Retro Gaming Hacks

Emulate Other Classic Portables

Rediscover the Lynx, Game Gear, and Neo Geo Pocket Color.

Classic portables are an interesting footnote in gaming history. Not only do they let you play some of the best console games of the era in condensed form (sometimes with added levels), they offer up plenty of unique software that made them worth owning. Emulating these systems is relatively painless, requiring very little computing power and even less set up. Even better, public domain ROMs, including both games and tech demos, are available from websites like http://www.pdroms.de. At the time of this writing, 12 homebrew ROMs are available for the Lynx, 7 for the Game Gear, and 48 for the Neo Geo Pocket.

Atari Lynx

Originally called the Handy, the Lynx was actually created by two Amiga designers, Dave Needle and R.J. Mical. It was 1987 when the first prototype was floating around at Epyx, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that Atari, looking to capitalize on the portable market created by Game Boy, bought the system and released it.

The Lynx was ahead of its time, containing far more power under the hood than not only the competition, but some of the home consoles too. It even let players use the console horizontally as well as vertically. Its rather high price (just under $200) and low battery life doomed it to failure even with the ability to link up (or “Lynx up,” according to the marketing material) with up to eight players. That doesn’t mean quality software isn’t to be found, and the appropriately ...