Solar Fox ?-??-83

This is Bob Curtiss's version of Solar Fox which he started but never finished.  It appears to use a different display kernel than the released version (which was done by an unknown programmer) and flickers quite badly.  Other than the flicker, it appears that most of the graphics are different including the enemy fireballs.  But the most intriguing thing about this prototype is that is features the stationary enemies (appearing as fireballs in this version) that were scattered around the levels in the arcade.  It's unknown why these were removed, but as you cannot shoot in this version they're hard to avoid especially at the higher levels.  This version was scrapped when Bob left Bally Midway and a completely different version was done by Tom DiDometico.

Prototype Differences

There is no title screen

The game is always set to two players

There are no life counters

There is no rack counter

There is no Skip a Rack feature

There are no challenge racks

The game display kernel is completely different and appears to be unoptimized.  Everything flickers quite badly

The player's ship is green instead of yellow or blue

The Sentinels are yellow and shaped differently

The energy cells are gray (or green depending on the level) and aren't made of two different colors.

The fireballs are completely different looking.  They're made of two different overlaid sprites and look like an orange blob with yellow 'electricity' over it.

There is a new type of enemy that looks like a stationary fireball.  These were in the arcade game (looking like little whirlpools) but were removed from the final.

The first player uses the bottom score while the second player uses the top score.  This is the opposite of how it is in the final.

The sounds are different.  The start of rack music and death sounds are completely missing.

Holding down the reset switch allows you to cycle through all the levels

There is no demo

The controls aren't quite as tight as the final version, causing the player to overshoot the rows constantly

Occasionally an energy cell won't register as being touched

Due to the flicker it's hard to get a screenshot, but this is what the game should look like	It may look different, but the core gameplay is all there
The colors are a bit drab though	All the levels are here (minus the Challenge Racks)

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