Weird and Wonderful Easter Eggs in Atari Lynx Games

[@JimmyCall]

In the days I actually sold these machines. There was a fault in the design of the model 1, that the d-pad would wear on the circuit board tracks, destroying the controls circuit. they only had a piece of sticky-tape to separate, which quickly wore out. It was a great machine, but with that flaw, and poor battery life, it was hard to market it. The Sega Gear Gear, was equally a battery eater.

[@pappyodanial]

The hockey fighting game segment had me repeatedly burst out with laughter... what a great hidden channel.

[@JanusCycle]

I'm glad you enjoyed and thank you.

[@prla5400]

The fractal thing is crazy.

[@MylesSmith-q4y]

An 8/16 arcade game like I, Robot should make a good port on the Atari Lynx since it's an 8/16 system.

[@electricturbodata9368]

Hey thanks for making one of the absolute best Lynx videos on the whole of KZbin! Slime world is the definitive Lynx game in my opinion. It uses the Lynx scaling in fun ways (making the whole slime world pulsate, and the clouds and slime-water falls stretch). It's very uniquely Lynx. The Megadrive port in comparison feels very stale.

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you. The Lynx is very important to me and deserved a deep dive into some of the lesser known aspects of these games. I'm so glad you enjoyed this video and shared your comments. Also the Megadrive version of Slime World is too open looking and doesn't have that closed in feel that I love about the Lynx version.

[@blakegriplingph]

The Lynx was very much ahead of its time. Shame that display technology at the time kept it from being to par with the Game Boy in terms of battery life.

[@brockachoo]

Gosh I love the Lynx Atari. I had the original Lynx as my first handheld. Amazing games. I still emulate them to this day, usually on my N3DS. The sounds and music always gives me so much nostalgia especially Shadow of The Beast and Toki. I had nooooo idea about the easter eggs, so cool. Going to have to give it ago myself! There are some awesome screen replacements too, makes them nice, bright and crisp. Long live Crystal Mines II and Hydra, totally my favorite games :)

[@JanusCycle]

There is something so unique about Lynx games. I love this system too. Thanks for sharing your experience, it's great to hear from a fellow Lynx fan.

[@heavysystemsinc.]

My favorite easter egg is one that i think only inhave recorded video of in action. Enter TRYX into the password. Its a stage that you will end up in through normal play. At the start of the stage, theres a false part of the floor you can find by dropping bombs. Where younsee the bombs pass thru the floor, you can fly your ship under there, leading to a hidden gate which takes you to a stage that has the EPYX staff faces attacking you, but its okay because you are given every power up in the game all at once, making getting to the end a little easier. Only a little.

[@JanusCycle]

Which game is this?

[@heavysystemsinc.]

Gates of Zendicon. My original video of it died with my old channel. Password TRYX.

[@JanusCycle]

@@heavysystemsinc. Awesome, thank you. I'm keen to try this.

[@summerlaverdure]

Thanks for making cool videos!

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you for watching and enjoying them! That is why I love doing this. I greatly appreciate your Superthanks as well, this will help make future videos even better :)

[@mechamania]

Yup, Epyx _really loved_ the Lynx, *because they designed it!* Atari bought the Lynx to distribute, almost exactly as it came out, from Epyx - a big reason That (perhaps the most prolific) home computer game developers supported it so much and so well (including _Gauntlet III,_ the best _Gauntlet,_ ever), especially at launch... in 1989!

[@Raptor50aus]

Thanks for those Easter eggs, I have 2 x Atari Lynx II consoles like new and about to upgrade the screens to new IPS panels thanks to BennVenn :) Mine came with the link cable, car adapter, external battery and carry case. I really enjoy Warbirds in multiplayer :) Desert Strike is great too.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I respect the comparison between the Vita and the original, the framing was good there. I seem to recall, over a decade ago, Ashens saying something along the lines of "remember Chips Challenge from the DOS and early Windows days? Well this is the Lynx port. It's fine, though probably not where you'd want to try and complete it"; so it's interesting that it came out there first. (But I'm not going to go check the original video to see if my memories invented it.) I guess Epyx had early access to demoscene type tricks since they developed the hardware. I know it's hardly the first game to use stripy floor to help give the illusion of depth and speed, but I can't help but feel Stun Runner was being heavily, uh, used for inspiration for the Sonic 2 emerald minigame. That brightly coloured tunnel, and moving across various parts of it to avoid obstacles or get boosts, is just... so similar.

[@wimwiddershins]

I remember messing around with some of these. They were listed in a LYNX fan club pamphlet that a game shop gave out.

[@wifigod]

I absolutely forgot about S.T.U.N. Runner , and this brought back so many memories of straddling that giant arcade cabinet down at the local bowling alley! It also really makes me want to play some Lynx games. That fractal easter egg is amazing! Time to find some... Thanks for sharing these!

[@JanusCycle]

I'm glad you enjoyed these. The Lynx had some amazing games.

[@VictorvanSchagen]

i had a type 1 Lynx back in the day as a teen - the backlit colour screen was just so mesmerizing. I'm happy to see my most favourite games on the list with their easter eggs. Regarding Electro Cop, what stood out to me at the time as well, is that the game had multiple endings: You could do the expected and shoot the bad guy, you could shoot the kidnapped mayors daughter, or not shoot at all, and learn how the bad guy isn't bad at all, just trying to stop the mayors corruption.

[@JanusCycle]

I haven't played much Electro Cop, those endings sound intriguing.

