Re: Moon Lander -- Vectrex Game Review/High Score Page

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 17:30:44 12/10/99 Fri
Author: Rob Mitchell
Subject: Re: Moon Lander
In reply to: -- 's message, "Moon Lander" on 08:59:08 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

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Re: Moon Lander -- chuckie, 10:38:34 12/23/03 Tue