Solar Quest
Solar Quest is a monochrome vector arcade game created by Cinematronics in 1981. It was designed and programmed by Scott Boden, who previously worked on Star Castle. It had a home release for the Vectrex system in 1982.
The player controls a ship that can rotate to the left and right and thrust forward, similar to the better known Asteroids, and like that game the player also has a "hail mary" device, hyperspace. In the center of the screen is the sun, which pulls objects into it, in a fashion similar to Spacewar!. The screen wraps at the edges.
Waves of enemy spaceships appear in groups of up to eight. There are seven different types of ships, growing smaller to make them harder to hit. Each "phase" of the gameplay completes when each of the seven waves is destroyed. The spaceships are a collision hazard and normally fly around the screen randomly. As the game progresses, they become more likely to attempt to ram the player directly. At higher levels, the ships gain weapons and attempt to shoot the player.
The player's ship is armed with two weapons, a cannon and a "nuke". The cannon fires a single shot in the direction your ship is pointed, and the game allows up to four shots on screen at once. The nuke destroys all ships in the area when it is triggered, which occurs with a second button press after being launched from the ship. The player's ship starts the game with three nukes and gains a new one every 10000 points.
Whenever an alien ship is destroyed, a "survivor" is left drifting in space. The player can collect the survivors by flying his ship over them. Alternately he can shoot them, or allow them to fall into the sun. The player is awarded with points for successful rescues, and eventually free ships.
The player controls a ship that can rotate to the left and right and thrust forward, similar to the better known Asteroids, and like that game the player also has a "hail mary" device, hyperspace. In the center of the screen is the sun, which pulls objects into it, in a fashion similar to Spacewar!. The screen wraps at the edges.
Waves of enemy spaceships appear in groups of up to eight. There are seven different types of ships, growing smaller to make them harder to hit. Each "phase" of the gameplay completes when each of the seven waves is destroyed. The spaceships are a collision hazard and normally fly around the screen randomly. As the game progresses, they become more likely to attempt to ram the player directly. At higher levels, the ships gain weapons and attempt to shoot the player.
The player's ship is armed with two weapons, a cannon and a "nuke". The cannon fires a single shot in the direction your ship is pointed, and the game allows up to four shots on screen at once. The nuke destroys all ships in the area when it is triggered, which occurs with a second button press after being launched from the ship. The player's ship starts the game with three nukes and gains a new one every 10000 points.
Whenever an alien ship is destroyed, a "survivor" is left drifting in space. The player can collect the survivors by flying his ship over them. Alternately he can shoot them, or allow them to fall into the sun. The player is awarded with points for successful rescues, and eventually free ships.
Solar Quest
Technical
CPU
- maincpu M6809 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- DAC
- AY-3-8912A (@ 1 Mhz)
Display
- Orientation Tate
- Resolution 0 x 0
- Frequency 60 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 5
- Kind of controler
- stick
- stick
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Solar Quest Screenshots
Videos of Solar Quest
07:08
Solar Quest - Vectrex - Bug
LA GLOBULE - 12 view(s)
Voici donc un bug que j'ai pu trouver sur le hardware et la rom d'origine, en 1986 je pense.
Pour ceux qui ne connaissent pas (beaucoup n'étaient pas nés à l'époque), le vectrex est une machine à écran vectoriel sur laquelle pas mal de shmup sont sortis.
Cette machine, je la connais bien, et j'ai passé d'innombrables heures de jeu dessus. Et ce bug, je n'en ai jamais entendu parler sur le net. Le voici donc en vidéo :)
Avant toute chose, Solar Quest est un shmup. Le principe est simple, il faut :
- éviter le soleil (one shot) qui se trouve au centre de l'écran
- dégommer les vaisseaux ennemis qui arrivent par vagues sur l'écran (il faut savoir que le premier tir sur un ennemi libère un "flocon" qui représente en fait le pilote du vaisseau, pilote qui cherche alors à se se suicider dans le soleil : si on veut scorer, il faut ramasser le "flocon")
- au bout de X vagues de vaisseaux ennemis, on change de "level" en arrivant à une "Phase 2" (puis 3, 4, etc...)
Pour déclencher le bug il faut :
- lancer une partie à 2 joueurs
- avec le joueur 1, dégommer les vaisseaux en laissant flotter les flocons (certains n'arrivent pas à se suicider : les premiers bug de path finding :p)
- juste avant d'arriver à la phase 2, il faut avoir à l'écran un unique "flocon" qui n'arrive pas à trouver le soleil
- on se suicide
- la partie passe au joueur 2 et on se suicide pour vite revenir au joueur 1 (joueur avec lequel le bug va se manifester)
- la partie repasse au joueur 1, et la, les vaisseaux ennemis n'ont absolument plus rien à voir avec ceux du jeu "normal" : on a des "sprites" bizarres, des nuages d'ennemis, voir des points en guise de vaisseaux
Noter comme le jeu se met à ramer à ce moment la (sur le hardware d'origine, on a les mêmes ralentissements).
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Details
Solar Quest uses the "classic" monochrome Cinematronics chassis introduced with Space Wars, and used a coloured plastic overlay to produce a yellow sun, blue play field, and red scoring information at the top. The game was originally intended to be based on a true color display, but was released in monochrome..