Blue Lightning

1989 · Rail Shooter · Atari Lynx

Overview

Blue Lightning (1989) is Epyx's After Burner-style jet combat game and one of the Atari Lynx's North American launch titles, built to show off the handheld's sprite scaling and rotation.

Deep Dive

The player flies the Blue Lightning, a prototype fighter, seen from behind as in Sega's After Burner, across nine missions of increasing difficulty. Missiles are limited, with a machine gun to fall back on, and the six planes in reserve serve as lives. The game leans heavily on the Lynx's hardware sprite scaling and rotation to create its pseudo-3D effect.

Developer Story

Artist Arthur Koch and programmer Stephen Landrum conceived it for the Handy, as the Lynx was first called, and RJ Mical and Stephen Jungels designed it. It was shown alongside the system at the Summer 1989 CES and released with the Lynx in North America that year.

Did You Know?

Electronic Gaming Monthly named it the Lynx's Handheld Game of the Year for 1990.
Attention to Detail remade it for the Atari Jaguar CD, where it was a pack-in game in 1995.