Solaris (video game)
Solaris is a space combat video game for the Atari 2600 published in 1986 by Atari Corporation. The game involves the player controlling a starship to get to the planet Solaris. To do this, they must navigate the galactic scanner to explore quadrants in space which leads to either battling enemy Zylon ships in both space or on their occupied planets and visit federation planets to refuel.
| Solaris | |
|---|---|
Solaris cover art by Terry Hoff. | |
| Developer(s) | Atari |
| Publisher(s) | Atari |
| Programmer(s) | Doug Neubauer |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release | November 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Space combat simulator |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The game was programmed by Doug Neubauer who had previously made various film tie-in games for the Atari 2600 such as Alien for Fox Video Games. Neubauer pitched Solaris to Atari in 1984 who were going to make it a tie in to the film The Last Starfighter. Following the new re-arrangements with management with Atari, the game was only completed and released in 1986.
Contemporary and retrospective reviews of the game have had critics from AllGame, Computer Entertainer and Retro Gamer praise it as having some of the best graphics on the Atari 2600. Reviews in Retro Gamer went as far to proclaim it as one of the best games on the system.