(Game Sack Theme) - Hello and welcome to Game Sack. This time we're talking
about the Atari Lynx. - I always wanted one of these systems back in the day. I actually even bought one of them I don't know why I picked it over the Game Gear but I did. I just wanted a system with a back lit screen that was better than the Game Boy and let's just say I was not overjoyed with what I bought, so. Anyways, enough with that, while Joe's got an overview of the system so let's take a look at that. - [Joe] The Atari Lynx Meow. Launched in September of
1989 for 180 US dollars not long after the
Genesis and the Game Boy, the Atari Lynx was the world's first color handheld gaming system. It was also the world's
first 16-bit handheld. Originally designed by Epyx as the Handy, Atari eventually came along and funded the project and renamed it the Lynx. Because what would you
rather get for Christmas, a Lynx or a Handy? Epyx was to handle the
software development while Atari manufactured the hardware. But it wasn't long before
Epyx filed for bankruptcy, leaving full responsibility to Atari. The system was designed
to be played right-handed or left-handed and the
screen image could be flipped to accommodate either configuration. Some games could even
be played vertically. Powering the Lynx were
two custom, 16-bit CMOSes running at 16MHz each. An 8-bit 65SC02 running
at 4MHz, 64KB of RAM, and four channels of sound. The 3.5 inch screen had
a resolution of 160 x 102 and could display up to
16 colors per scan line out of a total of 4096. Ultimately Atari just couldn't attract many third-party developers
to write high-profile games for the system and sales were sluggish. The Lynx ended up selling
nearly three million units with a library of seventy three games. (upbeat electronic music) - Alright, as usual
very interesting video. I think you missed a
few things there but-- - Like the scaling blitter? - That! I didn't know what the
word was for it but yeah, you missed that part of it. Anyways, we got a bunch of
games to look at so, here we go. - [Joe] California Games is
the title that was included with the Lynx when it launched. Unfortunately I've never
really been good at any of the versions of
these games as I can never figure out the weird controls. But still, for some strange
reason I like to try. You can choose from four different games, rollerskating and Frisbee didn't
make it into this version. The BMX game is interesting
as it now takes place with an isometric view. In other versions, this
one's usually played as a side-scrolling
event but this new view doesn't do anything to
hinder the gameplay. And I know this as fact because
I'm exactly as inept here as I am in other versions. In the Lynx California
Games, surfing makes you go to the left instead of to the right. This is the only event that I
can do somewhat decently in. The wave has some cool
graphical effects as well. I absolutely suck balls at
half-pipe and I'm never able to do anything at all except
for fall off the board. But I really like the
full-screen zooming effect which was absolutely
mind-blowing when this came out. At least it was to me. And footbag A.K.A.
hacky sack is just dumb. Why did they even bother
making a game out of this? Oh well, this probably wasn't
the best choice for a pack-in but if you actually know
how to play the game, well maybe you'll enjoy it. (Bassy chip tune music) - [Dave] Alright, let's
check out Batman Returns, one of the few movie licensed
properties for the Lynx. It's a side-scrolling
beat-em-up in a similar vein to Konami's Batman Returns
game on the Super Nintendo. You can attack and jump
with the two main buttons. One of the option buttons
allows you switch your attacks between punches, batarangs, and eventually some of vials that you can toss. The other option turns
the music on and off. It's easy to get beaten up
and lose life but fortunately you can collect bat symbols
to restore some of it and also get more batarangs to toss. Sadly this game just isn't
well designed at all. Bombs and dynamite will be
constantly tossed at you from behind doors and from sewers. I mean, look at all the
dynamite coming from down there, how are you supposed to get passed this without taking damage? And then there's this
building that explodes and as far as I know
there's no way to avoid having to take nearly
your entire life bar away. I quickly discovered that the best way to get through a level
is just to keep rushing to the right and jumping. You'll still take a bit
of damage, especially from the exploding building, but
it's seriously the best way to make it to the end of this stage. Then you fight The
Penguin and it's very hard to avoid his shots because
you move very slowly. Not only that but you have
next to no invincibility after you get hit. So I make it past him and on to stage two. I miss the first jump and I'm dead! That's right, you only get
one life and no continues. Whoever designed this one
just didn't understand how video games work. (sad chip tune music) (white noise explosions) - [Joe] Blue Lightning was a launch game and possibly is one of the
best games on the handheld. In this one you get to
fly an airplane and embark on various missions like
shooting down enemies and also, shooting down enemies! It plays kinda like Afterburner
