Gates of Zendocon

If you had this game on your Lynx and want to experience some nostalgia, absolutely buy this. If neither point applies to you, probably give it a pass. The Lynx and its games were groundbreaking at the time, but haven't aged particularly well. Especially Gates of Zendocon.

Look I'm as big of a fan of this game and the Atari Lynx as it gets but this is such a lazy "port" it's mind boggling how this was allowed to be released on Steam as it is. All this is is the LibRetro port of Handy that is programmed to run alongside the ROM that's in a separate folder. And seeing the name of the ROM in the files is "Gates of Zendocon, The (USA, Europe).lnx" they very very likely got the ROM for Gates Of Zendocon off a ROM set on the internet and not via Atari, Epyx, or whoever they got the license from. The naming scheme of the ROM here is how the files are typically named in ROM sets across the internet. Also nothing stops the user from taking a ROM, renaming it to the identical file name and play their own ROM as the program used doesn't check if the current ROM is in fact Gates Of Zendocon and not some other game. It'll play any ROM as long as you rename the ROM file to be identical to the file name I mentionned in the paragraph above. No features or anything special that you would realistically expect from a retro re-release. No rewind, no soundtrack, no artwork, no extras, etc. Just extremely barebones features and a basic emulator. They couldn't even do the emulation part right either. The sound tends to cut every now and then randomly and it's generally buggy. As an Atari Lynx owner and someone who does in fact own a real copy of Gates Of Zendocon, this is extremely disappointing. I'm very pro-emulation and re-releasing classic titles, I think it's a great thing, but a commercial product like this should offer features that make the purchase worth it. There are no features worth paying for here, complete rip-off. Keep in mind that I paid 3$ (CAD) for this on sale, without discount this is being sold for 6$ (CAD). Why on Earth would you pay this much for what's essentially an emulator that's more basic than most emulators from the 90s and 2000s bundled with a ROM the publisher got from a ROM website? This should be sold for a buck at most considering how barebones this is. In fact there is no proof anywhere that the publisher here indeed owns the license for this game. The store page doesn't credit anyone, there are no credits anywhere whatsoever and no legal notices anywhere, be it in the emulator, the game files, etc. Pixel Games UK website is also poorly designed and doesn't offer any infomation about the company or its people. This is a very suspicious release from a pretty shady publisher, which mind you hasn't published anything since 2023.... Avoid

https://youtu.be/5M-lw8Ek6x8 [h1]ATARI LYNXがSteamで蘇る[/h1] 1989年に携帯ゲーム機「ATARI LYNX」で発売された横STG。 プレイヤーのメインショットはレーザー、敵の攻撃を守るシールド、道中で入手するオプション、機体後方のジェットを使ったバックアタックと多数。 内容はただひたすらに敵を撃って進む、オーソドックスかつ単純。更にステージ数は50を越える、そのどこかにいるラストボスの淘汰を目指す。 膨大なステージ数への対策として、各ステージにはアルファベット4文字でパスワードが書かれていて、スタート時に入力すればそこから始められる。このジャンルとしては珍しい「[b]パスワード式STG[/b]」だ。 [h1]STGはとにかく「ぶっ壊すのが最高だろ！」[/h1] このゲーム、発売当初から評判は良くなかったが、それは否定できない。 STGとしては1ステージをクリアする時間がかなり長くステージ数も膨大で、ダラダラと単調という印象は否めない。生物をモチーフにした敵キャラは拡大縮小を使ってウネウネとうごめくなど、視覚的にも賛否が分かれるところ。 そんなマイナスイメージが目立つ中、徹底的に破壊に対するこだわりが見える。 爆発音とエフェクトが派手で、連続でガンガン壊していくシチュエーションが各面に存在する。その破壊をたっぷり味わいながら「[b]とにかくぶっ壊すのは面白いよ！[/b]」というメッセージのようなものが伝わる。 その極みと言えるのがこれ。ゲームのどこかに、開発スタッフの顔が敵キャラとして登場する隠しステージがある。 https://youtu.be/N_BE5uNVsZY そんな遊び心と、延々とガンガン撃ちまくって楽しめ！という豪快さに満ちたゲーム。良くも悪くもアメリカンなノリだが、そこに妙な魅力を感じる。

Epyx -> Handy -> Atari -> Lynx <3