Theory and Practice
An interview with Stephen Landrum
by Robert Jung
From AtariUser magazine, October 1992

One of those columns was the following interview with Stephen Landrum. For the uninitiated, Stephen was one of the creators of the Lynx who worked at Epyx when the portable game system was being developed. With the collapse of AtariUser, I decided to take the interview out of the closet, dust it off, and present it here for everyone's entertainment and enlightenment...

Theory and Practice
AtariUser interview!

It's interview time at AtariUser again! Our guest is Mr. Stephen Landrum, one of the engineers on the Epyx "Handy" project, the machine we all know today as the Atari Lynx. Now, learn the differences between what was first planned and what is available now...

AtariUser: Thanks for the interview, Stephen. Why don't you give us a brief background of yourself and your part in the development of the Handy.

Stephen Landrum: I've been programming computers since 1975 and video games since 1980. I joined StarPath in 1981, where we developed the SuperCharger for the Atari 2600. In 1983, StarPath merged with Epyx, where I [worked] on Summer Games, Pit Stop, Super Cycle, and the Temple of Apshai Trilogy.

In 1987 I went to Electronic Arts, and in 1988 I rejoined Epyx to work on the Lynx. For the Lynx, I wrote Blue Lightning, the internal ROM code, a lot of system code in every game, and the "hidden" games in Chip's Challenge and Zarlor Mercenary. I joined too late to have a large influence over the early design, but I was able to contribute to the hardware design and did the majority of testing.

AU: Before the Handy, Epyx was best known for its software. Why did Epyx go into hardware?

SL: Epyx wanted to grow into other areas besides game development. Epyx tried getting into VCR games (a really bad move), and was involved in other projects that never made it to the public.

AU: What were the principles and design objectives of the Handy project?

SL: Epyx wanted a system that would make money, they could write games for, and provide revenue through licensing. For the design team, we wanted to make an affordable game system, to design new hardware, and try out ideas about graphics. In many ways the Lynx was an experiment.

AU: What did you learn? What "mistakes" would you fix in the Lynx?

SL: We found out a lot about chip design, prototyping, LCD displays. There are some design errors in the Lynx; the hardware divide doesn't work properly -- the remainder is frequently garbage. There are small errors in the rendering logic. The "blinking pixel" [a blinking dot on some new Lynx models] was an error in the first design, but was masked because of the way things worked.

AU: Are there features of the Handy that are not in the Lynx?

SL: The Lynx is the original Handy. If you're wondering if there were other features that we wanted, the answer is yes. When designing any new hardware, you start with a wish list, then work it down to the practical. One way the Lynx design did change was that originally games were loaded from magnetic media. The "cartridges" were going to be a looped tape. These would have been cheaper than ROM cartridges at the time.

AU: Early reports said that the Lynx could play multiplayer games with one copy of a game. Was this part of the tape idea?

SL: The idea was that games would load, you could remove the tape, plug it into another unit, and start the game there. As it turned out, 64K of RAM was not enough to store a game and have room for other features. It was possible to remove the cartridge without turning off the power, or to power up without a cartridge. We changed the design so that removing the cartridge powered the unit down, [so now] you get the "Insert Game" message when the cartridge does not make contact.

AU: Some have said that the Lynx does not compare well to some of the other portable systems. How do you respond?

SL: The sound hardware in the Lynx is somewhat limited. If the hardware is used completely to make sounds, the Lynx does not compare well. But it is possible to do interesting things with software, since the Lynx allows direct control of the DAC [digital-audio controller]. Very good digitized sounds can be produced. I don't know of any other system with a game that sounds as good as Klax on the Lynx!

The graphics are in many ways superior, but not in every way. Since it was the first color LCD system to come out, others saw what was done and use better technology, as with the TurboExpress. The Lynx beats the pants off other systems in the hardware to manipulate graphics, but unless games take advantage of this, it doesn't make any difference. Atari games in general do not stretch the capabilities of the system.

AU: Like what? You know some graphics effects no one has put in a game yet?

SL: Few games stretch the capabilities. Some take advantage of the scaling, but most limit their special effects to title sequences. Blue Lightning made extensive use of the graphics features -- it's a pity I didn't get more gameplay into the game. Gates of Zendocon and Slime World use hardware to generate animation without changing image data. Warbirds and Hard Drivin' use the ability to fill regions of the screen.

AU: There's a rumor that the ComLynx port can access the entire architecture. Is there room for expansion?

SL: The ComLynx port is just a serial port used for communication. How that is used and what the Lynx communicates with is up to future development.

AU: Any ideas you'd care to share?

SL: You could build a modem, or a printer interface, or a box to connect to any other device. The ComLynx port was going to hook up to a device that allow Lynxes to connect via infra-red [transmission], and the communication software is called "Redeye" because of that. [But] I doubt that there will be any other peripherals for the Lynx.

AU: If you could design it all over again, what would you do differently?

SL: Do it for a company that really had the money and market presence to bring the product to the marketplace. Design the cartridge interface properly.

AU: Is this criticism at Atari?

SL: My references were to Epyx. Atari came after the product and the first games were nearly complete. I have no love for Atari; I do not think that Atari has done a good job marketing the Lynx. I just feel that the biggest mistakes were made before Atari entered the picture.

AU: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

SL: Not really.

AU: And with that, thanks for the interview.

--Robert Jung