Solaris
Lost Planet, Found Happiness
By Rebecca PinkoskiSeptember 6, 2005
At this point I’d like to list my 5
favorite Atari games: Raiders of the Lost Ark (I’m serious!)
Ballblazer, Adventure, H.E.R.O., and the number one all time fave,
Solaris, which I began playing in my early high school days,
1990-ish. This was the last Atari game my family ever acquired (I have
since gotten a few more on my own, but getting a new game was much more
memorable in the pre-internet days.)
To this day I’m not quite sure where our copy came from, probably a
trade or castoff from someone else. I do know I wasn’t too fond of it at
first. It was the favored game of my sister Missy, who didn’t play Atari
very often otherwise, during the days when I was busy blasting my way
through Desert Falcon and swearing at Tower Toppler.
One day, however, I picked up the Solaris instruction manual and
never looked back. Even as a young thing I had always had a thing for
space adventure, be it “Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space” or
“Battlestar Galactica.” I could sit and play Vanguard, Defender,
Galaga, Yar’s Revenge, or any other space shooter for hours. If it
had spaceships and laser cannons in it, I was there, so I really can’t
explain why I was slow to get into Solaris. Maybe watching Missy
shuffle through the map screens reminded me too much of the video
versions of board games, which I could never see the point of.
But once I finally read the manual and played the game myself... I was
simultaneously hooked and annoyed that I had been depriving myself of
the pleasure of warping through space blasting the daylights out of
flagships, Kogalon star pirates, Cobra ships, and all sorts of other
things, trying to save the planet Solaris before the evil Zylons destroy
it.
Graphics
Some of the best I’ve seen in a 2600 game. The enemy ships, of which
there are many, all have different shapes and ways of moving about on
screen. They increase/decrease in size as they fly up close to your ship
or scoot off into the distance. Stars and round objects referred to as
“neutral planets” (which are more like asteroids compared to Federation
and Zylon planets, but never mind) streak past as you head into battle.
The map screens which formerly put me off turned out to be a nice touch.
Each of the sixteen space quadrants (though wouldn’t a sixteenth be a
quadrant of a quadrant?) has its own grid containing handy icons
indicating where star clusters, wormholes, Federation or Zylon planets,
and enemy fleets are located.
While the color palette is subdued and every planet you land on is
picked out in shades of purple, the details more than make up for it.
Sound/Music
No music, but a boatload of sound effects: laser blasts, explosions,
whooshy sounds while flying or warping, alarms when you are running low
on fuel or when a Federation planet gets invaded by Zylons. Background
music wouldn’t make a lot of sense unless Federation starships come with
CD players.
Gameplay
Despite the complexity and scope of the game, it’s fun, and that makes
it a winner in my book.
Instead of just flying and shooting, there is some strategy involved as
the star clusters form a giant maze you must maneuver through to get
closer to the goal. The on-screen targeting system is a nice touch; it
changes colors as you get closer to enemy ships and points to where the
enemy is when they’re out of view, saving a lot of tedious flying and
searching. The same display helps you locate docking bays on friendly
planets for when you need to refuel.
The one complaint I have is that certain wormholes will shunt you
straight into a corner blocked in by star clusters, and once you pass
through certain sectors containing a planet the game won’t let you back
out the way you came. There’s nothing like playing a game for hours only
to find yourself stuck with no way out, or the only way out being to
destroy a friendly planet (along with all your possible rest stops in
that quadrant).
Controls
For the most part, pretty responsive. The ship moves about pretty easily
and is fast enough to dodge enemy fire. Warping is tricky at first, as
the ship splits into two ships which have to be kept as in phase as
possible, but gets easier with practice and a bad warp basically just
means you arrive further from the enemy. The quadrant maps are accessed
with the second joystick, which can be cumbersome if you’re in a hurry,
but you’re not in danger of losing something important or blundering
into an obstacle if you mix up the joysticks (unlike Raiders of the
Lost Ark.)
The only time control is a real problem happens when a Federation planet
is destroyed, either by the Zylons or if you shoot a docking bay: the
quadrant becomes a “red zone” where the controls are reversed. This
situation is best faced with the 7800 proline joystick: both fire
buttons function the same way, so if you simply hold it upside down you
can almost maneuver normally.
Overall
Perhaps the best way to describe how I feel about this game is that I’ve
never won it but I still love it. Normally a winnable game I can’t win
either gets ignored or trashed, but this one works on so many levels: a
strategy maze game, a shoot-‘em-up stressbuster, or a quick space flight
vacation. This might be the last Atari game I got for a long while, but
it’s usually the first one I reach for when I’m in the mood for a good
game.
Game Data |
Scores
|
| Title |
Solaris |
Graphics |
100% |
| Publisher |
Atari |
Sound/Music |
90% |
| Genre |
Shooter |
Gameplay |
90% |
| System |
2600 |
Control |
85% |
|
|
Overall |
100% |
)
)
)
