To buy or not to buy

[stulec52]

Hi folks. 
  Old school gamer dude, and handheld fan, but weirdly I’ve never owned a Lynx. 
 However, my local retro store has a nice clean looking MK2 in right now, and better yet, I have enough store credit to pay for it.  
   I worry though, that it’ll just sit on my shelf with my Game Gear, GBA, Switch Lite etc. 

   would love to hear if you think I’ll get some use and fun from it, or if more likely just be another trinket sat on a shelf. 
 Thanks 

[Ninjabba]

I can only throw in a sales pitch here but the Lynx has a nice homebrew community that can be fun to follow, but of course the most important question is what kind of games are you looking for to play. Plenty of good titles on the Lynx and most of it is affordable.

[+BitJag]

Put about 5 hours into Xenophobe over the last week in my Lynx.  One of the best versions of that game in my opinion.  Even better if you can find a friend with Lynx to do multiplayer Xenophobe.

 

I also want to echo that there is a active homebrew scene for the Lynx that is churning out some impressive homebrew recently.  Songbird Productions base releasing new games for years.  Allot of puzzle games, but also platformers, shooters, runners, etc.  Allot of good content to dig into that us new, along with good officially released exclusives and arcade ports.

 

If your into hardware modding there are options there as well.  The most notable being modern LCD mods that are good if your old LCD is dying or you just want a clearer screen to look at while playing.

 

 

[+jgkspsx]

The vast majority of the library is solid to excellent, and the vast majority is available for cheap from B&C and Best and other warehousers to this day. Several of the best games are not easy to find cheap, but most are. Add to that the most active and positive development community this side of the 2600 and the Vectrex and I would say most people can have a really good time with it. Plus there are two great sd carts available for it.

 

There are gaps in the library - not enough shmups, no great beat em ups, and the only real RPGs are the unreleased Eye of the Beholder and @Ninjabba’s own excellent Wyvern Tale. But if you like 80s and 90s arcade games, platformers, puzzle games, sports games, and so on you will find a lot to enjoy.

[Leonard Smith]

I'd get one, mainly for the retail library as there are some great Atari arcade conversions there.

Only issue I have is the fact that this aging hardware is becoming very fragile and will require some work to keep it going.

Screen issues, pixels missing, audio fading, etc.  

[+sramirez2008]

I think it’s a great portable for reasons already stated. Make sure you have the power supply, or get one from Best Electronics. Should your unit require any work (upgrades or screen replacement) I recommend @-^CrossBow^- He has excellent feedback and full disclosure, some of it is from me. 
 

Happy gaming!

[TrekMD]

I'd recommend getting it.  The Lynx is a cool system, has homebrew support.  If you are able to upgrade the screen, it is even better!

[PFG 9000]

I still play my Lynx pretty regularly, even 30ish years after getting my first one.  It doesn't have the largest library (76 commercial titles and maybe another 75ish homebrews), but what's there is really high quality for the most part.  It's much easier to list the Lynx games to avoid than to list the ones to buy.

[+Stephen Moss]

On 6/24/2022 at 8:00 PM, stulec52 said:

  I worry though, that it’ll just sit on my shelf with my Game Gear, GBA, Switch Lite etc. 

   would love to hear if you think I’ll get some use and fun from it, or if more likely just be another trinket sat on a shelf. 

That is an impossible question to answer without knowing what you like gaming wise (platformers, shoot 'em ups, etc) and thus how many of the Lynx titles fall into that sphere, as obviously the better the match the more games are available to you and so the more likely you are to use it, rather than say having just one or two games because you are really into sports games and the Lynx does not feature many of those.

 

Having considered if you like a large enough selection of the game library to make it worth while getting you then have to consider why do your Game Gear, GBA and Switch sit on your shelf? Is it due to...

a) The lack of available games you like, or

b) That you do not have the time to use them or

c) That you are simply more a collector than a user.

 

Certainty if it is b and or c then there is a high possibility the same will happen with the Lynx, additionally the more systems you have means that what little time you may have available to use them has to be split between them and inevitably you will gravitate to spending more of that limited time on the system you prefer and less on the others. 

[Leonard Smith]

Has anyone had any experience buying those $199.99 Lynx II's on eBay from seller "myatari"? 
I believe that's B&C Computervision's eBay account.

 

He notes that that the units are tested/working and in "A condition" so probably like new.

The only caveat is that he notes some screens may have non-working pixels.

That's the big question for me -- if anyone has bought one recently, what was your screen like?

Browsing through the various eBay listings from other sellers, it does appear that due to age, these highly prone to all kinds of issues.  Just don't want to spend $200 and get a dud system and then have to deal with returning it.

 

Edited July 2, 2022 by Leonard Smith