Date Posted:10:38:34 12/23/03 Tue Author:chuckie Subject: Re: Moon Lander In reply to:
Rob Mitchell
's message, "Re: Moon Lander" on 17:30:44 12/10/99 Fri
>Way back in 1974 I encountered a computer ... via a
>remote terminal ... and a video screen too ... there
>were a couple of games listed ... and I tried Lunar
>Lander ... a text game where you input how much fuel
>to use over time ... and you got a one line response
>as to your altitude and velocity ... I remember I ran
>out of fuel and the text lines started flying down the
>screen as I lost altitude and gained velocity and made
>a text crater on the moon ...
>
>Later in 1979 I found Atari's Lunar Lander vector game
>in the arcades and wow! I spent a small fortune
>trying to land on its rugged landscape ...
>
>Over the years I've seen several text versions of the
>lander game ... but none brought back the magic of
>these first two encounters .. until this year when I
>found Moon Lander for my favorite console ... the
>Vectrex! So I ordered the EPROM & PCB and soldered
>the two together and plugged it into my Vectrex and I
>was stuck in that mode of fascination for a video game
>that keeps you going half the night!
>
>Sure after crashing a couple of times I finally
>landed! But the thrust didn't work right for me
>because I was using a modified digital Genesis
>controller ... Thanks to someone on the newsgroup ..
>the tip was to use the original analog Vec controller
>with joystick up for variable thrust! So then I could
>thrust a little or alot just like with the Atari
>arcade unit!
>
>So with a little effort I was landing reasonably well
>on the first moon ... then to the next one ... the
>landscape was changed and some wind was blowing me off
>the landing pad! A challenge!
>
>The gameplay is addicting! Over time I conquered
>several moons before losing all my landing craft ...
>and with much effort I made it up to moon 8 ... wow!
>Different landscapes, wind, different gravity values
>... It's a different game every time!
>
>This game from Clay Cowgill gets a 10 from me ...
>brilliantly conceived and programmed with some polish
>from Chris Salomon ... This analog game is the only
>reason to pull out your original controller and have
>alot of fun! You cannot experience this game on
>emulation ... only on the console with the original
>controller ... It is even better than it's inspiration
>... Atari's Lunar Lander!
>
>Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA
