A color handheld console system developed by Atari. Despite his huge specifications for a console handheld that time, was a market failure.

• CPU: Two 16-Bit custom CMOS chips running at 16MHz (named Mikey and Suzy)
• Sound: 8 bit DAC for each channel; 4 channels integrated stereo speaker (wired for mono in original)
• Screen: 160 x 102 (horz) 60.00 Hz
• Color: 4096 colors, 16 max per scanline
• RAM: 64KB RAM of 120ns DRAM
• I/O Ports: Headphone port (mini-DIN 3.5mm stereo; wired for mono on the original Lynx), ComLynx (multiple unit communications, serial)
• Screen: 3.5” diagonal (3.25” x 1.88” approx.)

MESS emulates the following systems

• lynx [Atari Lynx]
• linx2 [Atari Lynx II]

but due to missing dump of the Lynx II, only the Atari Lynx is usable (to a certain degree). For lynx, MESS supports cart dumps in .lnx and .lyx format, using the “cartridge” (cart) device.

Also, a “quickload” (quik) feature is present for .o files, but it's currently broken.

Lynx is flip-able for optimal support of left and right hand players (hold down pause and press option 2 in many games). Some games want to be rotated by 90 degree.

MESS supports two different Lynx dumps, both saved from a running machine (therefore the rom byte at 0xff09 is not readable: the 2 dumps differ only in this byte). You can switch between them, changing the -bios parameter. At command line,

"-bios 0" = Lynx

"-bios 1" or "-bios a" = Lynx (alternate rom save)

The emulation of these systems is still Preliminary. More in detail:

• Several cartridges playable
• Blitter imperfect
• Timer system incomplete
• Audio imperfect
• No serial port emulation
• Lynx II bios is needed!

The Atari Lynx was the first handheld color videogame system produced.

The system was originally developed by Epyx as the “Handy.” Planning and design of the console was begun in 1986 and completed in 1987. The first appearance of the system was at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 1989. Due to financial problems, Epyx had to look for financial support and partners, finding an interested Atari. The two companies eventually agreed that Atari would handle production and marketing, while Epyx would be responsible of software development. Atari changed the internal speaker, removed the thumb-stick on the control pad and showed the console to the press at the Summer 1989 CES as the “Portable Color Entertainment System”. The name was later changed to Lynx when actual consoles were distributed.

Since its appearance, in September 1989, Lynx suffered greatly the success of its rival Game Boy. Indeed, Nintendo's handheld was released almost contemporarily as Atari Lynx in US, at a half of its price. Despite the lack of colors on screen, the longer average battery life and the presence of a blockbuster title as Tetris, ensured to Game Boy a huge success.

In 1991, Atari relaunched the Lynx with a new look (rubber hand grips), slightly improved hardware (a clearer backlit color screen with a power save option, to turn off the backlight and reduce the battery consumption), new packaging and new marketing campaign. The new system, called inside Atari “Lynx II”, helped the sales, but Nintendo still dominated the handheld market.

In May 1991, Sega launched its Game Gear portable gaming handheld: while more expensive than Lynx and with a lower battery life, the Game Gear was backed up by significantly more popular titles, making it a preferable second choice for a buyer.

In 1994, Atari shifted its focus away from the Lynx, towards its new Jaguar console. Only a handful of games were released during this period. Finally, in 1996, Atari shut down its internal game development.

In the second half of the 1990s, Telegames released a number of games, including a port of “Raiden”, a platform game called “Fat Bobby”, and an action sports game called “Hyperdrome”. At the end of the decade, Hasbro, the current owners of Atari at the time, released the rights to develop for the system to the public domain. This allowed a number of independent developers to release games for the Lynx. In fact, some of these games had been already under development by other companies at one point, but rights to the game programs and all of the existing code was bought and finished by other developers.

The Atari Lynx had several innovative features:

• it was the first color handheld, with a backlit display and a switchable right-handed/left-handed (upside down) configuration;
• it had the ability to network with up to 17 other units via its “ComLynx” system (though most games would network eight or fewer players): originally developed to run over infrared links (RedEye was its codename), was changed later to a cable-based networking system ;
• it was the first gaming console with hardware support for zooming/distortion of sprites, allowing fast pseudo-3D games with unrivaled quality at the time and a capacity for drawing filled polygons with limited CPU intervention (Blue Lightning, an After Burner clone, was especially notable and featured in TV advertising for the console)

The games were originally meant to be loaded from tape, but were later changed to load from ROM. The game data still needed to be copied from ROM to RAM before it could be used, so less memory was available and the games loaded slower than necessary.

(info based on Wikipedia, Lynx FAQs and Atari Age)

• Atari Age
• FAQ on Lynx
• Atari_Lynx

• Handy
• Mednafen