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Lunar Lander (1969 video game)

Lunar Lander
Designer(s)Jim Storer
Platform(s)Minicomputers, personal computers
Release
  • 1969 (FOCAL)
  • 1973 (BASIC)
Genre(s)Space flight simulation
Mode(s)Single-player

Lunar Lander (also known as Rocket, Apollo or Lunar) is a text-based strategy video game developed by Jim Storer in 1969 after watching the Apollo Lunar Module land on the Moon. The game was published under several different names, and was modified and expanded by users who played it. In 1973, the two most popular variations were published alongside Storer's original in 101 BASIC Computer Games, a collection of type-in programs by David H. Ahl, where he described it as "far and away the single most popular computer game."

Gameplay

Lunar Lander is a text-based strategy video game that simulates a moon landing. The player controls a lunar module as it falls toward the surface of the Moon or other astronomical body, using thrusters to slow the ship's descent. Hitting the surface at too high a velocity or running out of fuel results in failure. Movement in the game is turn-based, with each turn representing ten seconds of travel time. To control the module, the player types in a number indicating how many pounds of fuel to burn during each ten second increment. Since the module only holds a limited amount of fuel, the player's objective is to figure out how to allocate that fuel over the course of about four in-game minutes. Depending on the velocity of the craft when it lands or crashes, the player is given an end-game appraisal ranging from "Perfect Landing! (Lucky)!" to "Sorry, but there were no survivors—you blew it! In fact you blasted a new lunar crater [amount] ft. deep!"[1][2][3]

Development

Storer's original version

Lunar Lander was created in the fall of 1969 by Jim Storer, a student at Lexington High School, after watching the Apollo 11 moon landing.[4] The game's complex equations were likely given to him by his father, who was a scientist and engineer.[3][5] After Christmas, it was uploaded to the school's system library as Rocket,[6][7][8] and his computer teacher submitted the game to DECUS under the name FOCAL Lunar Landing Simulation (Apollo), where the source code was distributed to readers under the name Apollo, while Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) published the game as Lunar Module.[6][8] Storer himself refers to it as the Lunar Landing Game.[9]

Storer wrote the original game in the programming language FOCAL for the DEC PDP-8 minicomputer, but it was later converted to BASIC by David H. Ahl, along with Hamurabi, in part to demonstrate the PDP-8. Their popularity led him to create a compilation of BASIC computers games, both his own and reader submissions, as a book called 101 BASIC Computer Games.[10][2] The book was a landmark title in computer games programming and was a best-selling title with more than 10,000 copies sold. Its second edition in 1978, titled BASIC Computer Games, was the first million-selling computer book. As such, the BASIC ports of mainframe computer games included in the book were often more long-lived than their original versions or other mainframe computer games.[10]

The earliest known example of Storer's game being called Lunar Lander was in the 1975 book What to Do After You Hit Return, a collection of BASIC computer games similar to Ahl's published by the People's Computer Company (PCC). Prior to that, in 1969, the name Lunar Lander was used in relation to an electro-mechanical arcade game by Cointronics, which involved the player to using a joystick to land a physical lunar lander model on various targets. A distributor said Cointronics was "the first successful attempt of a coin-operated amusement machine factory to exploit a news event of monumental importance to the world." But it's unclear whether the game inspired PCC to call Storer's game Lunar Lander, or if it was merely a coincidence.[8]

Ports and modifications of Lunar Lander were commercially distributed for some programmable calculators, such as in 1975 for the Hewlett-Packard HP-25[11] and HP-65,[12] and home computers as early as 1976. Early examples are Lunar Lander (1976) for the Apple I[13] and Moon Lander (1977) for the MK14 computer kit, which displayed the lander's speed, height, and fuel consumption on an eight-character calculator-style display.[14]

In 2019, Stefan Trenkel ported the original 1969 source code as a browser game.[15]

Other versions

Because type-in programs involved manually typing in the source code to run the game, many users modified the code, and sometimes sent it back to the original publication. Even Jim Storer did this, creating his own variant of Hamurabi called King.[16] Users who played the DECUS version of Storer's Lunar Landing Game, where it was called Apollo, and sent in their own FOCAL version included David A. Moon of Wayland High School, who responded with Apollo Ⅱ. DECUS described it as "a greatly improved version of the Apollo simulation game which has been running on almost every timesharing system in the country," which changed the time interval from ten seconds to five seconds and added the ability to move left and right as well as up and down.[17] Andres J. Magre of laboratory equipment supplier Coasin S.A. in Buenos Aires, Argentina submitted Apollo 12, a modification designed to be played in real-time.[18]

