Retro Video Gamer

Its amazing that several years after I wrote my (at the time definative) Lost Lynx Games guide for Atari User more unreleased Lynx games keep being discovered. I just found out about this one: (look at for play on!)

(http://i.imgur.com/46lgPGU.jpg)

Given that (as i'm led to believe) no actual coding was done on the Nes version and the artwork was only 20% done, it's very likely that this is little more than a trade advert, which would have been put together way in advance of the game and by totally different dept.

As an A8 owner i saw the likes of System 3 adverts bodly proclaiming Atari 800Xl version of The Last Ninja coming soon...

It was probably just planned for Lynx at what ever meeting the developer had and marketing went off and had trade ads done and put in the press and that was as far as the game got.

Sad, but  a totally common practice.


Firm i worked for spent thousands on getting promotional materials, advertising boards done for whole range of products and whilst we still have the advertising boards, 3 of the product ranges never even got as far as R+D let alone production.

Marketing material is always done way in advance.

For anyone interested in the Nes 'super cart' story behind the unreleased game:

www.cenobite.com/collect/vg.htm (//http)

Yeah, I found a post on AtarAge from yesterday where someone has posted the very same picture and is asking the forum whether or not any work was ever done on the Lynx version.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/215218-atari-lynx-hellraiser/ (//http)

No evidence that the game ever existed on the Lynx beyond a mention in said advert as far as I can make out...

Yep i read about the Nes version on Unseen 64.Did'nt then go looking for any other versions on there as it seemed unlikely work got started.

Thought i'd post the link regarding the Nes version up on here as i found it a very good article and what could of been, ok it's not Lynx specific, but thought i'd share story with those on here who'd not read it.



It's one of the reason's i've been more than happy to share my magazine scans on DVD, issues of GO!, misc magazines and scrapbook pages with Laird over past few months, i like others to read and hopefully enjoy, the things i've read over the years-RVG seemed the idea place to share them with.

Hopefully they've brought some new viewers to Zap's site.

For those that don't know Color Dreams were the people behind Crystal Mines II on the Lynx

(http://i.imgur.com/HCx1VFB.jpg)

Given that they only released Crystal Mines II in terms of Lynx releases, it's very unlikely the Lynx version of HellRaiser ever got started...


Folks might better know of their releases from Wisdom Tree: Spirtual Warfare, Bible Adventures (Nes) and Super 3D Noahs Ark (Snes).

That would have been a cool title to see on the Lynx.  As others have said, it is very possible that no coding was ever done for it, though.  Still cool to know that it had been planned.

I'm still holding out hope that Vindicators gets rescued from purgatory some day.

Without doubt the lost Lynx game I want to see more than any other is Rolling Thunder. I'd fork out for that tomorrow.

Quote from: "Spector"Without doubt the lost Lynx game I want to see more than any other is Rolling Thunder. I'd fork out for that tomorrow.

Know it appeared in official Lynx catalog, given a May'92 release date etc, but last i read on it was thanks to Amiga Jay's post over on RG where he'd spoken to Telegames, who'd aquired the rights and were looking at finishing the coding of it.

Maybe he might know a little more?.

Quote from: "64bitRuss"I'm still holding out hope that Vindicators gets rescued from purgatory some day.

Some French bloke on youtube has a cart containing 3 non-playable demos and a 'playable' demo, but all you can do in that is move tank, shoot non-animated enemies and only lasts for 60 secs, so doubt coding got very far.I don't speak a word of French mind, so no idea what he was saying...

I actually know the whole story behind Vindicators on the Lynx and it is very interesting! I will have to go hunt down the info again as I have it on my computer somewhere . . . .

Until then here are a couple of scans from Lynx Log 2 that feature both Rolling Thunder and Vindicators:

(http://i.imgur.com/hAF8I77.jpg)(http://i.imgur.com/xza0v91.jpg)

I'm looking at those images of Rolling Thunder on the Lynx and I can't help but salivate! 

