AAS Week 3:Solar Storm

[Lord Thag]

Welcome to the next exiting chapter of the Atari Appreciation Society, where the retrogaming alumni sample the finer pleasures of the discerning gamer's library of 2600 games!

 

Or was it just listening to me ramble on about old games I like?

 

Dunno. Anyway! I have recieved several PM regarding some underappreciated games. Thanks everyone! These will be featured in the weeks to come, but first I want to put the word out on an Imagic game that everyone seems to ignore (that's a personal fav of mine): Solar Storm!

 

=====================================================

Players 1-2

Difficulty: No Effect

Controls: Paddles

 

Manual:

http://www.atariage.com/manual_html_page.h...wareLabelID=449

 

Screenshots:

http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.ht...wareLabelID=449

 

Review: Solar Storm is one of those games I used to play like crazy back in the day. A friend of mine had it back in the day, and I liked it so much I ended up trading him my space attack cart for it (the sucker). Imagine my surprise when (years later) I found that most 2600 related sites just wrote it off as a cheesy space shooter that was unfairly hard.

 

That my friends, is a load of crap.

 

For those of you who have never played it, imagine what would happen if your Kaboom! cart got a little randy, knocked up your Atlantis cart, and got it pregnant. After all of the child-support was taken care of, you might have a product rather like Solar Storm. Basically, it has all the intensity and speed of Kaboom!, but instead of catching bombs, you are shooting down enemy ships and asteroids with your ship. Beneath you is a star which you are trying to keep from going supernova. Each side of the screen shows the heat level of the start, which builds up everytime a target gets past you. To add to the suspense, every once in awhile a noisy little satalite thingy flys down at you. Hit it, and (like the little ship in Atlantis) every thing on the screen blows up. Miss, and your star gets heartburn. Every couple of rounds or so you are treated to a little bonus sequence where you get a chance to shoot down the invading enemy flagships and (if successful) earn an extra ship and cool your star down a bit.

 

Frankly, this is one of the finest twitch games I've ever played. It will school you like nobody's business, but you'll be back for more. The learning curve is very similar to Kaboom!, and requires just as much dedication. To be honest, though both games are fantastic, I prefer Solar Storm. I guess it's because there's more variety. There are a ton of different ships and objects to shoot. The one complaint I always hear is that 'the enemy lazers cheat'. A word of advice on that: they don't. All of the enemy lazer attacks are based on a time cycle. Learn the delay, and you'll learn when to dodge. Keep practicing, and give this underappreciated gem another go! After all, it is IMAGIC folks. They don't make many bad games

=====================================================

[StanJr]

I LOVE SOLAR STORM.

 

This game is WAY underappreciated. A very good, fast-paced shooter with plenty of room for strategy and quick thinking! I was very impressed with it, especially the two different scenes.

 

I can do pretty well on it, but it is pretty darn hard. Those things come at your planet really fast..

 

But I think its great. A plug and play, quick to learn, but lifetime to master game that hardly any one talks about!

 

BIG LOVE FOR SOLAR STORM!

[Big Player]

Hey, week 3 and finally a game I'm not familar with. Sounds cool.

 

I'm not sure when I will get a chance to play it though. The only computer currently operating in my household is this pentium 133 laptop I'm using now. It's so slow I have to wait for it to catch up to my typing. Emulating the 2600 is out of the question right now. But since it's a paddle game, I'm sure it doesn't play well in emulation anyway.

 

I need to get one of those Kroko Karts.

[+Nathan Strum]

Great game! I always meant to pick it up "back in the day" and for some reason, never did.

 

I think I bought Laser Gates instead.

 

Bleah.

 

I should really pick this one up someday.

Edited April 27, 2005 by Nathan Strum

[Lord Thag]

Great game! I always meant to pick it up "back in the day" and for some reason, never

 

Too bad, it's quite the intense experience. Like Kaboom!, your whole focus narrows down to the game. Most people like Kaboom! better, but I'd rather play Solar Storm. I remember getting really high scores as a kid. I sure suck at it now though!

 

Hey, week 3 and finally a game I'm not familar with. Sounds cool.

 

Guess I'm doing my job then

 

Anyone have this on an actual Atari like me? It's worth spending $15 to get if you don't have it.

[kencrisis]

Thag, thanks for this review. Yet another game I don't have and will be searching for on Ebay now. I'm a huge fan of paddle games and had never checked this one out. Sometimes I have days where all I want to do is play with the paddles -- "screw the joysticks" means I end up playing a lot of Kaboom and Super Breakout. From what I could perceive through the difficult mouse-emulation play, I think this is a game very worthy of my hard-earned cash. And, as you said, after all it's IMAGIC.

 

(BTW, just sat down with my wife tonight with Maze Craze for the first time tonight. We're always looking for fun two-player games and your review convinced me to buy it. We had a blast kicking each others' butts on all the variations.)

Edited April 27, 2005 by kencrisis

[Lord Thag]

Thag, thanks for this review. Yet another game I don't have and will be searching for on Ebay now. I'm a huge fan of paddle games and had never checked this one out. Sometimes I have days where all I want to do is play with the paddles -- "screw the joysticks" means I end up playing a lot of Kaboom and Super Breakout. From what I could perceive through the difficult mouse-emulation play, I think this is a game very worthy of my hard-earned cash. And, as you said, after all it's IMAGIC.

 

(BTW, just sat down with my wife tonight with Maze Craze for the first time tonight. We're always looking for fun two-player games and your review convinced me to buy it. We had a blast kicking each others' butts on all the variations.)

 

Glad to hear the reviews are helping. A lot of the great games I've found over the last few years have been because I read a post in these forums. Tapper is a great example. I figured a weekly review/column thingy might help everyone else the same way. There are a ton of obscure but fun games on the 2600, and it's fun for me to dig and come up with one that I don't think most people play. Like any system, there are a lot of 'visible' games that everyone plays, but there also a huge number of great but half-forgotten titles as well. Hopefully, these will be less invisible after a few months of the AAS.

[StanJr]

I have it in cart form and I got it at Philly4 for $6. Wonderful game.

[Rob Mitchell]

yeah .. I still remember the day I found this one at the thrift for $0.50. Another paddle game! And fun!

 

I love paddle games!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

(original designer of the Vectrex Paddle)

[Lord Thag]

Just curious, but what kind of scores do you get on Solar Storm? I seem to remember getting 10,000-20,000 as a kid. I'll be damned if I can hit 5,000 nowadays.

 

I must be gtting old or something

[StanJr]

I can't break 3K, so don't feel too bad. The game gets hard really fast!

[elviticus]

I've got it on the Atari. I agree - good game. I like this Atari Appreciation thread too!