except without the speed, the screen rotation,
and the pumping music. You have a Vulcan gun
which has unlimited ammo as well as a limited supply
of heat-seeking missiles. Just like in Afterburner,
once you line a distant enemy up in your sights, a crosshair appears, meaning you can launch a
missile and they will die. Pressing Option 1 will
fire your afterburners and make you go really,
really fast for a short bit. Holding Option 2 and fidgeting the d-pad will let you do a barrel-roll. Sorry, sorry, I mean aileron roll, you can stop typing that comment, now. If you get hit by enemy fire you explode and restart right there. However if you crash your
plane into something, the game forces you to
restart your mission all over again which kinda sucks. And these missions
aren't very short either, so the best advice is just not to crash. The length of the levels
can also depend on you. Sometimes you have a
certain number of enemies that you need to destroy and then the style of the landscape will change and you move on to that segment. And you'll fly over
lots of different stuff from barren grasslands, canyons with tons of mesas everywhere, Mountains with enemies hidden in-between, and even out of sea
where you need to blow up tons of enemy ships. In at least one level you're forced to fly through a canyon
blowing up enemies. You can't fly over it like
you can in other levels. And sometimes you hear the
beeping of an enemy missile locking onto you so you've
gotta be fast to avoid it and also try to shoot down
a missile or two if you can. You don't always get time
to enjoy the scenery. Speaking of which, the graphics are really good for their time. Remember, this came out
around the same time as the GameBoy and the Genesis. There's tons of scaling here and I was completely blown away. It even has Mode 7 style
scaling on the ground long before Mode 7 existed. In fact I used to play this game a lot on my friend's Lynx. I never got very far and
it's more of a tech demo than an actual game but hell,
I still had fun with it. And yeah, I've even
having fun with it today playing it again after all these years. If you have a Lynx, you
have to have this game. (generic gunfire and explosions) - [Dave] Gauntlet The Third Encounter is one of maybe five Lynx games where you play it by holding
the system vertically. And yes, this is Gauntlet 3. And of course you get to pick from your favorite Gauntlet characters like a wizard, an android, a punk rocker, a nerd, and what have you. The game plays like Gauntlet except that the enemies are just there. There are no enemy regenerators
to find and destroy. You run around collecting items and keys but you can only carry so much stuff. For example, in the second level, don't pick up any pots of
gold because you'll need all of the keys you can carry to unlock the one thousand doors
that block the exit. It probably works better when
you link up multiple systems so you can effectively carry more. The levels can be pretty big
but that's not really an issue. What is an issue though,
is the music is pretty bad. It's very repetitive and it
doesn't ever seem to change. Well I mean it might, but if it does I can't get far enough to find out. Still, it's not a
horrible game or anything, but it's not one that I'd
really go out of my way to recommend to anyone. (spooky chip tune music) (combat sound effects) - [Joe] Chip's Challenge is
a cool, puzzle style game. We showed the Commodore 64
version back in our episode about the classic mini systems,
which included the C64 Mini. The Lynx version is the same, well actually maybe a bit better. The visuals sure look
nicer, and the music here isn't bad or anything. Anyway, the premise of this game is that you need to collect all
of the computer chips that are strewn throughout each level. And of course there are
hazards and obstacles that you'll need to avoid or manipulate. For example, you may need to find a key to open that same colored
door, or you may need to find a shield to protect you from elements. On level three you need to get the shield to walk on water to grab
the chip that's there and then get the crampon so you can walk on the
ice without sliding. Get that chip and then the orange shield to protect you from
fire, wander over there and get that chip and then the magnet, which will let you walk
on the moving belts without being pushed in whatever
direction they're moving. The first few levels are
fairly linear and easy but they're still fun. But of course the levels
do get much more clever and difficult before long. If you need a slight hint, just
touch the question mark box and you'll be told what
the items in the level do or be given a general hint. Thank goodness there's
a password feature here and you also have unlimited tries. This is definitely a
standout title for the Lynx even though it can be had on
several other old computers. (lively chip tune music) - [Dave] Here's Xenophobe
which originally appeared in the arcade. You absolutely hate
aliens and it's your job to kill every last one
of them just because they're not human and for no other reason. They in turn are trying to kill you, or maybe just defend
