Solarian

Solarian is the original 1980s Macintosh shoot-em-up by Ben Haller that preceded the better-known color sequel Solarian II. Built for the black-and-white Mac, it set the template for the Galaga-inspired wave shooter that Haller would polish into Solarian II in 1988 under his Stick Software label.

Gameplay

The player pilots a ship along the bottom of the screen and fires upward at descending alien formations. Wave structure, scoring, and the tight one-screen play area foreshadow the design of the sequel.

Black and white Mac roots

The original was developed for monochrome Macs of the era, before color displays became common. Sound and bitmap art are tuned for the early Mac sound chip and 1-bit screen.

Relationship to Solarian II

Solarian II, released in 1988, is a full color rewrite that quickly became one of the first standout color shareware games on the Macintosh and was a registration success for Stick Software.

Author

Ben Haller is the author of both Solarian and Solarian II, distributed under his Stick Software banner alongside titles like Lights Off and SketchFighter.