Solaris Atari 2600 Review

[Atariperson23]

Solaris is hailed to be one of the most graphically impressive games of the Atari 2600. Not surprising, because it used a massive (for the time) 16K for ROM. Only Fatal Run and some Brazilian educational cartridge used more. But is Douglas Neubauer's so-called masterpiece so great? Let's find out!

Background: B-

OK, I did the exact same formula with E.T and Combat because they were, although good, not sophisticated enough. For such a detailed game like Solaris, I have to review every part of the game. Anyways, the background is pretty dull. You shoot down Zylons (sounds like another game) and other weird ships. I resent that because this is an Atari 2600 game, a console with 128 bytes of RAM, and aren't the graphics bad enough? But the story's better than Dishaster, so i'm okay with that. Still could've done better, though.

Depth/Sophistication: A+

Is Adventure Or Pitfall II or Raiders Of The Lost Ark very detailed? Solaris will blow you away! It has a final ending (Which only Raiders Of The Lost Ark also has) and not only that, Solaris has 16 different Quadrants to explore with, both with different colors! They make you feel like you're exploring a entire universe! Not only that, Solaris has the smoothest controls of any game. Move joystick to move, the action button to shoot, move and click for the quadrants and space for blast off. It carries the same complexity as Space Flight Simulator, but it's not as convoluted. Atari always wins!

Realism: A+

Solaris offers the highest quality of realism possible. If you have played Solaris at least once, you'll say that Solaris is an pretty amazing game. It has really realistic crashing effects and the fire under your ship is multicolored and flickering. The ship and everything is rightfully colored. There are stars and a landscape, and everything looks true-to-life. If you argue Pitfall II was more realistic, I argue Dishaster was less realistic than Solaris.

Gameplay: A+ Gameplay is pretty fast-paced and offers more thrills than an average Atari 2600 game. Solaris, in my opinion is the second most fast-paced space game, falling under Froggo's Cruise Missile. But the gameplay is uninterrupted, something Cruise Missile failed to do (entering the cavern took a heck of a long time) I think Solaris may seem outdated since it's 30 years old, but the gameplay is as new as a young spry of ginger. By the way, I also recommend Cruise Missile (which i'll review in due time)

Graphics: A+  Is this even necessary? Solaris has the best graphics of any game in the Atari 2600. Colour palette is extremely tasteful and blockiness is nonexistent. The graphics are as good as a 1997 NES game. This game even has Douglas Neubauer's name in the game, which is extremely rare because Atari didn't give their employees credit (Which is why Activision and Imagic formed) The scrolling is the second smoothest in any Atari 2600 game, behind Froggo's Cruise Missile. But Cruise Missile's scrolling was a little unnecessary, so Solaris kind of deserves the top spot in some way. I think, however, Solaris is more than eye candy. The graphics are necessary the same way humans need oxygen.

Sound effects: A+ Solaris has top-tier sound effects which don't sound 8-bit, but rather 16 or 32 bit. There is no music because that would ruin the game, plain and simple. (See Dishaster, Inca Gold, Fire Fly, Sorcerer, Star Fox, Acid Drop, Aufruhr Im Zoo) And, as I mentioned, the crashing and the shooting, and the blasting off sound effects are top-notch. It makes Pitfall II look worthless.

Final Grade: A

Other than the background, Solaris is one of the greatest Atari hits, and deserves to be remembered as much as Adventure or Pitfall. In fact, if this was released in 1982, the Atari 2600 could've survived until 1998. Although, I also recommend Cruise Missile for it's fast and furious action and pace. 

[keithbk]

Hated it.

 

Had no relationship to the original movie.

 

Sort of like the George Clooney version. It was horrible too.

 

At least ET was recognizable.

 

This? A Russian masterpiece it is NOT. I don't think ANY Russians were involved in the programming of this cartridge.

 

All of the action in the movie took place in a space station orbiting the ocean planet. Where are the scientists sliding into deepening psychoses as they confront apparitions from their past? Where is the revelation that the people appearing to them are from the planet, and the planet is constructing islands from their own memories...

 

Okay, the game was great and obviously not based on the movie.

Edited November 27, 2019 by keithbk

[CapitanClassic]

Needs more cowbell.

[VectorGamer]

Didn't read

[+save2600]

I know this game impresses on so many levels and have had it in my collection for years and years, but sadly - don't believe I've ever spent much time with it. Posts and reviews like this remind me to give it a closer look and delve in someday. One of these days. I hope.  

