VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => Classic Video Games => Topic started by: burningdoom on April 29, 2014, 09:00:23 pm
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We all well know that Game Boy far and away won the original handheld system war. But which one in your opinion was #2 back then? Was it Sega Game Gear, or Atari Lynx?
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I feel that the Game Gear had a better library
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I wouldnt necessarily put the GB as the official number 1. Duo color palette and horrible lighting kill the GB for me. Game gear would be number one over the Lynx specifically for a better library option and all around availability.
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I never knew Atari had a handheld platform until I started collecting. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing any marketing for the Jag, either.
My cousins had the Game Boy but I really wanted a Game Gear. It just seemed to be the logical choice based on hardware capabilities alone (of course, I was also a Sega fanboy at the time). I wound up getting a Nomad around '96 since I already had a decent library of Genesis games and didn't want to purchase a bunch of new stuff for a new platform (although I probably could have afforded it based on the number of batteries I went through with that thing).
I'd say in the area I grew up in the Game Boy was a clear leader and the Game Gear was a solid second. It seemed like nobody spoke of any of the other competitors. I had never seen a TurboExpress until I saw Enemy of the State.
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Yeah GB sold like hotcakes, but IMO it was lousy compared to these. It's actually pretty tough to say between these two, which is better. GG library is a bit more diverse, but Lynx games look great for a handheld from 1989.
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I feel that the Game Gear had a better library
Agreed Also if you count the Master System's library of which the Game Gear is capable of playing with the MS adapter than even more so.
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Sweet I didn't know they had an adapter. Admittedly I don't really know a huge amount about early Sega. Where I grew up everyone was on SNES/NES
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Hands-down, the Game Gear was the #2 system. And this is coming from a Lynx fan. I bought a Lynx in the early 90's and loved it, but it had a serious lack of 3rd party support. Nearly everything on it was Atari games and arcade ports. That being said, I had a lot of fun with games like Warbirds, Rygar, Ninja Gaiden (arcade) and Klax.
I come across Game Gear stuff regularly in the wild and have picked up a couple of systems over the years. By comparison, I've never come by a Lynx system anywhere and have only seen Lynx games for sale at retro game stores. My local Goodwill always has Game Gear games for sale. In fact, I was there last week and there was a Game Gear system on the shelf.
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Game Gear afcourse. Not because i used to own one then, and now have 10 of them 8).
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Hey what about TurboExpress? Come on
(http://www.retrogamingcollector.com/Old-Handhelds/PCEngineGT.jpg)
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In my opinion I think the Game Gear won the overall second spot in sales but if we are talking about my opinion on who should have gotten second, then I would have to say the Lynx. I just enjoy playing the lynx more than my Game Gear.
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Hey what about TurboExpress? Come on
If your gonna compare the TurboExpress with something it's gotta be with the Sega Nomad.
Both are portable versions of the their 16-bit console counterpart.
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I was going to say something along those lines too. Turbo Express isnt as much a handheld system as it is a portable version of the console.
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Hey what about TurboExpress? Come on
If your gonna compare the TurboExpress with something it's gotta be with the Sega Nomad.
Both are portable versions of the their 16-bit console counterpart.
+1, or the SupaBoy
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Hey what about TurboExpress? Come on
If your gonna compare the TurboExpress with something it's gotta be with the Sega Nomad.
Both are portable versions of the their 16-bit console counterpart.
The Game Gear is really nothing but a portablized Master System. Their hardware is nearly identical to each other. Which is the reason as to why it's capable of playing MS games with the Master Gear Converter. So it's actually not really all that different from the Nomad and TurboExpress.
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The difference is the Turbo Express doesnt have its own library.
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The difference is the Turbo Express doesnt have its own library.
That is true, however quite a lot of the Game Gear's library are Master System ports.
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Why you comparing it to a homebrew portable console that came out a few years ago? They all came out at around the same time.
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I was going to say something along those lines too. Turbo Express isnt as much a handheld system as it is a portable version of the console.
Except the Turbo express didn't compete with the nomad. It competed with the GB, GG, and Lynx.
I have to agree the TE was the superior hardware platform at the time, followed by the lynx, followed by game Gear, with the Original GameBoy coming in at dead last hardware wise.
The fact the TE was the only system at the time that allowed you to take your actual console games on the road was negated only by the fact that both the TG and TE and games were practically impossible to find in the US. Unless you looked at Macy catalogs regularly.
Game selection wise the GameBoy and a Game Gear were the top dogs followed by the TE. With the Lynx in dead last.
Sales wise the GameBoy was king no question, followed by GG. Not sure how the lynx sales stacked up against the TE.
So that's the factual breakdown. If you want my personal opinion I preferred the graphics of the GG and it's color backlit screen. But the battery life rarely let me finish a game on the road.