themselves, I don't know. In the beginning you can select from a bunch of different characters. I'll start with Dr Pink just because. You wander through the base killing aliens and collecting items. You've gotta keep your health up and kill all of the aliens
before the time runs out. There's many different aliens but the only alien that you can
appreciate is a dead alien. But in order to kill them
you need to find them and the bases can be pretty big. Sometimes there are multiple floors. The good news is they don't all wait for you to come find them. Some will actually chase you down. If you die you can
choose another character to continue your quest. You can get bombs to toss and
more powerful guns as well. Sometimes the aliens can
knock your weapon away and you'll have to rely
on your fists until you can find another one. The game plays very well, I
enjoy the 3D-like transitions from room to room which weren't in any other versions of the game. And the stereo sound is cool
if you're playing on a Lynx II. All in all, this is an
excellent port of the arcade and kept me entertained. (gunfire) - [Joe] Electro Cop
was another launch game for the Lynx from Epyx. In this one, you play as
a cop who must navigate the innards of a building,
punch in codes to open doors and find his way around
all while not dying. I liked playing this on my
fiend's Lynx at the time because of the cool scaling effects that let us basically
explore the world in 3D which was a really new experience. I was never good at this game
though and I'm still not. And to be honest, the gameplay really isn't very good at all. It's hard to position yourself properly to kill the enemies without being damaged all to hell yourself, and your weapons run out of power way too quickly. Not to mention that the audio
was horrible all around. But I still like what
they did with the graphics and sadly that's the only leg that this game has to stand on. Hey, at least there are a few
little mini-games built-in to pretend to have fun with. (Mediocre chip tune music) (warning sirens) - Alright, well we've
gotten started per-se. Um, that Electro Cop,
that's an interesting idea I mean, good concept
but you know, just not-- - Executed very well. - Yeah, definitely, so. - Too bad too because I
think it could have been a great game, it would been
awesome like, maybe one of the first PlayStation
games something, who knows? But we've got more to
cover, so let's get into it. - [Dave] Ninja Gaiden is even on the Lynx. Alas, it's a port of the
original arcade version which is a beat-em-up. But at least it's a good
port for the most part. You run around punching
thugs like you would in any beat-em-up. There's some power-ups and items hidden in crates and phone
booths and things like that. But I can't figure out
how to break them open without being tossed
into them by an enemy. This game was made in a time
before beat-em-up gameplay was refined, so it's
pretty clunky as a result. But otherwise both the graphics and the music are pretty good. The scrolling is also smooth which seems to be rare on the Lynx. (up tempo chip tune music) But fret not because Ninja
Gaiden III is also here and it's a port of the NES game. This seems very out of
place on this system, but here it is; it
mostly plays quite well. It'd play better though if the jump and action
buttons weren't backwards. The level design is mostly
the same as the NES game. Even the cutscenes are in here. Unfortunately I feel there's
a little bit of an issue hitting enemies with your sword sometimes. And it's often not only
hard to make out some of the enemies against
the background but it's also hard to see what the power-ups are. You'd think with its
massive array of colors, they would have perhaps
improved the graphics some to make the enemies stand out more or just make it nicer. But it actually looks considerably worse than the NES original. They even got rid of
the parallax scrolling. Still, at least the scrolling is smooth and the music is good. Overall I like the NES version better but it's still cool that
this is on the Lynx. (tense chip tune music) (sword slashes) - [Joe] The Gates of Zendocon is an exciting horizontal
shooter from Epyx! I lied, it's not actually very exciting. But it is a horizontal shooter. You take off in your poorly drawn ship, button B fires your lasers. If you hold the button down you get a continuous laser beam. However if you tap it again and again, you can also drop little bombs. If you hold down the A button, you generate a shield around you which destroys anything it touches. You can use this to get
through pretty much anything. You'll rarely ever need it
though because there's not much that really presents any danger to you. And if you do get hit,
your ship takes damage and loses parts, so usually
you're still good to go. Your goal is to make it to the gate at the end of each stage. Inside the gate you'll land,
your pilot will get out, go down and take off on another ship for whatever deranged reason. But if you had damaged your
ship in the previous stage, well you've got a new one now. Sometimes, rarely, the
landing pads are electrified and can blow up your ship. In fact, these are the only things that ever killed me in the game. You play through level after level and it's all very slow and you can feel the hardware chugging. Sometimes though it does speed up when there's not much on screen. And there are 51 levels to go through. The biggest challenge
