Atari Lynx Vs. Sega Game Gear

[TrekMD]

OK, I had not voted on PaperBoy because I wanted to compare it to the arcade to see which of the two systems did a better job at replicating the arcade game.  The Lynx wins for me for that reason.  Yes, the GG looks better but, as an arcade port, it needs to be close to the arcade and the GG takes certain "liberties."

Insofar as Super Skweek/Skweek, hard comparison also.  Sprites look better on the GG and it does have the in-game music, so GG gets my vote there. 

[TL]

OK, I had not voted on PaperBoy because I wanted to compare it to the arcade to see which of the two systems did a better job at replicating the arcade game.  The Lynx wins for me for that reason.  Yes, the GG looks better but, as an arcade port, it needs to be close to the arcade and the GG takes certain "liberties."

Insofar as Super Skweek/Skweek, hard comparison also.  Sprites look better on the GG and it does have the in-game music, so GG gets my vote there.

Agreed about Paperboy but not about Skweek 

Lynx win for me as it has the intro sequences, scaling effects, more sprites on screen, less garish colours and I find the music on the GG version to be really repetitive and annoying.

[TrekMD]

OK, I had not voted on PaperBoy because I wanted to compare it to the arcade to see which of the two systems did a better job at replicating the arcade game.  The Lynx wins for me for that reason.  Yes, the GG looks better but, as an arcade port, it needs to be close to the arcade and the GG takes certain "liberties."

Insofar as Super Skweek/Skweek, hard comparison also.  Sprites look better on the GG and it does have the in-game music, so GG gets my vote there.

Agreed about Paperboy but not about Skweek 

[TL]

In way it's slighty unfair because the Lynx version (which also appeared on the ST & Amiga) is an enhanced version of the original 8-bit game, Skweek, and has more levels too.

[TrekMD]

Is the Amiga version considered the "original" version?

[TL]

Is the Amiga version considered the "original" version?

It was originally an Amstrad CPC game, then ST. Amiga version came much later.

[TrekMD]

Is the Amiga version considered the "original" version?

It was originally an Amstrad CPC game, then ST. Amiga version came much later.

Ah.  I ask because I wanted to compare to the "original" version. 

[TL]

Is the Amiga version considered the "original" version?

It was originally an Amstrad CPC game, then ST. Amiga version came much later.

Ah.  I ask because I wanted to compare to the "original" version. 

Here is the 8-bit Amstrad CPC original of Skweek, bar the lack of scrolling it's almost identical to the Game Gear version right down to the music (they have very similar sound chips)



And the 16-bit ST version that is very similar to the Lynx

[TrekMD]

Yep, definitely.  Each of those is similar to the GG and Lynx as you noted. 

[Shadowrunner]

Yeah those two versions of Skweek are very different. I think I like the Lynx version better, just like the look of it more. That's 2-2 for me now.

[Rogue Trooper]

Hmn.Tough-ish call, box art on G.G version, blimey, bit sinister, much prefer Lynx box art.

Do love the look of the Game Gear version and find the music quite jaunty.

Lynx version, well despite having strengths of it's own, looks a bit rough and ready around the edges.

Game Gear has it for myself.

[dcultrapro]

Paper boy: judging by those two videos alone GG wins hands down, the sprites looked awful and pixelated on the Lynx footage and didn't run all that smooth, the GG one the graphics looked smooth and clean and running fine. Same for the first game, Klax is better on Lynx and the version of Skweek also looks better on Lynx to me but only because there is slightly more detail, the lynx always seems more pixelated where as the game gear seems sometimes smoother and to have more vibrant colours. 2 a piece for me so far

[TL]

the lynx always seems more pixelated where as the game gear seems sometimes smoother and to have more vibrant colours. 2 a piece for me so far

There are reasons for that actually:

The Game Gear actually has a slightly higher resolution than the Lynx because it needed to match that of a TV for the TV Tuner. The reason it always seems to use very bright, sometimes garish, colours is that the vast majority of it's games are ports from the Master System. The SMS has a much smaller colour palette that consists of very bright colours. This gives the GG the same (to me very 8-bit) look.

The Lynx meanwhile is always using 4096 colours to pick from (16 can be displayed per scanline) so the artists chose colours whatever colours they wanted pretty much. Lynx graphics were all done on an Amiga that had the exact same colour palette so it's graphics tend to look more 16-bit with more detail and better chosen colours.

[TL]

Ok then here is another game for you, the classic Desert Strike

I am afraid the only video of the Game Gear version I could find has French commentary and music added so you will have to watch it on mute.


Game Gear version


Lynx version

[TrekMD]

The Lynx version gets my vote for being more complete.