The Atari Lynx is a fourth-generation handheld game console that Atari Corporation released in September 1989 in North America and in 1990 in Europe and Japan. It was the first handheld console with a color liquid-crystal display. The Lynx used a 4 MHz 65C02 8-bit CPU and a special 16-bit blitter, making it more advanced than Nintendo’s monochrome Game Boy, which came out five months earlier. It also competed with Sega’s Game Gear and NEC’s TurboExpress, which were released the following year.

The system was created by two former designers of the Amiga personal computers at Epyx. The project was named the Handy Game or simply Handy. In 1991, Atari replaced the Lynx with a smaller version called the Lynx II. Atari released a total of 73 games for the Lynx before it was discontinued in 1995.

History

The Lynx system was first created by Epyx as the Handy Game. In 1986, two former Amiga designers, RJ Mical and Dave Needle, were asked by Dave Morse, a former Amiga manager, to design a portable gaming system. Morse had moved to Epyx, a company known for making popular games. His son had asked him to create a portable system, leading to a meeting with Mical and Needle. Morse convinced them to join Epyx, and they began working on the design in 1986. The project was completed in 1987. Epyx first displayed the Handy system at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 1989. Because Epyx faced financial problems, it tried to find partners. Nintendo, Sega, and others said no, but Atari agreed to help. Atari would handle production and marketing, while Epyx focused on software. Epyx went bankrupt by the end of 1989, so Atari took full ownership of the project. Atari and others had to buy Amigas from Commodore, Atari’s main competitor, to develop Lynx software.

The Handy system used cartridges to store games. Before a game could be played, its data had to be copied from ROM to RAM, which made the system slower and reduced available RAM. There are physical parts in the system that could have been used for cassette tapes, but no official support for this feature was ever added. A 2009 interview with Mical confirmed that games were not loaded from tapes, though the team briefly considered using a hard disk.

The networking system was first planned to use infrared links and was called RedEye. This was changed to a cable-based system before the final release because infrared signals were easily blocked when players moved through the beam. Peter Engelbrite, who created the first eight-player co-op game for Lynx called Todd's Adventures in Slime World, noted this change.

Atari changed the internal speaker and removed the thumb stick from the control pad. At the Summer 1989 CES, Atari demonstrated the system as the "Portable Color Entertainment System," which was later renamed "Lynx" when sold to retailers. It initially cost $179.95 in the U.S. (about $470 in 2025).

The Lynx’s launch was successful. Atari reported selling 90% of the 50,000 units shipped in the U.S. during its first month, with a limited release in New York. Sales in 1990 reached about 500,000 units, according to the Associated Press. By late 1991, Atari estimated sales at 800,000 units, which it said matched its goals. By 1995, combined sales of the Lynx and Game Gear reached fewer than 7 million units. In comparison, the Game Boy sold 16 million units by 1995 due to its better durability, price, battery life, and game library, including the popular game Tetris.

The design of game cartridges changed over time. Early cartridges were flat and stackable, but they were hard to remove from the console. A second design with tabs was introduced to help with removal. This new style could not be stacked easily, so a third design with a curved lip was made. All official and third-party cartridges later used this style.

In May 1991, Sega released its Game Gear portable system, which had a color screen. Compared to the Lynx, the Game Gear had shorter battery life (3–4 hours vs. 4–5 hours), was slightly smaller, had more games, and cost $30 less at launch.

Retailers like Game and Toys "R" Us continued selling the Lynx into the mid-1990s, partly because of the Atari Jaguar’s launch. Magazines like Ultimate Future Games also covered the Lynx alongside newer consoles.

In July 1991, Atari released an updated version of the Lynx called the "Lynx II." It had improved hardware, better battery life, a sleeker design, rubber grips, a clearer backlit screen with a power-saving feature, and a stereo headphone jack. It was sold without accessories and cost $99 (about $240 in 2025).

In 1993, Atari shifted focus to prepare for the Jaguar’s launch. A few games, such as Battlezone 2000, were released during this time. Support for the Lynx ended in 1995. After the Jaguar’s failure, Atari stopped making games and hardware by early 1996. It merged with JTS, Inc. on July 30, 1996.

