Koronis Rift

Koronis Rift
Opening screen (C64)
Developer(s)	Lucasfilm Games
Publisher(s)	Epyx
Platform(s)	Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Atari 8-bit family, Tandy Color Computer 3
Release	1985
Genre(s)	Strategy
Mode(s)	Single-player

Koronis Rift is a December 1985 computer game from Lucasfilm Games. It was produced and designed by Noah Falstein. Originally developed for the Atari 8-bit family and the Commodore 64, Koronis Rift was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Apple II, MSX, Tandy Color Computer 3, and ZX Spectrum.

The Atari and C64 version shipped on a flippy disk, with one version of the game on each side. A cassette version was also released for the Commodore 64. The Atari version required computers with the GTIA chip installed in order to display properly.

Koronis Rift was one of two games in Lucasfilm Games' second wave (December 1985). The other was The Eidolon. Both enhanced the fractal technology developed for Rescue on Fractalus!. In Koronis Rift, the Atari 8-bit family's additional colors (over those of the Commodore 64) allowed the programmers to gradually fade in the background rather than it suddenly popping in as in Rescue, an early example of depth cueing in a computer game.

The player controls a surface rover vehicle to enter several "rifts" on an alien planet which are effectively fractal mazes. A lost civilisation known as the Ancients has left strange machinery, so-called "hulks", within these rifts which are guarded by armed flying saucers of different design and color. Depending on their respective color, shields and gunshots of both the rover and the saucers are of varying effectiveness against each other; part of the game is figuring out which shield and weapon modules work best where.