in saving this universe, is not becoming bored and quitting before you make it through all 51 stages. However if you do get bored, at least there's a password feature so you can finish it later. (adventurous chip tune music) (gunfire and explosions) - [Dave] The port of Double
Dragon from Telegames is decent, all things considered. The first thing you'll
notice is that the screen is way zoomed in because
they didn't bother resizing the sprites for the Lynx's
low resolution screen. This can cause issues because the screen sometimes gets crowded and it's tough to tell what's going on. Otherwise, most everything
is here, just abridged. You have your punches and
kicks, but in order to jump you need to hold up and one of the attack buttons which is weird. As a result I sometimes
found myself jumping when I didn't want to, but
it's a minor issue I suppose. You just need to get used to it. Some of the moves are missing. For example there's no
backwards elbow smash unless I just can't figure it out. The game's way too easy
with that move, anyway. The levels are a bit smaller than the original arcade but mostly faithful. You even get to jump across the bridge in stage three. Sweet! Besides being zoomed in,
the graphics are great and mostly look just like the arcade. It would have been better
if they sacrificed this to make everything smaller
to fit the screen, though. Each stage has music you're used to and it sounds decent for the Lynx. Which isn't exactly a powerhouse
when it comes to sound. Overall it's interesting but I feel it could have been better. (sweet Double Dragon chip tune music) - [Joe] Gordo 106 is about a lab monkey. Could this be Diddy Kong's origin story? Maybe. Anyway, you escape from
your cage and your goal is to free all of the other caged animals and defeat the scientists
by throwing apples at them. You can collect apples to refill your ammo and of course bananas refill your life. Diddy, I mean Gordo controls okay. He can hang from lights on the ceiling as well as the typical walk, run, and jump, and attack moves. The problem is that if
you fall into a hole you go waaaay down into a dungeon full of flames and gargoyles and whatnot. What kind of laboratory is this?! And below that there are even more animals to be freed. And the holes in the floor are all over the place in the game. Unfortunately the level design combined with the controls isn't very good and you'll spend most of
the time falling down holes. To it's credit though, it does have some nice parallax
scrolling, though it's not the smoothest in the world. The music however, is kind
of abrasive and grating. This game is a nice attempt
but it needs more polish. (abrasive and grating chip tune music) (rushing air) - [Dave] Desert Strike Return to The Gulf got ported to the Lynx. And I've gotta say it's pretty good. Actually it's much better than I expected. Well there's one thing
that's not very good here and that's my skill playing this game. I still enjoy it though,
I just need more practice. Anyway, you play a helicopter who needs to accomplish several objectives in each mission. Sometimes there's a
butt-load of objectives for your poor, lonesome
helicopter to complete. And often your objectives require you to blow things up in a certain order so you're less likely to be detected by a ton of resistance. So in mission one and two, you need to take out the
two radar dishes first. You can always pause the
game and bring up the map that shows where you are
as well as your objectives and you can cycle through them. There's a but of slowdown
when there's more than just a few things on screen and it can make turning
around tough sometimes. But overall the graphics are
great for the little system and the scrolling is pretty smooth. The sound is fine as well
but there's no music. That's okay because the original game didn't have music as you played either. All in all, it's a pretty good port. (helicopter rotors) (gunfire and explosions) - [Joe] RoadBlasters is a port of the Atari arcade
game that's really good. Believe it or not, this
is a rally racing game. At least that's what the game calls each segment that you drive in. Basically your goal is to make it to the end without running out of fuel and there are a total of fifty segments. You have to shoot other cars on the road that are just minding their own business but they're in your way. Some cars can't be destroyed though. Your fuel is always depleting and it goes down even
further if your blow up which trust me, is easy to do. I mean there are even guns on the side of the road shooting at you. You can increase your fuel by collecting the green and red orbs on the road. But be careful because
there are even mines on the road in some places. A futuristic plane will sometimes come in and drop parts for you to catch. These are usually super guns
which obliterate your enemy. My favorite is the nuke that you fire off into the distance and it
vaporizes oncoming enemies for a very short time. And as you'd expect, these
enhancements don't last forever and go away immediately if you die. This is a great conversion of the arcade. The acceleration takes a
