Developed by Brian A. Rice, Inc. and released by Atari Corporation in 1992, Lynx Casino is a compendium of gambling games joined together by a man walking over a gaudy carpet in a virtual casino. Those who’ve wandered through any of the vast casinos in Las Vegas will know how lurid the carpets can be, and the graphic designers who worked on this at least got that part right…

What they didn’t get right, though, is the animation of the man you control, who walks through the casino like a f**king ostrich. I don’t know what they were thinking when they created this guy, but he also doesn’t stand up properly when he stops walking either. He just stops animating mid-walk and freezes in his stride… The resulting effect is ridiculous and it should have been fixed. It gets Lynx Casino off to a bad start…

The basic aim of the game is to walk from area to area, playing the five available games – Blackjack, Craps, Video Poker, Slots and Roulette – and trying to win as much money as possible. Of course, this being a casino, the odds are stacked against you and all the games have been designed to part you from your money while giving you the illusion that you’re enjoying yourself and occasionally winning.

Each of the individual games work well enough, and are well-presented, and you can press ‘Option 1’ to see the statistics of your play in each session (which is reset whenever you leave a table or machine), but there aren’t enough different games in Lynx Casino, in my opinion.

The area you can walk around in the casino is very small and is bordered by an invisible barrier and potted plants. There are some characters to talk to, but they don’t do anything other than say one-liners (I was surprised to see one of them mention Ren & Stimpy, but this surprise was tempered by the fact that they spelled Stimpy as “Stimpey”, which quickly doused any admiration I might have had for them). There’s also a cashier at the top of the explorable area, but this person doesn’t seem to do anything except wish you luck whenever you speak to them).

I did read that Lynx Casino does have some ‘Easter eggs’ in it, but after searching the internet and trying a few things myself: I couldn’t find any. If anyone knows how to activate any: please comment below.

If you like casino games then Lynx Casino might have something to offer. The game did review surprisingly well back in ’92, if you can believe that. If you don’t like virtual gambling games, you’d be well advised to steer clear. I’m not a gambling man myself, but I have spent a fair bit of time in casinos, and playing casino sims, and this one I thought was decidedly middle-of-the-road.

More: Lynx Casino on Wikipedia