Game Gear vs. Atari Lynx, Who Was #2?

[soera]

The difference is the Turbo Express doesnt have its own library.

[thecrypticodor]

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.

[dreama1]

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.

[dashv]

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.

[kamikazekeeg]

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

[dashv]

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. :-)

[kamikazekeeg]

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.

[burningdoom]

I remember seeing ads for Lynx and Game Gear mostly in comic books.

[pceslayer]

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

[Jakandsig]

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.

[gartcat]

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. 

[gartcat]

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.

[burningdoom]

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.

[dashv]

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!