The most popular 8-bit handheld game console of the late 1980s was the Nintendo Game Boy and all my friends just had to own it. Having one meant that you were “cool.” Always trying to be the different one, I bought (with my mother’s money) the Atari Lynx, which — unlike the GameBoy — had a color display. It also required six AA batteries, which could easily run out in just one road trip.

The Atari Lynx was a lot more like the upcoming Sega Game Gear in that it really offered an arcade experience (for the time) in a portable form, but the Lynx was not something you could easily put in your pockets. As a matter of fact, it felt like a huge brick. Still, I had eyes watering whenever viewing my Lynx.

Although it was very simple and didn’t require as much brain power as some of the other Atari Lynx games, my favorite was Ms. Pac-Man.

Pac-Land was also another fun game which felt more like a part of the Mario Brothers series than a Pac Man game. It was released as an arcade game during the video game crash of 1984, but really shined on the Atari Lynx in 1989.

As soon as the 1990s came, Atari stopped investing in the Lynx or other handhelds. The Lynx didn’t take off like many thought it would and Atari was not able to predict that consumers would rather have a handheld like the Game Boy, which could be used for days with a rechargeable power pack and was something that one could easily put in their coat or purse pockets. Nintendo’s Game Boy also had a lot more games.

Atari would soon put all its attention on the Atari Jaguar, which was released in November of 1993 and pretty much spelled the end for the company. It became the target of a lot of criticism for its design and poor game library. Even though Atari couldn’t keep up with Nintendo or Sega, Atari’s Lynx was definitely just as influential as Nintendo’s Game Boy when it comes to handheld gaming.