How to play Solar Fox online
- Steer the starship: arrow keys
- Change speed: hold Space (slows you down at fast cruise speed, speeds you up at slow cruise speed)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Fast or slow cruise speed: F4 (Player 1) and F9 (Player 2) toggle the difficulty switches
- Player 2 in the two-player games: T/F/G/H to steer, A for speed
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Each screen, or rack, is a pattern of solar cells. Fly over a cell to capture it; clear them all and you move on. Your ship cannot shoot, so your only defence is steering. Two Sentinels slide back and forth along the edges of the playfield and fire fireballs across it. Their aim partly depends on your own flight path, and later racks bring more fireballs in less predictable patterns.
There are 20 regular racks. In racks 1 to 6 you pass over each cell once; from rack 7 on the cells are doubled and need two passes. After rack 20 the patterns start again. You begin with three ships, earn an extra ship for every ten racks cleared, and the game ends when your last ship is hit.
Two extra features reward speed. The Skip-A-Rack timer spells out its name at the bottom of the screen: clear the rack before the letters disappear and you jump over the next rack and collect all its points. After every fifth rack comes a Challenge Rack. The Sentinels stop firing, but you must collect every cell before the word CHALLENGE! vanishes, or you score nothing for it. Each completed Challenge Rack shows one letter of a hidden word; there are six in all.
| Racks | Points per cell |
|---|---|
| 1–5 | 100 |
| 6–10 | 200 |
| 11–15 | 300 |
| 16–20 | 400 |
| Challenge Rack (only if fully cleared) | cells in the rack × the cell value of the rack before it |
Game variations
- Game 1: one player
- Game 2: two players taking turns (yellow and blue ships)
- Games 3 and 4: easier “Parent-Play” versions for one or two players, with slower and fewer fireballs, only the first six racks, and no Skip-A-Rack timer or Challenge Racks
Tips
- Treat the button as a brake or a boost. Changing speed at the right moment lets a fireball pass in front of you instead of into you.
- Stay away from the edges. Hanging around the perimeter keeps you close to the Sentinels.
- Collect in straight lines. Grab as many cells as you can in one direction before turning, which saves time for the Skip-A-Rack bonus.
- Plan double-cell racks. From rack 7, pick a route that crosses each cell twice without doubling back too far.
History
Bally Midway released the arcade Solar Fox in 1981, and CBS Electronics brought it to the 2600 two years later as part of its line of arcade licences. An Atari 5200 version was finished but never released, and the game also appeared on the Commodore 64. The mystery word is usually given as HELIOS, and players have noticed that the layouts of the first six racks also spell out that word. Modern reviews collected on AtariAge rate the 2600 version highly.
Similar games to play next
- Pac-Man – the classic game about clearing every dot from a maze
- Amidar – fill in a grid while enemies patrol the lines
- Wizard of Wor – another CBS Electronics conversion of a Bally Midway arcade game
- Gorf – CBS Electronics’ version of Bally Midway’s multi-stage space shooter