The crummy Solaris manual story

[RickR]

I found this to be so interesting.  Those dang Tramiels!

https://dougneubauer.com/atarisolarismanual/

 

 

[socrates63]

I don't quite get it -- what's the crummy part? I look at the manual on AtariAge and it looked ok. The content was a bit dense for a 2600 game but it was fine. Was it the header that "scrolled" across multiple pages at the top that was the issue? Or was it the fact that they basically copied the engineering notes to make the manual?

Yes, dang those Tramiels -- more reason to despise them.

I just watched the review by CGR, and Solaris looks and sounds absolutely amazing! Now I understand the reference to it being the sequel to Star Raiders.

[RickR]

I think it's confusing.  I've read that manual several times, yet I'm still not sure I'm playing the game correctly.  The little drawings don't really match what you see in the game.  Finally, note the lack of color and polish that we expected from Atari.  It's a cheap two-color fold-out.  They also recycled the Star Raiders art!  A great game like that deserved better.

 

[TrekMD]

They cut corners when making the manual.  The game itself is fine and pretty impressive on the system.  The manual is bland with essentially just one color outside of black.  I so missed those fantastic color manuals we used to get! 

[socrates63]

I guess I should be appreciating the manuals more 🙂 I've been mostly learning how to play games by watching @nosweargamer's review videos and not reading the manuals. He teaches you how to play a game during the first couple of minutes of the video.

I agree that a game of Solaris' caliber deserved better.

[RickR]

You gave @nosweargamer a little part of your day, and he taught you to play. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

2 hours ago, RickR said:

I think it's confusing.  I've read that manual several times, yet I'm still not sure I'm playing the game correctly.  The little drawings don't really match what you see in the game.  Finally, note the lack of color and polish that we expected from Atari.  It's a cheap two-color fold-out.  They also recycled the Star Raiders art!  A great game like that deserved better.

 

Yes, I agree with this whole-heartedly.  When I first seen Solaris I thought the artwork looked familiar.  The same thing was done on the Atari computer versions of Star Raiders and SR II.  Those use the same artwork as well but SR II's manual is more in-depth than Solaris'.

Solaris is a great game and an engineering marvel that really pushed the 2600 hardware.  Very impressive.  Radar Lock, which uses much of the same mechanics as Solaris, is also an excellent marvel.  If there were any Jack-era Atari 2600 releases that really impressed me it would have been those two.  It needed it's own cover artwork, not reusing one that had already been done.  However there is a slight change between the 2600 Star Raiders artwork and that used on Solaris.  See if you can spot it.