The amazing thing that, that Rolling Thunder would of been perfect for a handheld like the lynx at the time and would of went down a storm with gamers, incredible shame it was never completed or released, mind boggles when stuff like this gets canned

Some of them must be still about on some floppy disk somewhere. The hunt continues lol.

Any chance of knowing some of the lost titles?

Like this old magazine ad some games seemed to change names. Monster Demolition looks a lot like Rampage.

Quote from: "onthinice"Any chance of knowing some of the lost titles?

Like this old magazine ad some games seemed to change names. Monster Demolition looks a lot like Rampage.

Yes, some games did change names.  Monster Demolition became Rampage and Time Quests and Treasure Chests became Gauntlet III.

Quote from: "Rogue Trooper"

Quote from: "64bitRuss"I'm still holding out hope that Vindicators gets rescued from purgatory some day.

Some French bloke on youtube has a cart containing 3 non-playable demos and a 'playable' demo, but all you can do in that is move tank, shoot non-animated enemies and only lasts for 60 secs, so doubt coding got very far.I don't speak a word of French mind, so no idea what he was saying...

This video I assume you mean:

Vindicators on Atari Lynx (//http)

That looks very nice on the Lynx!  Makes you wish someone would finish the game and release it!

From my Lost Lynx Games Guide in Atari User:

QuoteA conversion of one of Atari's very own arcade games the reason for this one never seeing a release is both bizarre and interesting. The story goes that the game was complete but Atari had been with holding payments to the programmer by making him miss landmarks by getting him to change stuff (not the first time I have heard of this) and eventually he got really fed up of it and just quit. But before he left Atari he intentionally destroyed all his own code and left Atari with an unfinished demo. Atari handed the game over to another programmer who, without any source code, was unable to finish it and had to start from scratch. It was on display at shows, featured in catalogues and even had a finished box design too but never saw release. There are in fact 2 completely different demo versions that have been found too but not a complete game.

So, I guess that means that someone would really have to program it from scratch. 

UK Press often seemed quite 'muted' when talk of Vindicators came up on home micros, Your sinclair for example described both the coin-op and Speccy version as 'boring', so wonder how Lynx version would have fared at hands of UK jurnos.

Quote from: "The Laird"From my Lost Lynx Games Guide in Atari User:

QuoteA conversion of one of Atari's very own arcade games the reason for this one never seeing a release is both bizarre and interesting. The story goes that the game was complete but Atari had been with holding payments to the programmer by making him miss landmarks by getting him to change stuff (not the first time I have heard of this) and eventually he got really fed up of it and just quit. But before he left Atari he intentionally destroyed all his own code and left Atari with an unfinished demo. Atari handed the game over to another programmer who, without any source code, was unable to finish it and had to start from scratch. It was on display at shows, featured in catalogues and even had a finished box design too but never saw release. There are in fact 2 completely different demo versions that have been found too but not a complete game.

Cool story! Going by other stories I've read of Jack Tramiels business dealings it wouldn't surprise me at all that he resorted to tactics like that.

I remember Raze were pretty positive about it in their preview of the game.

Wow that's super interesting, the advert for Vindicators is one of the reasons I bought my Lynx when it first came out. 

Now I have a better idea why my dream of playing Vindicator's on the Lynx was never realized

Re:Lynx Skull And Crossbones, know Laird say's it was planned, but was the arcade game that 'big' a deal?.

Only ask as seems to get refered to as a love it or hate it game, the home conversions i saw got mixed reviews (C64 version 81% in Zzap 64, Amiga version 77% in The One-Amiga).Would it i wonder have just been the ST/Amiga game ported to Lynx?.


Talking of ports...


Atari once hinted they were looking at porting ST platformer, 9 Lives (staring Bob The Cat....) to Lynx, wonder what happened to that idea?.

Quote from: "Rogue Trooper"Re:Lynx Skull And Crossbones, know Laird say's it was planned, but was the arcade game that 'big' a deal?.

