Atari Lynx

Way back in September of 1989 , Nintendo's game boy was the only game in town. Atari Corporation saw this as a challenge so they decided to do something about it , kind of......

Lets start this off with a little history on the Lynx and its origins. The Lynx was first called the Handy and it was designed by a company called Epyx. You may remember Epyx for there computer ports of California Games ,Summer Games , and Winter Games for the Atari VCS / Atari 2600. Epyx Originally showed the "Handy" at the consumer electronics fair in January of 1989. Shortly After showing there new system Epyx ran on Financial hardship and soon realized they needed a partner if there system ever wanted to see the stores. They invited Nintendo to be part of there new system , who in turn declined. When Atari saw this amazing new system that had hardware nintendo handhelds would not have for years to come, they were all on board to produce it. Atari Showed the new system at the Summer Consumer electronics fair as the Portable color entertainment system. By September 1989 , the newly named Lynx was ready for store shelves ,be it in limited quantity. Due to the small number available and the high price of $199 USD. That year went the way of the gameboy and Lynx sales where weak by comparison. By 1991 Atari saw increased sales mostly due to a marketing campaign , but by 1993 stopped marketing the system completely to focus on the Jaguar.

Atari Lynx -Series 1 with box

Atari Lynx - Series 2 with box

This system is yet another case of Better hardware and a better system is not always gonna be the system that sells. The Lynx was ahead of the Gameboy in every way other then size and battery life. The lynx had a Backlit , full color display , the only handheld i know of with left handed options. The games had impressive graphics and compared to the gameboy was like IMAX. Keep in mind , this was 1989 and this was a 16 bit handheld. That means Atari's new handheld had more graphics handling power then the Nintendo Entertainment system. 

Back of Lynx - Series 1

Back of Lynx - Series 2