short time to get used to as you control it pressing up and down to increase your speed. Fortunately you don't have to keep holding up to go. The scaling is well done and
everything is extremely fast and not choppy at all. And while there's no music,
the sound is done well and even includes voices with that classic Atari arcade quality. - Shooting Accuracy increases multiplier! - [Joe] This is a great game for the Lynx. (engine revving) (explosion) (gunfire and explosions) (warning alarm) - Fuel level critical! - [Dave] Rygar is another Tecmo game that made it to the Lynx. And like the original Ninja Gaiden, it's a port of the arcade game. That means it's much more simple than what we saw on the NES. Just run to the right, defeat enemies, and keep running to the right. There's items you can get and even power-ups for your attack. But they don't really matter
much because everything in this game dies with a single hit. You don't have all the moves you can do with your slingy disc thing that you could in the arcade version and
I was sad to see that cut. But again it doesn't matter much because it's still hyper easy. There's some platforming
to do here and there to break up the monotony just a bit. There's even some climbing. But what really brings it down is the same droning music track that plays over and over on each stage, and it feels like it's
only four seconds long. It's actually longer,
there's just not much more to the music than the repetitive bass line (bassy and repetitious chip tune music) - Alright Dave, I always
felt that the arcade version of Rygar wasn't quite up to
par with the NES version. It's like one of those
games where the NES game is actually better. - True. - And y'know, same with Ninja Gaiden it's, like a lot of those Tecmo
games they way improved them when they brought 'em home. - I totally agree with that but hey, it's I guess better
than nothing considering the system's library, right? (laughs) - Maybe so. Anyway, let's finish this up. Even Pac-Land made it to the Lynx. You don't see this one
on very many systems and it's a cool, if weird game. The goal is to make
Pac-Man run to the right, getting the fairys that
you keep under your hat to Fairy Land. After you've delivered enough of them you need to run back home to your family. But watch out for the ghosts
because they are diabolical. You have never seen pure evil like this. They drive in their little cars, and sometimes fly in their planes, and flying saucers, dropping
their children on you. Of course if you touch them, you die. But there are power
pellets scattered around and if you get one,
you can eat them alive. If you die, you seem to be
restarted in a random place. Sometimes you get sent all the way back to the beginning of the
town, but if you die there, suddenly you're in the woods. This version has the parallax scrolling that was completely missing from the TurboGrafx-16 port, so that's cool. The control is very floaty,
I feel that there's also some issues with the collision detection. As a result, this is the
hardest version of Pac-Land that I've personally played, so far. Finally, the music is
kind of grating and rough. It has a good melody, it's just that the sound quality isn't so hot. (melodic chip tune music) - [Dave] Dirty Larry: Renegade Cop is another side-scroller
and it kinda reminds me of Batman Returns. It also reminds me of
Techno Cop on the Genesis. You start out in the chief's
office getting yelled at for destroying another police car so now you need to do all of your work while walking around or on the subway. You take to the streets with
your gun and your fists. Pressing up jumps and it's a good thing you don't need to jump much in this one. Button A attacks, and
B will let you switch between your fists and your gun. You don't want to use your
fists if you don't have to as they're practically useless. You have limited ammo and
fortunately you can get a lot more, sometimes it
just isn't enough though. Your life bar drains quick and although it can be replenished, you really need to be careful out there. Of course you only have
one life and when you die there are no continues,
just like in Batman Returns. I do like how the Baseball Furies from the movie The Warriors are in here. And I like the gritty
areas you wander through. But the scrolling is really choppy and there's no music at all. The game is pretty rough and honestly it feels about average fro the Lynx. (strange sound effect) - [Joe] I used to play
S.T.U.N. Runner a lot back in the arcade. It was a cool, un-textured, polygonal tube-racer/shooting game. I remember seeing pictures
of the Lynx version here in magazines and I always
though it looked terrible because of the dithering on the tube. I felt that instead it should
have been a solid color. Now that's I'm finally
playing it, I've gotta say it doesn't really bother me
as much as I thought it would, and this version is really fun. There's not much to this game and honestly, that's perfectly fine. Basically you blast down a road trying to hit boosts and green stars. Certain obstacles and
cars can be destroyed with your laser, and of