Only ask as seems to get refered to as a love it or hate it game, the home conversions i saw got mixed reviews (C64 version 81% in Zzap 64, Amiga version 77% in The One-Amiga).Would it i wonder have just been the ST/Amiga game ported to Lynx?.

Talking of ports...

Atari once hinted they were looking at porting ST platformer, 9 Lives (staring Bob The Cat....) to Lynx, wonder what happened to that idea?.

No screenshots for Skull & Crossbones were ever shown so not sure if it was even started but it was certainly on lists as you say. The arcade game wasn't a big hit for Atari really but at least it was a nice change to the, at the time popular, Double Dragon model.

9 Lives was announced as being worked on in a few magazines but no idea what ever happened to it.

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1011903_169414589897574_589582599_n.jpg)

Never heard of 9 Lives before but another platformer would have been a nice addition to the Lynx.  Actually, I think it would have been interesting to have  a dog-related platformer (Scrapyard Dog) and a cat-related platformer on the system! 

Quote from: "TrekMD"Never heard of 9 Lives before but another platformer would have been a nice addition to the Lynx.  Actually, I think it would have been interesting to have  a dog-related platformer (Scrapyard Dog) and a cat-related platformer on the system! 

Here is a video of the Atari ST version:

Atari ST 9 lives (//http)

The Lynx also has 2 monkey based platformers - Gordo 106 and Toki!

Dogs, monkeys, and cats!  Oh my!  That does look like it would work well on the Lynx.

Quote from: "TrekMD"Dogs, monkeys, and cats!  Oh my!

There is Hot Dog too!

Not all lost games but 1991 looked like a good year for the Lynx.

Several lost games in there.  Certainly a good year for the Lynx.  It would have been even better had Rolling Thunder, Vindicators, Geo Duel, and 720 seen release. 

Another announcement for Geo Duel.

That first lot of scans there is great Ice! I don't have those either so they will be added to the archive! 

I love the screenshot for an early version of Awesome Golf that looks a bit different and the screenshots of Turbo Sub where they were still using a 3rd person perspective before they changed it.

Great! Glad I could help

Just been reading through old issue of Atari Entertainment Magazine (fanzine) in their Top 5 Lynx games feature, the 2nd game they looked at was Dracula, they talk about games development history (and point out Handmade Software's Jim Gregory had been big contributer to both A.E.M and it's earlier self, Lynx User, over the years), they say it was H.M.S that pitched the idea of a Dracula game to Atari, around 12 months before release of the Francis Ford Coppola movie, Atari not being able to afford the film licensce, got around this by adapting the Bram Stroker book into a game.

4 months prior to film being released, Atari panicked, wanted game out same time as film, but game was 12 months away from completition, so H.M.S were told to just finish off what they had so far+ship it too Atari USA for production+Beta testing etc.

Because of uneasy realationship between Atari+distributors in UK, orders for copies of the game were said to only be in the 100's, not thousands, with rumour that main distributor for Lynx games in UK, only ordering 12 copies!.

Game said to go on to sell close to 10,000 copies in UK alone, Atari putting 2nd production run of carts etc to meet demand...


Article said months after game was released, rumours started about missing code/parts of the game, with atari even making offical statement promising to release a sequel with all the missing code, but nothing ever heard of it again.

Throwing this own to our resident Atari experts.

Anything you can shed light on here?.

Different to the story I know.

Atari acquired the book license because they were out bid on the movie license by Sony and also got the rights to use a likeness of both Bram Stoker and Christopher Lee. Handmade Software produced the game but it ended up being a massive 512k in size and used battery back-up to save. Jack Tramiel in his infinite wisdom decided that this would make it too expensive to produce and demanded that Handmade cut it back to fit on a 256k (2 megabit) game card instead (this was the same reason Eye Of The Beholder was never released).

I actually know somebody who owns a prototype of the full 512k version and has been saying he would release it for years but still no sign.