The GameBoy was always a b!tch to see even with direct light or a light adapter but I could play it for an entire day on one set of batteries.
Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening is my favorite video game of all time. I liked the sonic games on GG but I can't claim to care about any of the GG games enough to have a favorite.
So for me GameBoy is the victor.
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I'm another that had never once heard of the Atari Lynx growing up lol I had played the Game Gear, forgot who had it, but I generally liked it, not exactly the most comfortable thing to play, but that would be my #2 cause it seemed to me the Lynx was non-existent lol
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I'm another that had never once heard of the Atari Lynx growing up lol I had played the Game Gear, forgot who had it, but I generally liked it, not exactly the most comfortable thing to play, but that would be my #2 cause it seemed to me the Lynx was non-existent lol
I only knew of the lynx and TE because I saw them in Macy's and Sears catalogs. Occasionally I'd see a lynx game review in Game Pro and Game Informer.
Never did find out how I got a subscription to Game Informer. It just showed up one day and issues kept arriving periodically for the next 3 years. :-)
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I'm another that had never once heard of the Atari Lynx growing up lol I had played the Game Gear, forgot who had it, but I generally liked it, not exactly the most comfortable thing to play, but that would be my #2 cause it seemed to me the Lynx was non-existent lol
I only knew of the lynx and TE because I saw them in Macy's and a Sears catalogs. Occasionally I'd see a lynx game review in Game Pro and Game Informer.
Never did find out how I got a subscription to Game Informer. It just showed up one day and issues kept arriving periodically for the next 3 years. :-)
lol I just simply don't remember anything about the Lynx at all growing up. I had the catalogs, of course going through them every Christmas, in particular Sears and JcPenny's, and I think I got a gaming mag every so often, but that one I never knew about till the past few years with Youtube and review places and seeing collections by the the Angry Video Game Nerd or Pat the NES Punk.
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I remember seeing ads for Lynx and Game Gear mostly in comic books.
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Hey what about TurboExpress? Come on
If your gonna compare the TurboExpress with something it's gotta be with the Sega Nomad.
Both are portable versions of the their 16-bit console counterpart.
The Game Gear is really nothing but a portablized Master System. Their hardware is nearly identical to each other. Which is the reason as to why it's capable of playing MS games with the Master Gear Converter. So it's actually not really all that different from the Nomad and TurboExpress.
Kinda sorta... While Master System games do work on a GameGear, the vast majority of GameGear games do not work on the Master System(Emulated or via a Everdrive). The biggest issue is the GameGears massive 12bit 4096 color palette vs the Master Systems 6bit 64 color palette.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_console_palettes
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People here seem to think gg was more available, yet there strong evidence otherwise and we dont have accurate sales numbers for either. Especially Europe.
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I feel that the Game Gear had a better library
Agreed Also if you count the Master System's library of which the Game Gear is capable of playing with the MS adapter than even more so.
The thing nobody tells you about that adapter though was that it had to downscale the games to fit the small size of the screen, so you would lose lines of resolution. Some games you couldn't read text or see one-pixel-tall bullets in. Also the contrast was lower than regular game gear games, so they looked kind of washed out.
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I was going to say something along those lines too. Turbo Express isnt as much a handheld system as it is a portable version of the console.
Except the Turbo express didn't compete with the nomad. It competed with the GB, GG, and Lynx.
I have to agree the TE was the superior hardware platform at the time, followed by the lynx, followed by game Gear, with the Original GameBoy coming in at dead last hardware wise.
The Lynx had an actual 16 bit processor though and could do scaling and stuff that was way beyond the Turbo Express. People thought the TE was better because it was $300.
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I feel that the Game Gear had a better library
Agreed Also if you count the Master System's library of which the Game Gear is capable of playing with the MS adapter than even more so.
The thing nobody tells you about that adapter though was that it had to downscale the games to fit the small size of the screen, so you would lose lines of resolution. Some games you couldn't read text or see one-pixel-tall bullets in. Also the contrast was lower than regular game gear games, so they looked kind of washed out.
Mine works fine. I've used it on many a Master System game during road trips.
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I was going to say something along those lines too. Turbo Express isnt as much a handheld system as it is a portable version of the console.
Except the Turbo express didn't compete with the nomad. It competed with the GB, GG, and Lynx.
I have to agree the TE was the superior hardware platform at the time, followed by the lynx, followed by game Gear, with the Original GameBoy coming in at dead last hardware wise.
The Lynx had an actual 16 bit processor though and could do scaling and stuff that was way beyond the Turbo Express. People thought the TE was better because it was $300.
I thought it was better because you could get a tv tuner for it. ;) Just imagine... TV on the go!