course other obstacles cannot. If you collect enough green stars you get a shockwave weapon which can destroy indestructible enemies. But of course you need to
collect a ton of green stars for each one of these that you use. The frame rate is kind of low but it really doesn't bother me or make the game less playable. And it's always fun to finish a track and play just one more
again, and again, and again. And there's even a ton of voice here that was brought over from the arcade. - You have completed level four. - [Joe] They did a really
good job with this conversion and you should own it if
you have a Lynx. Seriously. (gunfire) - Vehicle slows on open areas (gunfire) - [Dave] Checkered Flag is a racing game that's similar to Pole Position. You control your F1 car from behind in a third-person view around the track. It controls fairly well actually. And look at that, I get a trophy and a kiss from a hot
woman after finishing a single practice lap all by myself. Okay, maybe I'll switch from
practice to single heat. Same thing, this is super easy! Okay, I'll try the tournament mode. Maybe now I'll be able
to move up in the ranks and win the World Championship. I like that there are rear
view mirrors on my car so I can see my opponents, I mean if there were actually
any opponents to see. In fact, every track I race on is a single lap all by myself. I sure am racking up
the trophies and kisses at a record amount, though. Oh, drones? I have to turn on drone cars? And the default setting is zero which means you can't lose. Okay, now there's finally
opponents to race against. Boy this game sure runs slow
with all the other cars. Some people really like this
one but I'm not sure why. Overall it's not a horrible racing game but it's super easy unless
you change the settings and even then it's just kinda mediocre. (engine revving) - [Joe] Hydra is based
on the Atari arcade game and this is the only home
port that it ever received. Basically it's kind of like
RoadBlasters in a boat. You're given items to deliver and I guess your shady ass is the best courier they could find. You set off in your
boat and you shoot down pretty much anything that
you see along your way. Except most things are
shooting right back at you! Be sure you grab all the
money bags that you see which are attached to balloons. You can collect green balls for fuel and also orange balls which
give you a boost jump. This sends you into the sky
which helps you avoid enemies and you can also collect
things like more money while you're up there. If you crash, you'll lose the
item that you're transporting but you'll be able to pick
it up again along the way. The problem is discerning it among the other hazards in the water. Everything is a pixilated mess and you may end up crashing
again trying to retrieve it. If you make it to the end
of the stage with the item, you win a kiss from one
of the bikini girls. If you fail to deliver the item, the girls will have
absolutely nothing to do with your incompetent ass. Between stages you'll play a bonus round trying to collect as much
extra money as you can. Then you'll be able to buy extra weapons and abilities at the shop. One weird thing about this game is that you press down to accelerate. Fortunately like Roadblasters,
you don't need to hold it: you just press down until
you're happy with your speed, which is what's represented
by the white bar on the left. I like all of the scaling
here and it definitely has that Atari arcade feel, which I also like. I recommend it for sure. (engine revving) (explosions) (gunfire) - [Dave] When Joe mentioned
we were doing a Lynx episode, I was like "I get to do Klax!" I was being sarcastic but
Joe made me play it anyway. I've never been a fan of Klax. You hold the Lynx
vertically to play this one. You need to match three
tiles of the same color vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Sometimes you need to do only what the game tells you
to in order to clear a round. What else can I say? It's Klax on the Lynx and my opinion of the game remains
unchanged in this version. (pleasant jingle) Okay, let's move on to Todd's Adventure in Slime World. The game also appeared on the Genesis and the PC Engine, but believe it or not the Lynx version is the best. And that mainly has to
do with the graphics. The Lynx's scaling abilities
are put to good use here to make Slime World pulsate and undulate. Otherwise, the games are
pretty much the same. You wander around a maze collecting items, trying to find the exit. You pick up many different
types of items from the ground. Like slime shields, gun
power-ups, jet packs and more. Todd has a slime gun that he
can shoot to dispatch enemies. But be careful because when they explode they can get slime on you. In fact, you'll die if you
get covered in too much slime. Fortunately there are pools
of fresh water everywhere that you can simply wash yourself off in. Or you can be fully restored
by collecting a red gem. Oh, and be careful of red
slime, that's instant death. You wander from room to
room and you have a map to help you figure out where you're at. And trust me, you're gonna
get lost quite easily. The game is very slow and honestly it gets kind of boring. The mazes are super huge
and it sometimes feels like I'll never get out. Each mission has you