Here are a couple of screenshots from Dracula 512k (parts that are not in the released game):

(http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/Dracula2_zpsf2f8ae7e.jpg)   (http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/Dracula1_zps4b8bdbe2.jpg)

Did mention A.E.M's 'accuracy' in the Jaguar thread with regards to Quake, hence throwing it up on here to see what other versions of events exist. :-).

Wondered as they did say Handmade had been regular helper with the 2 magazines.

Anyone else got a 3rd version of events? lol.


Future RG article in making there Laird if ever i did.

Well the person I know (who owns the game) worked at Atari, so I know who I believe!

Quote from: "The Laird"Well the person I know (who owns the game) worked at Atari, so I know who I believe!

Don't get Johny Mutant started on Edwins claims, that poor sod waited ages for a meeting with Edwin at a train station, edwin never showed up or explained where the hell he was/what happened.

 

A follow-up advertisement to Laird's. Someone at Color Dreams must have been serious about trying to release these games.

Order Today

I'd heard about Hellraiser for the Lynx but not those other titles. 

Few others i'd seen mentioned with release dates:

Jimmy Whites Snooker due Feb'94

Ren+Stimpy comming from Acclaim in '93

Space Combat (working title) from Atari, early '94 (mix of trading and dog fighting in space, said to feature advanced 3D polygon visuals).

Shadowsoft (who did Lynx Joust) rumoured to be converting Smash TV to Lynx.

It's a kinda depressing thread this. All these great games... and they aren't available!

Quote from: "Spector"It's a kinda depressing thread this. All these great games... and they aren't available!

Tell me about it!

Quote from: "Spector"It's a kinda depressing thread this. All these great games... and they aren't available!

Trouble with some of them i've listed, you wonder if you need a grain of salt as to wether they were ever anything more than a mere possibility, rather than actual code started.It could be, as in say case of A8 Elite, publisher wanted to do a version for that format, had put 'feelers' out for willing coders, but got no-where, yet someone in the press picked up the info as game def.on the way.

[align=center:2bs4rok5]Some more screenshots from unreleased Atari Lynx games:

(http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/DungeonSlayers_4_zpse0475390.png)   (http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/Berzerk_zpscc111ed4.gif)
Dungeon Slayers - By Atari                      Berzerk - By Shadowsoft

(http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/Doria_zps08fc1fb9.jpg)   (http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/720_zps7ac5099e.jpg)
Guardians: Storm Over Doria - By Telegames                                           720 Degrees - By Atari[/align:2bs4rok5]

Acclaim? Wow, that was, for the time, some serious star power right there. I'd figure one of the big reasons the Lynx didn't do so hot is that there weren't a ton of big names doing any games for it. Probably the 'biggest' developer of all was Tecmo, since the Ninja Gaiden games were pretty big in the US. That, and having a license like Ren & Stimpy would have helped, too.

Did Telegames finish Guardians: Storm Over Doria?

From the screenshot it kinda looks like an RPG. A genre that's not my cup of tea but one that the Lynx was rather short on. A shame they've not released it as I'm sure a good number of Lynx owners would enjoy playing a Zelda-type game on the console.

Quote from: "DreamcastRIP"Did Telegames finish Guardians: Storm Over Doria?

From the screenshot it kinda looks like an RPG. A genre that's not my cup of tea but one that the Lynx was rather short on. A shame they've not released it as I'm sure a good number of Lynx owners would enjoy playing a Zelda-type on the console.

It was supposedly canned at about 50% complete after Telegames decided it was too expensive to produce.

Quote from: "The Laird"

Quote from: "DreamcastRIP"Did Telegames finish Guardians: Storm Over Doria?

From the screenshot it kinda looks like an RPG. A genre that's not my cup of tea but one that the Lynx was rather short on. A shame they've not released it as I'm sure a good number of Lynx owners would enjoy playing a Zelda-type on the console.

It was supposedly canned at about 50% complete after Telegames decided it was too expensive to produce.

Which sucks royally!

Quote from: "TrekMD"

Quote from: "The Laird"

Quote from: "DreamcastRIP"Did Telegames finish Guardians: Storm Over Doria?

