Game Guide to the Atari Lynx - Book Review

When Zafinn Books announced they were going to release a book on the Atari Lynx, this immediately caught my attention. I never owned a Lynx back in the day, having to be merely content to gaze over screenshots of Blue Lightning and Gates of Zendocon in CVG magazine. However, it's always been on my list of systems I'd try to own but never fully justified the price of acquiring one second hand. With the release of two Atari Lynx-themed cartridges on the Evercade, this latest release from Zafinn Books scratched an itch and I ordered it as quickly as I could. 

This Game Guide follows the same physical format of Zafinn's previous release, 50 Great Atari ST Games You Have To Play (reviewed here). The 220 pages contained within this book are divided into several sections, all of which are presented in a clean and colourful manner. 

To begin with, we get the history of the Atari Lynx. From the initial craze of handheld gaming to Epyx's creation of the original hardware, Atari's acquisition of that and the naming of the Lynx, then ending with how the handheld faired against the competition at the time, this is an informative and interesting pocket history. There are additional sections on hardware and accessories, then a quick game guide listing all 71 official Atari-released Lynx titles. 

It is after the quick guide that you get the reviews. Each one gets two pages. The first page of each entry has a half page of review text above a screenshot framed by an Atari Lynx II border. The second page includes a shot of the game's title screen, its box art and a score box, rating the game's graphics, sound, playability, overall score, a thumbs up/down/neutral rating and a scarcity description. That's quite a lot but as with the previous ST book, each entry is clear and precise. The reviews themselves are funny and packed with info. Interspaced with the reviews are pages containing adverts for the Lynx and its titles from various countries. 

Following the reviews is a page on the games that nearly made it to release, and a page of games that were released after the Lynx was removed from the market. The latter titles were still available to buy at the time of this book's publication. 

The final fifteen or so pages are dedicated to Lynx resources. There are interviews with LX Rudis, who worked for Epyx and Atari on the Lynx's audio hardware, Igor from Atarigamer.com, two pages on new ways to play Lynx titles (the Evercade and Analogue Pocket get a look in here), and chats with James Boulton (RetroHQ.co.uk), Carl Forhan (Songbird Productions), and Peter Mortimer (Telegames UK). Two further pages are given over to independent developers, Luchs-Soft and Yatsuna Games being name checked, then finally we get a half page of web resources and a half page of credits.

And yet there is more, as there were a couple of stickers included and a reprint of the Atari Lynx Hint Book, containing hints, tips, cheats and Easter eggs for various Lynx titles. This guide also contains details of the Lynx hardware and some frequently asked questions. It was provided free of charge with the Game Guide and is a lovely touch. 

As you can tell, this is a packed tome and really is the best single printed resource currently available on the Atari Lynx. The story of the Lynx is well told (I am further intrigued as to what went on between Atari and DIP, whose handheld computer featured quite prominently in Terminator 2), and I think that this book is a fantastic piece of work, so well done to Zafinn Books. Having already purchased We Love Atari volumes 1 and 2 (reviewed here), it is pleasing to see that there are further Atari-themed titles planned: Game Guides for the ST and the Jaguar! Looks like two more books for the gaming library coming up!

You can check out Zafinn Book's range of titles here and, and buy the Game Guide to the Atari Lynx here. You can also follow Zafinn Books on Twitter here.