So a long time ago (2-3 years) I purchased an Atari Lynx v2.0 model along with a slew of games from an online friend. He found it all in his parent’s house when he was cleaning it out. I didn’t want him to toss it so I made a fair offer and he sent it promptly.
The original screen was intact, working in all the ways it should, including the brightness wheel. However, being the first portable system to offer a color and a backlit screen. The quality back then was amazing but to play it today is virtually impossible. Even with the hood that goes over the screen to black out the light doesn’t help.
I was very lucky to get in on a special mod by Benn Venn a hardware modder out of Australia. This kit required no soldering permitting the original screen to be popped back in should I want to do that for some unknown reason.
Sure it was $75 but shipping from Australia made this a $95 part. While I normally would do all my modding I didn’t want to risk ruining a screen. I took it to a local store called One Up Games they can fix or mod anything you can think of video game-wise. They are amazing. I was quoted $80 to have it done based on the directions I provided. Much to my surprise it was done the next day when they opened! I knew the total cost was just going up but I figured well that’s what it’s going to take. I’ve only ever seen one of these Lynx on Mercari with a different person’s mod where they had to cut open the top of the case to get an output jack of some kind to sell for over $350 so perhaps it was a wise investment. But I have no desire to get rid of this thing. One big difference is I have the original screen in an anti-static bag so if I were to sell it the person buying can put the original screen back in!
The first handheld color gaming system was by Atari! I only knew one kid that had it and he was in like 7th or 8th grade and I was in like 5th or 6th we’d see him around the neighborhood and he was always cool to us so one day I asked if I could borrow his and he said sure! I was up playing Xenophobe A game I played the game in arcades whenever I saw it or once or twice on an Atari 5200 but it was garbage. The NES version was much better but for some reason that washed-out image on the Lynx v1.0 was the best version I had ever played. Yes, it’s in my collection!
My games look so good and crisp and like a modern system on this portable gaming console! See my pics of the before and after below. He won’t be making any more screens so I was very lucky to get in as soon as pre-orders became available!

Original Display Shot 1

Original Display 2

New Display 1

New Display 2

New Display Gameplay!