From the screenshot it kinda looks like an RPG. A genre that's not my cup of tea but one that the Lynx was rather short on. A shame they've not released it as I'm sure a good number of Lynx owners would enjoy playing a Zelda-type on the console.

It was supposedly canned at about 50% complete after Telegames decided it was too expensive to produce.

Which sucks royally!

+1!

[align=center:348gsmr2]Some more screenshots from unreleased Atari Lynx games:

(http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/Space_War_1_zps4a56cd0f.png)   (http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/Pounce_zps165c91ea.png)
Space War - By Atari                                                Pounce - By Atari
 
(http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/mechtiles_zpse12fc11e.jpg)   (http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z280/mrkizza/UltraVortex_7_zpsb505425a.png)
Mechtiles - By Beyond Games                                          Ultra Vortek - By Beyond Games[/align:348gsmr2]

I was able to get Pounce from Good Deal Games.  Ultra Vortek has been on Songbird's "projects" for some time now.  I wonder if it will ever be completed.  I don't believe I've seen Space War or Mechtiles anywhere as a ROM or a project, though. 

Since Pounce had no label on it (it's a green PCB card), I created my own label for it:

[align=center:24hghmv7](http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag160/TrekMD/RVG%20Images/Pounce_zps17597071.jpg)[/align:24hghmv7]

I really like that! I need to pick Pounce up at some point even though I have heard that there is not a lot to it.

Not a lot of game but it's cool to have it. 

[align=center:36xvrj47]And yet more for you all!

(http://i.imgur.com/Z8QM7E3.jpg)   (http://i.imgur.com/ADJuKXO.jpg?1)
Super Sprint - By Atari                                                Monster Demolition - By Epyx
 
(http://i.imgur.com/zdird9s.gif)   (http://i.imgur.com/53Otna2.jpg?1)
Daemonsgate - By Imagitec Design                                          Universal Chaos - By Telegames[/align:36xvrj47]

Didn't Monster Demolition turn into Rampage?  Or is this a totally different game?

Quote from: "TrekMD"Didn't Monster Demolition turn into Rampage?  Or is this a totally different game?

Yes it did, but if you watch the video of it you can see that it's actually quite different in many ways. I would love to find a prototype of it as it was supposedly finished!

That's cool.  They should have released it as its own game rather than change it into Rampage. 

Seem to recal reading that Rampage was known as Monster Demolition, whilst a court case was going on over wether they could use the Rampage name or not...

Quote from: "Rogue Trooper"Seem to recal reading that Rampage was known as Monster Demolition, whilst a court case was going on over wether they could use the Rampage name or not...

Monster Demolition was one of the first games that Epyx coded for the Handy.

When Atari bought the machine they licensed Rampage from Midway and had the game changed as well as changing Impossible Mission 3 into Electrocop and Time Quests & Treasure Chests into Gauntlet 3.

There were also a number of Epyx games that were never released at all as they were in production when the company went under including Barbarian Bodyguard, F1 Racer (rumoured to be the base code for Checkered Flag), Golf Challenger and RC Demolition Derby.

Summer, Winter and World Games were also due for release on the Lynx too.

Quote from: "The Laird"[align=center:sehq5wr9]And yet more for you all!

(http://i.imgur.com/Z8QM7E3.jpg)   (http://i.imgur.com/ADJuKXO.jpg?1)
Super Sprint - By Atari                                                Monster Demolition - By Epyx
 
(http://i.imgur.com/zdird9s.gif)   (http://i.imgur.com/53Otna2.jpg?1)
Daemonsgate - By Imagitec Design                                          Universal Chaos - By Telegames[/align:sehq5wr9]

Daemonsgate would have been an interesting one for sure, it was originally Gremlin's ST/Amiga RPG-Adventure said to have 1000's of charcaters and be 100,00 screens large.

The hype machine was in full swing during previews, with gremlin promising to give a real, 5 foot long sword to 1st person to complete the game.

Awesome stuff. Would love to pick some of the ones up that got released.