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/vr/ - Retro Games

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File: 207 KB, 980x626, lynx-spot10.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9780368 No.9780368 [Reply] [Original]

I actually don't understand how the Lynx lost to the Game Boy.

By all standards, it was a vastly superior platform.

Was it just that Atari had a bad name or something? I don't see how it could be the library, because in all honesty, the OG OG chunky monochrome Game Boy's library was quite shit.

>> No.9780374

Twice the MSRP of a gameboy for starters.

>> No.9780380

>why did a system with mario zelda and pokemon win against a system with ... ???

>> No.9780393
File: 256 KB, 800x600, g3426shots.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9780393

Let's be honest, as much as the Lynx hardware absolutely mogs the GameBoy, it was the dying gasp of a struggling Atari, and was never going to gain the support needed to be a successful console. However, other handhelds that were also vastly superior to the GameBoy were also left to fight Nintendo's monopoly on the handheld market, whereupon they were holding back the technological advancement by about a decade. Nintendo put out terrible hardware and equally underwhelming games for cheap, undercutting the competition, and parents who only cared about the bottom line bought them. It's a shame, as handheld gaming could have been so much better had the Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Wonder Swan seen more support.

>> No.9780396

6 AA batteries

>> No.9780472

>>9780396
To add, 6 AA for 4-6 hours.
The GB used 4 AA and would last for at least 10 hours.

>> No.9780482

You could buy a Gameboy for 80 bucks, have it reasonably fit in a pocket and use it to play a large library of games backed by Nintendo first party offerings for a good chunk of time with AA batteries. The competition at the time thought they could outdo the Gameboy with specs, when no one was buying a handheld for specs

>> No.9780483

The success of the Game Boy in light of it's competitors shows how important good games, affordability and "branding" are. Yeah the Lynx had great hardware but was pricey, sucked up batteries and didn't have Mario. That's a tough hill to climb.

>> No.9780486

>>9780368
>I actually don't understand how the Lynx lost to the Game Boy.
one has games

>> No.9780492

>>9780368
Software sells Hardware
What the fuck did Lynx have, nigga ??

>> No.9780510
File: 90 KB, 261x198, 1675323279775218.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9780510

STOP NAMING YOUR GAME THINGS AFTER JUNGLE CATS GODDAMMIT.

>> No.9780514
File: 160 KB, 400x300, file.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9780514

Same reason I hated the Game Gear as a kid, despite the games being good..
My parents eventually bought me one of these so they could stop buying batteries.

>> No.9780525

>>9780380
Not OP but the Lynx legit has a lot of really good games. It's oddly underrated compared to stuff like Game Gear.

>> No.9780597

>>9780510
>Atari ST is successful
>"We'll call our next computer Falcon, cause it's FAST!"
>"We'll call our games console Jaguar, cause it's FAST!"
>"We'll call our handheld Lynx, cause it's ... ???"

>> No.9780672

>>9780483
>Game Boy
>good games
Mutually exclusive.

>> No.9780682

>>9780672
Sometimes when you try to be contrarian so hard no one can hear you over the stink of your own shit.

>> No.9780702

>>9780597
>"We'll call our handheld Lynx, cause it's ... ???"
Cause it's not a huge-ass cat, only a medium-sized cat, maybe?

>> No.9781014

>>9780472
I think younger people dont understand this being a huge factor back in the day.
Whenever I see this question pop up I feel like its someone whos only owned gameboy advance or newer and never understood how expensive batteries were/are.

>> No.9781023

>>9780702
The Lynx does weigh about as much as a medium-sized cat...

>> No.9781024
File: 161 KB, 1280x720, maxresdefault.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9781024

>>9780368
>>9780393
The Lynx would have been better situated had Atari released the Panther. The Game Boy had amazing software. Tetris alone got everyone to buy one. But over the long term the Game Boy benefited from marketing synergy with the NES and then later the SNES. They were paired in a way that games often had handheld counterparts. Super Mario Bros./World and Super Mario Land. Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land. Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. Mega Man and...Mega Man, etc. Not to mention just straight up portable versions of certain games like Dr. Mario. That synergy alleviated the Game Boy's limits because it was treated like a portable, less expensive companion to the main consoles. The Lynx was left alone in no man's land. I remember as a kid I had just randomly assumed that it was the miniature Turbografx-16 because at the time my brain was wired to think that way. A handheld MUST have been related to a console somehow.

>> No.9781043

Another great job by Bernie Stolar.

>> No.9781072

>>9780380
>pokemon
Lynx was already dead by then.

>> No.9781236

>>9780368
>I actually don't understand how the Lynx lost to the Game Boy.
Well, first of all you need to remember that by the time you finished reading my comment, the Lynx already ate 10% of it's batteries.

>> No.9781248

ugly ass palettes
the genesis has the same issue imo

>> No.9781269

The Lynx shared the Game Boy and Game Gear's screen issues that made impossible to use it outdoors because you couldn't see jack.
It doesn't help that despite being a "portable" console the Lynx was roughly the same size of a portable cassete player radio.

>> No.9781293

>>9780368
Expensive, with a short battery life. That hurt it.

