Well, we got it wrong last week, predicting that the Dragon would be the next micro to come off the sick list. It's been beaten to it by the late Camputers Lynx.

There's been no news of the Lynx for several months, which is stretching two minutes' silence - but it gives the lie to the old saying that no news is good news. The Lynx disappeared virtually without trace. Lynx owners didn't even have the comfort of brewing that somebody, somewhere, cared for their micro. Even the Jupiter Ace found a friend in need, and other micros have found a safe haven in Holland and Spain.

That the Lynx may stage a recovery is good enough news in itself, but most encouraging is the way that its resurrection runs straight across the main trend of the micro industry.

This is the trend that would have you believe micros are going to become progressively more useful, on the grounds that as games machines they have a limited life expectancy. It all sounds very full. Fine and dandy, of course, if the challenge of rigging up a ZX81 to control the mcclmat n yr window-box is irresistible; but hardly a match for the excitement of a good game.

The Lynx was one of those indeterminate systems that didn't know whether it was a home micro or a business system. Towards the end of its life, with increased memory and disk attachments, it was beginning to make up its mind in the direction of business. Perhaps it would be unseemly to gloat and say this development was the death of it. Besides, it was never a runaway success as a home micro. But it didn't go under until it turned serious...

Will the Lynx's Lazarus act mark a rejection of the new wave and a return to the traditional values of home computing - blood, gore, lightning reflexes and preferably a warped mind? Will it fire a broadside at the old sobre-sides who want to clean up? (Whether it's home microcomputing they want to clean up, or whether they just want to clean up generally isn't yet clear.)

It is asking too much to expect the Lynx to shoulder the burden alone. In its last days it was barely capable of shouldering a sack of horse-feathers, let alone the standard of the home micro enthusiasts. If certain other micros - the Texas Instruments 99/4A, for example, or the Jupiter Ace - were to come out of retirement it might be possible to start thinking about a veterans' eleven to take the field against the new breed represented by the QL, the Commodore Plus/4, and the Sharp MZ800, where home use is definitely a secondary consideration. The QL is a particularly regrettable case; not because there's anything wrong with it, of course, but for the fact that it comes from the company that put home micros on the map in this country, a company whose last new home micro was the Spectrum. The Spectrum Plus is a side-show; it's the QL that shows which way the wind is blowing.

TI99/4A fans will say their micro is still supported if you know where to look, and Jupiter Ace die-hards might argue the same case. But the prospects for the Lynx - and the Dragon, for that matter - are on a different level on the Bobby Robson Scale of Optimism. The Lynx may yet get a result.

Of course there never was much of a software industry where Lynx games were concerned. But the point is that somebody thinks the machine can still sell, against competition so well established that the act of faith takes your breath away.

This being the season of goodwill, the Lynx could hardly be re-launched at a better time. If there's a sympathy vote around at this time of year, the Lynx deserves it more than most.

If its new proprietors can organise themselves quickly enough it might even pick up a few sales by default, as anxious shoppers find the shelves empty of Sinclair Plusses and C16 starter packs but healthily stocked with Lynxes.

It could turn out that the Lynx's appeal will be mainly nostalgic. It recalls a style of micro that seems to be passing out of fashion (and a kind of manufacturer that seems to have passed out).

But if it makes a successful comeback, the reasons won't be particularly important to anybody out there who still has one tucked away at the back of a cupboard.

David Guest