[@mechamania]

Yeah, that first one was a classic. I totally forgot about that, and I don’t know whether I saw it in an old Atari mag or if I just ran over it by accident, with the button pressed. I always thought, “What awesome graphics, for a stage-select Easter Egg!” In June, 1990-when I got an OG model for graduating high school-my Lynx blew my friends’ minds - ‘cause they were used to Game Boys. Of course, the 15 minutes you got out of 80 C batteries made it not so portable - but I made a car adapter and soldered an extra ten feet of cord into the middle of my AC adapter to make it always able to reach an outlet, if I were somewhere, taking a road trip or sitting outside my favorite coffee place, where they lemme use their outlet, if I lined the cord along the walls... Now, I gotta mod my Vita, ‘cause that emulation looks awesome. The Lynx is still among the best handhelds of their time, ever-and ripe for a “rebooted” model by the “Atari” that made the recent Atari VCS-especially with Atari’s IPs and Epyx’s games. Epyx, the company that actually designed the Lynx (which is why they supported it so well) games get licensed out all the time, and there are a lot of games from the era, from Atari 8-bits, the C64, Atari STs, and Amigas (games like _Shadow of the Beast_ and _Lemmings_ are on about _every_ “Top 25 Amiga Games” list on KZbin) that, together with OG Lynx games like Roadblasters (my fav), Gauntlet III (by Epyx), OG/arcade Rygar, (maybe the best version of) California Games, Paperboy, Blue Lightning, Joust, Rampage, Batman Returns, and Super Off-Road (although that includes a couple Williams games that may need to have their ROMs loaded on... ) would make it a “true” retro handheld, especially if they designed it with the same modernized VCS styling - and I’d def throw down, for that!

[@raphaelkgh218]

Great comment! Man, modding your Lynx to play like that is crazy! 😊

[@Siktah]

A good one was with Batman Returns (which also has a banging menu song when you let it loop). Depending on what buttons you pressed in the menu whether it be A B Option 1 etc it changed the preset patterns of enemies. And it's consistant, so I learnt very quickly it's kind of a randomiser but also a nice way to choose a difficulty.

[@jasonblalock4429]

I had a Lynx II back in the day, then lost it in a move years ago. Still regret that, since it was such a fun and quirky system that was totally ahead of its time. So glad for emulation! Although in my case, I have a N3DS with Retroarch and the full ROM set. The smaller screen is probably better for Lynx games, imo, since they had such a low resolution.

[@JanusCycle]

I would love to see what Lynx looks like on N3DS, I'll have to try that one day.

[@samwilliamson4715]

So glad you made your opening titles around slime world!! 👌

[@ahmedp8009]

Impressive graphics on Atari Lynx.

[@kirilnikolovski81]

battle zone was an easter egg on the NBA Jam arcade 4 stick machine

[@lvtrkdrvr]

Thanks!

[@JanusCycle]

That is amazingly generous of you. I'm honoured, thank you.

[@KeenRetroGames]

The level code ZERO in Chip's Challenge unlocks an amazing secret level of almost infinite depth. You can score over a million points - see how many you can get!

[@JanusCycle]

Nice, I will have to try this. thanks!

[@user-bp5py6bh3g]

Awesome! Love your videos man

[@prla5400]

I was having a great day. Now it's better.

[@htdmc2010]

The Technology for lynx and Game gear were awesome but they still could not compee with Gameboy. The library was too big and alot of people had already GB so hey skipped buying these. Just a sidenote Retroarch as far as i know combines emulators so in a sense this is some other Emulator just used in Reroarch. While the concept is good but the credit should go to the one who created the Emu people mistak Retroarch as a Emulator which actually it isnt.

[@JanusCycle]

You are right, Retroarch is the framework, the emulator cores were made by many different people. I have a Gameboy as well as a Lynx. Gameboy games are great! But there is just something extra special about the Lynx.

[@htdmc2010]

@@JanusCycle Back then the Game boy had alot of 3rd party support like Konami, Capcom and many others plus their own Franchizes like Mario, Zelda and co. The Game Boy Games library was just to big and to good compete with. Sega tried it aswell creating the Game Gear. If you look at it both Sega and Atari did not have many 3rd Party support. On the other hand I would even go so far to say Sony failed aswell with PSP/Vita against DS/3DS and they had many 3rd Party support so who knows why i did not work out but sure as hell The Lynx and Game Gear were awesome Handheld Consoles.

[@edwardfletcher7790]

@@JanusCycle Sorry to hijack, but have you seen this amazing 90's hifi with LCD remote ? kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZzMi5lvjZ16qLs Or this dual MD dictation recorder ? kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6HIYmhtrqeUZpI

[@miaouew]

Such a cool little system and video!

[@JanusCycle]

Yes, amazing system! Glad you enjoyed this.

[@miaouew]

I did! Thank you. @@JanusCycle

[@bigd1348]

The H in retroarch is silent

[@JanusCycle]

I've seen debates online about this and I'm not sure which side has the better argument

[@dextrodemon]

lol i also play all my games on a psvita, dat oled

[@Mrshoujo]

Tamago-chi is pronounced with a LONG O.

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you for the correction.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Is it? It's たまごっち、not たまごーち。That's why it was officially romanised Tamagotchi, not Tamagoochi or Tamagohchi or something. That's not even getting-into the fact that English's long-o is completely different to the Japanese long-o, and when most English-speaking people try to imitate it, if they even get the "got without the t" phoneme right, they often go オーーーー instead of オー。