The Atari Lynx handheld gaming system was originally design by Epyx and was originally called the Handy. Epyx took the unit to Nintendo first, whom decided to decline the system, as they were developing the smaller Game Boy. Atari took this as an opportunity to get into the Handheld business quickly and easily.
In comparison to the competing hardware of the time, the Atari Lynx was a much more powerful unit. It had a color palette of 4096 colors with an on screen display of 16 colors. It was also capable of producing basic 3D graphics, something