Photo: Evan-Amos · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Atari Lynx
Atari · Released Sep 1989 · Original (1989)
Atari's technically ambitious 1989 handheld was the first with a colour backlit screen and hardware scaling — years ahead, but a commercial also-ran.
Pros
- +World's first colour backlit handheld
- +Hardware sprite scaling and rotation
- +Ambidextrous, flippable design
- +ComLynx multiplayer for up to 16 players
Cons
- −Enormous and heavy
- −Battery life of only a few hours
- −Small, expensive game library
What can it play?
Emulation performance by platform, based on real-world testing.
Full specifications
Hardware
- Chipset (SoC)
- MOS 65C02 + custom (Mikey / Suzy)
- CPU
- 8-bit 65C02 @ up to 4 MHz
- GPU
- Suzy custom blitter (hardware scaling)
- RAM
- 64 KB
- Storage
- Cartridge Lynx ROM cartridge
- Weight
- 290 g
- Dimensions
- 100 x 230 x 45 mm
- Cooling
- Passive
Display
- Size
- 3.5″
- Resolution
- 160x102
- Panel
- Backlit colour LCD
- Refresh rate
- 60 Hz
- Touchscreen
- No
Battery & Connectivity
- Battery
- 2000 mAh
- Real-world life
- ~4 hours
- Wi-Fi
- None
- Bluetooth
- None
- Ports
- ComLynx cable, 3.5mm headphone, DC in
- Expandable storage
- No
Controls
- Analog sticks
- 0
- D-pad
- Yes
- Face buttons
- Yes
- Analog triggers
- No
- Gyroscope
- No
- Hall effect sticks
- No
Software & custom firmware
Ships with: None (cartridge-booted)
Also plays natively: Atari Lynx cartridges
No third-party custom firmware tracked for this device.
Our verdict
The Lynx beat the Game Boy to colour and backlighting and boasted hardware sprite scaling that produced pseudo-3D effects no rival could match. But it was huge, drank six AA batteries in a few hours, and never built a library to challenge Nintendo. Today it is celebrated as a fascinating, forward-looking piece of handheld history.