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TRON Solar Sailer - Opinions?


nurmix

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We'll be recording the game review of TRON Solar Sailer (episode 33 of The Intellivisionaries) in a few days. Just wanted to get some feedback from the Intellivision community that we can discuss on the show.

 

So, your turn...

 

 

 

Sent from my Keyboard Component using Jack's Conversational Intelli-talk cassette

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Tron Solar Sailor is less epic than Tron Deadly Discs and more likable than Tron Maze A Tron.

 

Thought the Solar Sailor was awesome in the original Tron and glad they brought it back in Tron Legacy. I wanted to like this game on the Intellivision. Sometimes I fire it up because 1) it is Tron 2) It involves Solar Sailors 3) It has the part where you hear Bit at some point in the game, always liked that character 4) It is on a Intellivision 5) It is on a Intellivision ... with VOICE! :D

 

But after those points it just fell flat for me, and I am a HUGE Tron fan (partly where my name came from).

 

So ultimately, I loved this game solely because it was Tron related. To some degree all three Tron games play different analogies in my head:

 

1) Tron Deadly Discs -

What we all thought the best part of Tron was and wished it could have been more of ... the disc battles!

Tron Deadly Discs is how we remember the original Tron... until we go back and watch it. :)

 

2) Tron Maze A Tron -

What non-computer users thought it would be like going in a computer with all the chips and circuit boards.

Why would you see chips INSIDE a computer? That is like going in a building and seeing buildings.

This is probably what people who have never seen Tron think Tron was.

 

3) Tron Solar Sailor -

The beauty and the technical marvel that Tron was, all the while being confusing and a bit boring.

To most movie goers that saw Tron this is probably how most remember the movie. In truth since Disc battles only happen in about 3% of the movie, this is probably the most movie accurate game of the original Tron. ;)

 

Hey I'm a big fan of Tron but I can also be honest. So there is my assessment of Tron Solar Sailor.

Edited by doctorclu
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1) Tron Deadly Discs -

What we all thought the best part of Tron was and wished it could have been more of ... the disc battles!

Tron Deadly Discs is how we remember the original Tron... until we go back and watch it. :)

 

 

Nuh-uh... Can't be the best part. I don't recall any light-cycles in Tron Deadly Discs. ;)

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Nuh-uh... Can't be the best part. I don't recall any light-cycles in Tron Deadly Discs. ;)

 

Light cycles / disc battles, matter of personal preference.

 

Luckily for light cycle fans like you we have the unofficial fourth Tron game: Snafu.

Edited by doctorclu
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It was an OK game. The voices were good, the game play was decent. Once I moved into the Commodore 64 era, I equated Activision's Zone Ranger to be a replacement to SS, minus the voice.

 

Over-all, not a well liked game simply because it was complicated, not much action and by the time it was released, lost in the collapse of the console war.

 

I'd say it deserves a 2.5 out of 5 stars. It was a cool concept, but too late in the era of Intellivison to grab the attention... especially for anyone that boughy the super-boring Maze-A-Tron. I remember my father saying that to me... "i wonder if this will be as bad as that other Tron game".

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Did anyone get Solar Sailer in 1983. I remember it being one of those games that I thought was never released. If it were available to me I think it would have been low on my list among the 1983 games that I was wanting to get back then. I did get this cartridge maybe in the 1990s, can't remember. The game lost me as soon as it asked me get a pencil and write down a number. I didn't have patience for these games like I did when I was a kid.

Edited by mr_me
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Did anyone get Solar Sailer in 1983. I remember it being one of those games that I thought was never released. If it were available to me I think it would have been low on my list among the 1983 games that I was wanting to get back then. I did get this game maybe in the 1990s, can't remember. The game lost me as soon as it asked me get a pencil and write down a number. I didn't have patience for these games like a did when I was a kid.

Same with me: it seemed much too complex, as if the programmer couldn't be bothered to use more accessible metaphors and abstractions. Disk track and sectors? Bits and bytes? Puh-leez!

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Did anyone get Solar Sailer in 1983? ..

 

I did, or should say a friend of mine did. Had all the Tron games, was actually good at Maze-A-Tron because well, we played games we got back then good or bad.

 

But I don't remember getting too far at all in Solar Sailor. I think we just flew around blasting grid bugs... I think that was a thing? :P

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I don't mind the disk tracks and sectors references. This is Tron, I'd expect to be inside a computer just like Mazeatron. Solar Sailer is not complicated at all once you read the instructions. I like the MCP battle in Mazeatron although there is no way to defeat it like you can in Solar Sailer. But I haven't played Solar Sailer enough to even get close to the MCP. Comparing Mazeatron and Solar Sailer, I think both games are flawed but Mazeatron has more potential with some modifications.

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I remember playing it around 84 or so. I liked the idea of tracks and sectors and taking notes, it added sophistication to the game (at the time). It was one of the few games we had (15?) so it got a workout. What is kind of embarassing is that today I didn't remember all of the times that voice was required for the game.

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I don't mind the disk tracks and sectors references. This is Tron, I'd expect to be inside a computer just like Mazeatron. Solar Sailer is not complicated at all once you read the instructions. I like the MCP battle in Mazeatron although there is no way to defeat it like you can in Solar Sailer. But I haven't played Solar Sailer enough to even get close to the MCP. Comparing Mazeatron and Solar Sailer, I think both games are flawed but Mazeatron has more potential with some modifications.

 

Well, it didn't seem so much "high tech" and "computery" to me. The manual read like old stereo installation instructions -- you know, the ones from Japan translated into Engrish. That's what it reminded me of: doing homework to figure out what the game was about.

 

Sure, if you figure out the instructions in the manual then the game "makes sense," but my point is that the entire thing -- from reading the manual to figuring out the techno-babble, to playing the game -- felt a bit unfun.

 

The part about flying through the grid and killing baddies was not too bad, but the whole switching lines felt a bit random and arbitrary, and I just end up going around in circles not really knowing what was going on.

 

Overall, not a very good game in my opinion. Of course, your mileage may vary. ;)

 

-dZ.

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