Features

The Atari Lynx has a color screen that lights up from behind, can be used with the controls on the left or right side (or upside down), and can connect to other units using a special cable called Comlynx. The most stable connection allows up to eight players. Each Lynx requires a copy of the game, and one cable can connect two machines. Multiple cables can be linked together in a chain.

The screen was the most expensive part of the system, so the choice of colors was based on cost-saving. If cheaper materials and parts had allowed for more colors, the designers would have used them.

The Lynx was the first gaming console with hardware that could zoom in or distort game images. It had a 4096-color display and special chips that helped with math and graphics, including a part that managed moving game characters. These features made its color graphics a major advantage over Nintendo's black-and-white Game Boy. Fast pseudo-3D graphics were achieved using a method created by co-designer Dave Needle, which involved stretching triangles instead of using full 3D shapes.

Technical specifications

• Mikey (8-bit VLSI custom CMOS chip running at 16 MHz) On Lynx I, a VLSI 8-bit VL65NC02 processor (based on the MOS 6502) running at up to 4 MHz (3.6 MHz average). In the stereo version of Lynx II, a 65C02 with all instructions. Sound engine: 4 channel sound with 8-bit DAC for each channel (4 channels × 8-bits/channel = 32 bits commonly quoted). These four sound channels can also switch to analogue sound mode to generate PSG sound. PSG sound is created by setting up the taps of a LFSR to produce various pulse waves or pseudo-random noise. Video DMA driver for liquid-crystal display: Custom built and designed by Jay Miner and Dave Morse. 160×102 pixels resolution, 4,096 color (12-bit) palette, 16 simultaneous colors (4 bits) from palette per scanline. Variable frame rate (up to 75 frames/second). Eight system timers (two reserved for LCD timing, one for UART). Interrupt controller. UART (for Comlynx) (fixed format 8E1, up to 62500 Bd / TurboMode 1,000,000Bd). 512 bytes of bootstrap and game-card loading ROM.
• Suzy (16-bit VLSI custom CMOS chip running at 16 MHz). Unlimited number of blitter "sprites" with collision detection. Hardware sprite scaling, distortion, and tilting effects. Hardware decoding of compressed sprite data. Hardware clipping and multi-directional scrolling. Math engine: Hardware 16-bit × 16-bit → 32-bit multiply with optional accumulation; 32-bit ÷ 16-bit → 16-bit divide. Parallel processing of CPU.
• RAM: 64 KB 120ns DRAM.
• Cartridges: 128, 256, 512 KB and (with bank-switching) 1 MB.
• Ports: Headphone port (3.5 mm stereo; wired for mono on the original Lynx). ComLynx (multiple unit communications, serial).
• LCD Screen: 3.5" diagonal.
• Battery holder (six AA): 4–5 hours (Lynx I), 5–6 hours (Lynx II).

Legacy

Telegames released several games in the late 1990s, including a version of Raiden and a side-scrolling game called Fat Bobby in 1997, and an action sports game called Hyperdrome in 1999.

On March 13, 1998, nearly three years after the Lynx stopped being produced, JTS Corporation sold all Atari assets to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million. On May 14, 1999, Hasbro, which kept those properties until selling Hasbro Interactive to Infogrames in 2001, made all rights to the Jaguar available for anyone to use without restrictions. Some online theories suggest the Lynx’s rights may have been released at the same time as the Jaguar, but this is not confirmed. Despite being discontinued, the Lynx, like the Jaguar, has continued to receive support from a group of fans who created many independent games, including T-Tris (the first Lynx game with a save feature), Alpine Games, and Zaku.

In 2008, Atari was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for leading the way in creating handheld games with the Lynx.

In 2022, the compilation Atari 50 included several popular Lynx games, marking the first time classic Lynx software was officially released again by Atari. A collection of Lynx games has also been released as separate titles on other platforms, such as Steam and the Evercade.