>> No.9781327

>>9780368
It was just too expensive. Same with the Turbo Express. All of the kids knew about them and wanted them but no one could afford one. This was at a time when parents treated game consoles like VCRs. Ie, if you already had one, you didn't need another one. Game Boy was just cheap enough that a kid could save his birthday money and cut some grass and buy one. I don't think it had anything whatsoever to do with the software. Game Boy didn't have any killer apps until that war was already over.

>> No.9781349

>>9780368
>I don't see how it could be the library, because in all honesty, the OG OG chunky monochrome Game Boy's library was quite shit.
Go back to /v/, zoomer

>> No.9781353

>>9780525
>Not OP but the Lynx legit has a lot of really good games
Name me one good Lynx EXCLUSIVE.

>> No.9781371
File: 68 KB, 320x322, Tetris_Boxshot.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9781371

>>9781327
>Game Boy didn't have any killer apps until that war was already over.
?

>> No.9781379

>>9781353
Warbirds

>> No.9781557

>>9781327
>Game Boy didn't have any killer apps until that war was already over.
Mario, Tetris, Pokémon, MegaMan, Castlevania, Contra, Link's Awakening, Ninja Turtles and such say "hi".
On the other hand, the Lynx, despite being vastly superior, had no good Ips of it's own, except for maybe Klax. Klax was the shit.

>> No.9781561

>>9781379
>Warbirds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-PKq21SIE

Clunky, confusing as hell. You should have said Rygar or Klax instead.

>> No.9781590

>>9780368
Because you could buy the cheap gameboy games for 10-20 dollars new, the batteries on gameboy lasted forever, and if you had money for something better you wanted a turbografx 16 and already owned splatterhouse. Also if you had friends back then we traded and borrowed games on the daily. I traded a kid a pack of pencils for dragon warrior 2 at school. If you bought lynx you were doomed to play the 2-3 games you owned forever because no one else owned that shit. Even if you didn’t know kids who had turbo express there were enough kids with turbo 16 to borrow and rent games.

>> No.9781593

>>9781557
Tmnt was so big at the time we all owned that game. This anon was probably alive then

>> No.9781634

>>9781593
The Game Boy had three Ninja Turtles games. And Tiny Toons, Batman, Gargoyle's Quest, Final Fantasy Adventure, F1 Racer, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Bionic Commando, Yoshi, Kirby, and The Simpsons (which were all shit but everyone still bought them because the Simpsons were that popular)

>> No.9781636

Doesn't the Lynx literally only have something like 30 games?
It's a cool piece of hardware for the time. I imagine it ran into the same problem as the GameGear of being way less practical to use as an actual handheld than the GB due to battery life, and the size of the unit.

>> No.9781637

I had a Lynx. Only game i actually liked that i had for it was Chip's Challenge. The others were meh at best, though i didn't have Ninja Gaiden.

>> No.9781643

>>9781636
>and the size of the unit.
Playing witn that thing felt like holding a radio clock.

>> No.9781662

>>9781371
Unit numbers are only high because it was a pack-in. It was also available on NES, which more people had. The game was not as popular then as it's made out to be now, and nowhere near as popular as some of the later GB titles.

>>9781557
Most of those came out after Nintendo already won.

>> No.9781668

>>9781561
>This is a Lynx game
Holy shit this impressive actually

>> No.9781678

>>9781668
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T08RVa7DybE

>> No.9781680

>>9781662
Bro, except for Pokémon the other game were all basically launch titles.

>> No.9781683

The Lynx hardware was technically impressive but it was bonkers. It was a weird amalgamation of 2600 style "chasing the beam" but with hardware assistance in the form of display lists coupled with a scale factor "blit" to do a form of hardware assisted scaling.
Meanwhile the gameboy had sprites & tiles and everyone knew how to work with those.
Unlike the PS2 there was no "but it's a playstation!" motivating force to make people learn how to make games for it. So atari was stuck courting small nobody studios who couldn't afford to turn down a paying job.

>> No.9781690

>>9781662
People were buying GameBoys *because* Tetris was a pack-in. It was literally the console's Wii Sports. But unlike the Wii people went on to buy other gameboy games as well so the console was a success.

>> No.9781695

>>9781690
The launch games were perfect in the sense of offering good graphics, lots of fun and a reasonable completion time so they could be finished with a single pack of batteries.

>> No.9781784

>>9781024
>those controller ports
gigalol

>> No.9781887

>>9781561
>confusing as hell
maybe if you're a fucking retard

>> No.9782042

>>9781662
>Unit numbers are so high because it had this as a pack-in.
Fixed.

>> No.9782071
File: 396 KB, 774x824, energizer_bunny.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9782071

>>9780368
> I actually don't understand how the Lynx lost to the Game Boy.
if you weren't a zoomer who grew up in a Lithium-Ion rechargeable future, you sure as fuck would.
Gameboy also launched with good software and kept the strong support going as long as it lived.

>> No.9782286

>>9780393
>better hardware = better games
You sir are an idiot.

>> No.9782417

>>9780472
And then the pocket came out, which was the one I had