doing different things like delaying an explosion or whatnot. Add to the fact that you're constantly falling through floors into places where you don't wanna be, it just ends up being kind of frustrating. To make it even worse, there's many traps that are next to impossible to avoid, even when you know exactly where they are. You have unlimited lives
to keep trying, though. And you're gonna need 'em. Like I said, the graphics are pretty good but the sound is annoying
and you'll probably want to turn the volume way down. This was a game that was highly spoken of for the Lynx back in the time, most likely due to its multiplayer aspect when linking several systems together. But as a single player game, I don't feel the game has aged very well. (alien chirping) - [Joe] I really wanted
to include Warbirds because I think a lot of people in the Lynx community think highly of it. I tried it a bunch of times and I just really couldn't get into it, but I think that I can at least appreciate it for what it is. And that's a World War I
biplane dogfight simulator. And that's all it is. You have a bunch of options you can change which affects your game. Then you can choose your scenario. You can be fighting anywhere from one to three different planes at a time. Basically, you just wanna shoot them down before they shoot you down. The problem is, is that once
you've played a round or two, there's really nothing left,
you've seen everything. Each scenario of the game takes place over the same boring grassland with the same boring clouds. There's not really any variety. There is a but of strategy in the game, like cutting your engines
to dive, or whatever but, it didn't really add anything for me. There's also an arcade
and a simulation mode and for the life of me I
couldn't tell the difference. The arcade mode might
respond a hair faster to your controls, maybe? Again, I couldn't really tell. I don't know, I'd just
rather play Blue Lightning and I bet you would, too. (plane engines) (gunfire) - [Dave] Finally, here's Scrapyard Dog from Creative Software Designs. In the beginning you're
hanging out with your dog and neither of you are bothering anybody. Then a mafia dog shoots you in the back and steals your mutt. Mr. Big Leaves you a note that tells you he has your dog and goads
you into trying to find him. Who the hell just steals someone's mutt?! Anyway, of course you're
gonna go after them and you begin in a junkyard. You're armed with a very
strange grenade for a weapon. From what I can tell, it
does one of two things when it hits an enemy. Either it crushes them to
the size of a single atom or it sucks them into a
different dimension entirely. And of course you die instantly if you touch anything
even related to the enemy. And that can be anything from birds, cats, cranes, and dogs with clothes on. They're all trying to kill you. Man, your dog must be really special. It's best to take your
time and move slowly due to the one hit deaths. There's some simple platforming here and generally it's pretty easy to control. There's a few power-ups here and there that can make you invincible briefly or even allow you to take one or two more hits before you die. The graphics are simple but they work. The same can be said about
the music and sound effects. This is a good game that's
tougher than it looks. Check it out! (adventurous chip tune music) - Alright, and that's pretty much the Atari Lynx for ya,
I think it's a system that was way ahead of its time. It's very interesting but I wish the library could have been a lot better. - Yeah, that would have
actually made the system much more enjoyable is, just some games that were kinda heavy hitters. But it was just mediocre. - Indeed. And, Dave has an
announcement for everyone. - I do? Oh.
- You do - Uh yeah, guys it's time for me to say that I am actually gonna leave Game Sack. It's come to a point where I'm just kinds getting burned out with a full-time job
at FedEx, and a family, and Game Sack, I just don't feel like, I have a lot of
quality time with my family and blah, blah, blah. But um, y'know it is what
it is, I've had a great run of eight years on the show and happily Joe's gonna keep going on. I mean, cos there's still
gonna be a quality show without me so... - Indeed, but we've got one
more Playing with Sacks left with Dave and then, the next
Game Sack episode after this will be the last one with Dave. And for that episode, I'll
let you pick the topic idea. - Ooh, I wonder what it's gonna be? - And again, we're gonna keep going, well I'm gonna keep going.
- Yeah, he's gonna keep going. - But, In the meantime,
let us know your thoughts on the Atari Lynx and thank
you for watching Game Sack. (Game Sack End Theme) - What are you doing, Joe? - I'm playing the Atari Lynx portable video games system, Dave. - And you're enjoying it? - Damn right I am! - Well, I brought my handheld system, too. (chip tune noises) - What the hell was that? - It's Shinobi, Joe. - Is that GG Shinobi? - No it's Electronic Shinobi. - Dude I wanna play Electronic Shinobi, here you play the Lynx.
- That's-- That's my Shinobi, give it back! I don't wanna play your stupid Lynx Ooh, I rescued a hostage.
Daaaaaaaaaaave!!!!11!
I hope this is a Jay-Z/Michael Jordan retirement for Dave.