my atari lynx II

I love my Atari Lynx II. The screen is too small. It eats 6 AA's a day. The resolution is pitiful when compared to, closest rival, the Sega Game Gear. It's cumbersome to hold. I've only got one game for it. There are only four or five games that I even want to play on it. But it is easily one of my favourite gaming items.

One of the reasons is the great myth that Epyx (the Lynx' creators) showed their Lynx "Handy" prototype to Nintendo only to be presented with a protoype Gameboy halfway through their pitch by cheeky Nintendo execs for the sole purpose, apparently, of embarrassing Epyx.

Not forgetting that it caters for cack-handed gamers, like myself, by having a lefty flip function. Suck it, righties.

But the main reason I love my Atari Lynx II is because it is my very own time machine. Okay, so this time machine will never take me to see the Berlin wall fall, or take me to a future where the wearing of a scarf and t-shirt combo is punishable by death from robot laser (if you're cold, put on a jumper. If you're not cold, TAKE OFF THE SCARF). My Atari Lynx II time machine only takes me, in fact, to 1991. Limited in scope, yes, but I'm okay with it. It's a hazy 1991: not everything is clear. Like trying to remember a dream. I hold my Lynx and... there. I'm 14. My friend, Roy, has an Atari Lynx mk1. My friend, Alan, has a Sega Game Gear. We are sat in the school auditorium discussing the relative virtues of each console. Alan clearly has the superior console and therefore the upper hand so I can forgive his moral high-ground. But, me and Roy, we've got strength in numbers. It's two against one and Alan is becoming more and more incensed as The Lynx Crew (we weren't called that... but i wish we were... so cool) just blatantly invent specifications and exaggerate the capabilities of our inferior console.

In the end, of course (and by 'the end' I mean 'roughly a year after release'), the Game Gear choked to death on batteries and the Atari Lynx was laughed out of the auditorium for wetting it's pants during an ill-judged rap about how cool it was to be left handed. But for a short time, there was a war on. And I was on the losing side. Atari Lynx owners lost on so many levels: amount of games released (something like 100 compared to the Game Gears 360 and the Gameboys staggering  few thousand thanks to a Japanese presence that Atari could not hope to match), price, availability, battery life, it goes on and on and the fact that the Lynx was getting the crap kicked out of it regularly by magazines and retailers and Game Gear and Game Boy owners just made those few of us that were lumbered with one of Atari's biggest flops even more fervent in our defence of the machine.

I take my hat off to the men at Epyx who sat, staring down adversity, in that Nintendo board room defensively and, rightfully so, proudly clutching the very same thing that I have fought for and defended against the might of Sega and Nintendo.

Currently, of course, being a video game enthusiast, I own a Game Boy and a Game Gear, but when the flames start licking at my bedroom door, I know which console I'll be holding as I sail out of the window to tuck and roll on the cool wet grass.

Oh, and, did I mention it was endorsed by Spider-man?