[jaybird3rd]

I always appreciate it when someone takes a deep dive into a classic game, especially one that not many people got to see because of the late date it was released.  I own Solaris, of course, but I also have not spent much time with it yet.  One of the pleasures of playing these classic games is that there is enough depth there to keep one busy and interested in them for a lifetime.

[+save2600]

2 hours ago, CapitanClassic said:

Needs more cowbell.

 

[CommodoreDecker]

On 11/27/2019 at 11:08 AM, Atariperson23 said:

Solaris is hailed to be one of the most graphically impressive games of the Atari 2600. Not surprising, because it used a massive (for the time) 16K for ROM. Only Fatal Run and some Brazilian educational cartridge used more. But is Douglas Neubauer's so-called masterpiece so great? Let's find out!

 

 

100% agreed. It was enthralling back in the day.

 

And not just 16K of ROM, 128B of RAM (unless the game added an extra RAM chip?)

 

Quote

Background: B-

OK, I did the exact same formula with E.T and Combat because they were, although good, not sophisticated enough. For such a detailed game like Solaris, I have to review every part of the game. Anyways, the background is pretty dull. You shoot down Zylons (sounds like another game) and other weird ships. I resent that because this is an Atari 2600 game, a console with 128 bytes of RAM, and aren't the graphics bad enough? But the story's better than Dishaster, so i'm okay with that. Still could've done better, though.

 

 

It felt like Star Raiders or Star Master on steroids...  At the time, I always wondered why Solaris looked polished and Combat looked like a bunch of fisher price blocks (the games being, what, a decade apart and all...)

 

I always liked E.T. despite the difficulty in the pickup wait time and hoping the scientist doesn't waddle by - but it's a good form of tension, and a little strategy can keep all humans away for long enough. Given the time allotted for the game's creation, given one more week the creator might have put in a way to let ET decoy the baddies to delay them for longer in order to be picked up by the mothership safely.

 

Quote

Depth/Sophistication: A+

Is Adventure Or Pitfall II or Raiders Of The Lost Ark very detailed? Solaris will blow you away! It has a final ending (Which only Raiders Of The Lost Ark also has) and not only that, Solaris has 16 different Quadrants to explore with, both with different colors! They make you feel like you're exploring a entire universe! Not only that, Solaris has the smoothest controls of any game. Move joystick to move, the action button to shoot, move and click for the quadrants and space for blast off. It carries the same complexity as Space Flight Simulator, but it's not as convoluted. Atari always wins!

Realism: A+

Solaris offers the highest quality of realism possible. If you have played Solaris at least once, you'll say that Solaris is an pretty amazing game. It has really realistic crashing effects and the fire under your ship is multicolored and flickering. The ship and everything is rightfully colored. There are stars and a landscape, and everything looks true-to-life. If you argue Pitfall II was more realistic, I argue Dishaster was less realistic than Solaris.

 

Pretty much. A background can be mediocre but depth within will make or break it faster.

 

Fun side note, "Adventure" is a nice quickie fast game and feels like an influence on NES's "The Legend of Zelda" ("Adventure" on steroids and crack). ❤️ em all, though!

 

Quote

Gameplay: A+ Gameplay is pretty fast-paced and offers more thrills than an average Atari 2600 game. Solaris, in my opinion is the second most fast-paced space game, falling under Froggo's Cruise Missile. But the gameplay is uninterrupted, something Cruise Missile failed to do (entering the cavern took a heck of a long time) I think Solaris may seem outdated since it's 30 years old, but the gameplay is as new as a young spry of ginger. By the way, I also recommend Cruise Missile (which i'll review in due time)

Good gameplay never dates. Look at how old chess, bowling, poker (any variant), and others are - hundreds of not thousands of years.

 

Quote

Graphics: A+  Is this even necessary? Solaris has the best graphics of any game in the Atari 2600. Colour palette is extremely tasteful and blockiness is nonexistent. The graphics are as good as a 1997 NES game. This game even has Douglas Neubauer's name in the game, which is extremely rare because Atari didn't give their employees credit (Which is why Activision and Imagic formed) The scrolling is the second smoothest in any Atari 2600 game, behind Froggo's Cruise Missile. But Cruise Missile's scrolling was a little unnecessary, so Solaris kind of deserves the top spot in some way. I think, however, Solaris is more than eye candy. The graphics are necessary the same way humans need oxygen.

