Set in the year 2049, Koronis Rift (1985) casts the player as a lone techno-scavenger, tasked with exploring the mysterious rift valleys of an abandoned alien world once inhabited by a highly advanced race known as the Ancients. In one of Lucasfilm Games’ earliest releases, players traverse a vast, fractal-rendered terrain in a customizable rover, searching derelict alien hulks for powerful technology. Gameplay alternates between real-time vehicular combat and scavenging. While navigating the rift, players encounter floating Guardian Saucers that must be destroyed before deploying a drone to recover modules from nearby hulks. These modules—whose functions range from weapons and shields to mapping tools or energy boosters—must be analyzed to determine their purpose and effectiveness. A unique color-coding system governs shield and weapon interactions, requiring players to experiment and strategize to overcome increasingly dangerous enemies. The game supports nonlinear progression: players can tackle the twenty rifts in sequence or skip ahead using collected tech, and even deploy a special bomb module to bypass more elaborate strategies. Modules can be retained, sold, or swapped to improve the rover’s performance. Koronis Rift was notable for its use of fractal landscape technology and modular gameplay systems—both cutting-edge for its time. It emphasized experimentation, learning through trial and error, and tactical planning, and remains one of the more ambitious and cerebral action-strategy hybrids of the 8-bit era.

Epyx released four titles under license from Lucasfilm, including Koronis Rift, Rescue on Fractalus, Ballblazer, and The Eidolon. All of the rights for the Lucasfilm titles are still held by Lucasfilm, which is now part of Disney.  They have licensed some titles out (like Monkey Island), but when we inquired, they weren’t yet ready to relicense any of the Epyx titles.