the original release games for the Lynx this title was also converted to all the major home computer formats of the time and remains one of Epyx’s most popular and well remembered games. You are Chip and must solve nearly 150 different puzzles in order to impress your girlfriend and take her to the school dance called the eProm (get it!). The puzzles require you to make your way around each top viewed level collecting the chips and making your way to the exit. This involves a lot of logical thinking as you need to work out the best way to do this. You also need to collect things like keys and cleats (to walk on ice) in order to help you with your task. It is very easy to get stuck and while the early levels are easy you will soon find yourself repeating levels over and over again! Thankfully each level also has a password so you can always return to where you left off another time if it all gets too much! If you have plenty of patience, are a logical thinker and love puzzles then Chip’s Challenge will be right up your street.

The only 3rd party Lynx game by Color Dreams this is a sequel to a game that appeared on the NES. In pretty much every way Crystal Mines II is just a clone of the classic Boulderdash games. The idea is exactly the same, to dig around under ground collecting the diamonds and then escaping the level. The only difference between the games is that instead of controlling cute little Rockford with his shovel you are now a robot with a laser gun. This is used to both clear dirt and kill enemies, another change from Boulderdash where the only way to kill a foe was to drop a boulder on them. This provides a little more arcade action to the puzzling but you still need to work out the best way to complete each level and not get trapped! Each level also has a time limit too so there isn’t much time to muck around planning. There are an incredible 150 standard levels in this game plus 31 bonus stages. Thankfully all of these have a handy password so it’s possible to go right back to where you left off. The graphics aren’t anything special as you can imagine but they are clear and well defined, which is what counts in this kind of game. The sound is great though with both effects and a wide range of different in-game tunes. Boulderdash fans will love this game but while I did enjoy this title I did find that it all got very samey after while.

Cybervirus is a FPS for the Lynx that puts you in the role of the last surviving member of the Demolitions Ops Guerrillas (or DOGs) of War. You've got to stop the horde of bio-mechanical nasties that are threatening mankind with extinction! The game starts off with a series of brilliant cut screens that lay out the plot of the game in real style. Then you are thrown into the action to fend for yourself! Cyber Virus uses the same game engine as Battlewheels and looks amazing. You can move a full 360 degrees in a 3D world making amazing use of the Lynx’s custom chipset to deliver scaling and rotation. The levels take place all around the world from the tropical jungles of South America to the cactus filled deserts of the south western USA, each one has a unique style. There are also a variety of enemies to blow away from mutant spiders to clinical cyborg killing machines. Of course the biggest factor in any FPS is the weapons and there are plenty here from laser guns and grenades to explosive missiles. You can also grab armour and shields to help you on your spree of violence too. It is such a shame this game never made it out the door during the Lynx’s commercial life because it might have made more people stand up and take notice of this incredibly powerful little games console and its amazing catalogue of games. Cyber Virus is pure class from start to finish and an essential game for any Lynx collector.