Under Tramiel, things changed. Getting credit was a good thing. Other things, not so much - the sidelining of the 7800 did Atari in, followed by waffling between home computer and game console lines, rendering both divisions suffering as a result. The Falcon should have been a slam dunk but they axed it to focus on the Jaguar instead...

Quote

Sound effects: A+ Solaris has top-tier sound effects which don't sound 8-bit, but rather 16 or 32 bit. There is no music because that would ruin the game, plain and simple. (See Dishaster, Inca Gold, Fire Fly, Sorcerer, Star Fox, Acid Drop, Aufruhr Im Zoo) And, as I mentioned, the crashing and the shooting, and the blasting off sound effects are top-notch. It makes Pitfall II look worthless.

 

By the tail end of the 2600's life, with software and hardware developers knowing how to eke out every last bit of performance via cartridge augmentation, the console still had life to it. Again, the 7800 - huge missed opportunity with delaying its release (ditto for not including a POKEY).

 

Back to a half-tangent, the NES's only weakness for me was the sound. Yes, the NES has 5 voices. No, its bass is not as good as any Atari game despite the 2600's 2 voices. Even the hack port of Super Mario Bros to the 2600 reveals better sounding low tones.

 

Back to the game, Solaris was impeccably detailed in every audio and visual effect, and was solid with planetary physics as I recall.

 

Quote

Final Grade: A

 

Ditto

 

Quote

Other than the background, Solaris is one of the greatest Atari hits, and deserves to be remembered as much as Adventure or Pitfall. In fact, if this was released in 1982, the Atari 2600 could've survived until 1998. Although, I also recommend Cruise Missile for it's fast and furious action and pace. 

 

Or 1983. The glut of junky games started in 1982, but the surfeit of flooding kicked in during 1983.  Along with Pac-Man getting half the ROM space it deserved (which was yet another blunder even though I liked the game enough at the time) Solaris was precisely what was needed - an epic galactic experience - to keep the game market fresh.

 

Then again, Mangia was as inventive as it is rare, I've seen the prices on EBay... If not laden with more gruesome and dark humor than what a black hole's got.

Edited December 3, 2019 by CommodoreDecker

[qrysdonnell]

On 11/27/2019 at 3:36 PM, keithbk said:

Hated it.

 

Had no relationship to the original movie.

 

Sort of like the George Clooney version. It was horrible too.

 

At least ET was recognizable.

 

This? A Russian masterpiece it is NOT. I don't think ANY Russians were involved in the programming of this cartridge.

 

All of the action in the movie took place in a space station orbiting the ocean planet. Where are the scientists sliding into deepening psychoses as they confront apparitions from their past? Where is the revelation that the people appearing to them are from the planet, and the planet is constructing islands from their own memories...

 

Okay, the game was great and obviously not based on the movie.

For what it's worth it was originally a book by Stanislaw Lem, a Polish sci-fi author. Plenty of his books are worth a read!

[+discotronic]

Here is my recollection of Solaris and the 2600.

 

My brother and I grew up dirt ass poor which is not an exaggeration in the least. We didn't have any kind of video game system until about 1986 or 1987 when we put our birthday money together and bought a 2600 and big box of games for $10 at a yard sale. Our birthdays were 6 days apart by the calendar but we were 4 years apart in age. I do remember it was a 6 switch and had joysticks and paddles. Games that I remember we got with the system were Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Frogger, Stampede, Freeway, Pitfall, Breakout, Video Pinball, Night Driver, Combat and Air Sea Battle. There were more but I can't remember back that far. Most kids were starting to get an NES so the 2600 was a real bargain for kids like us. 

 

Not long after that Big Lots must have purchased a large lot of Atari overstock. I don't remember the exact year. They were selling a 7800 with a bundle of games for about $50. They also had a large number of 2600 games. Big bins full of games and more hanging on the wall. One of them was Solaris. It was $2.00 still sealed. The graphics on the back of the box looked amazing which we knew was BS. No game actually looked that good on the 2600. We bought it anyway. Can't beat $2 for a game.

 

My brother and I were blown away by this game from the second we hit the power switch. We had friends that had an NES and the graphics and gameplay were almost as good. Who knew this old as hell system could do this. 

 

My brother and I moved on to more advanced systems as the years went on. I have the game in the original box in almost as good of shape as it was the day we bought it. Solaris is the reason I still love the 2600. For me I don't think I would still feel the way I do about the 2600 without Solaris. 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by discotronic