David H. Ahl included two BASIC variations alongside Storer's original in his 1973 book 101 BASIC Computer Games, which were later renamed when converted to Microsoft BASIC for the 1978 edition of Basic Computer Games. Eric Peters, an employee at DEC, created a variation called ROCKT1 (1973) or Rocket (1978) which added a simple text-based graphical display of the distance from the ground in each round, while William Labaree II's ROCKT2 (1973) or LEM (1978) added horizontal velocity and the ability to apply thrust at an angle.[6] PCC published its own variation alongside the original in its 1975 book What to Do After You Hit Return. Crash added challenging new levels, asking the player at the start of the game whether they want to land on the Moon, the planet Earth, or an "unknown planet" called Persephone.[19]

Legacy

The 1972 edition of DECUS Program Library Catalog said the game was being played "on almost every timesharing system in the country."[17] In the 1973 edition of 101 BASIC Computer Games, David Ahl described the text-based version of Lunar Lander as "by far and away the single most popular computer game"[6] and in the 1976 collection The Best Of Creative Computing said it was still "next to Star Trek and Space War, the most popular computer game."[2] Moon Lander (1977) for the MK14 was one of the first three commercial games in Britain for home computers.[14] In Science Fiction Video Games (2014), while discussing the games' lack of science fiction concepts like aliens or unrealistic physics, Neal Roger Tringham described the series as "one of the few video games to be based on a real space program, as opposed to the many games inspired by fictional forms of space exploration".[20] Commenting on the framing narrative, Aaron A. Reed wrote in 50 Years Of Text Games that Storer's game was unlike previous text-based games in that you're not make decisions from "a remote gold's eye viewpoint" but instead "become the astronaut in the hot seat, watching the numbers printed by your chattering teletype drop disturbingly quickly."[3]

In 1973, Jack Burness created a graphical lunar landing game for the GT40 called Moonlander, which featured the earliest known graphical representation of a human in a video game, as well as the earliest in-game cutscene and earliest known Easter egg in a video game.[21] Although it shares several similarities with Storer's original, such as the end-game appraisals, Burness can't recall which text-based lunar lander game he played, and downplays its influence by saying that whatever version it was, it didn't seem impressive. Moonlander inspired Atari's arcade game Lunar Lander, which in turn inspired its own wave of imitators.[6][8]


Moonlander (video game)

Moonlander
DEC GT40 graphics terminal running Moonlander
Publisher(s)DEC
Designer(s)Jack Burness
Platform(s)DEC GT40
Release1973
Genre(s)Space flight simulation
Mode(s)Single-player

Moonlander (also known as Lunar Lander) is a real-time, graphical lunar landing game. It was developed by Jack Burness for in 1973 for DEC, who commissioned it to showcase the capabilities of their new DEC GT40 graphics terminal when connected to a PDP-10 or PDP-11 minicomputers. The game featured the earliest known graphical representation of a human in a video game, as well as the earliest in-game cutscene and earliest known Easter egg in a video game. It was the inspiration for Atari's Lunar Lander.

Gameplay

Moonlander is a single-player graphical lunar landing game in which the player attempts to land a lunar module on the Moon. The game is displayed using monochrome vector graphics and depicts a side-on view of the terrain and the landing module. At the top of the screen, the player is given information on the module's speed, altitude, and fuel. The game is controlled with a light pen, which is used to click on arrows to adjust the angle of the module, and to adjust the throttle represented as a vertical bar. The player has a limited amount of fuel, which is consumed by controlling the module. Contextual tips appear on screen to offer the player suggestions, the first game to do so.[8][21]

The terrain of the overworld map is jagged and has only a few flat areas appropriate for landing. When the module gets close to the Moon, the view changes to a close-up view of the surface and module. If the module reaches the edge of the screen in this close-up view, it cuts to a new screen rather than scrolling. A crash occurs if the module is moving too fast, or is rotated too far from vertical when it touches the ground, or lands on a not-flat area. The player is given an end-game appraisal based on how softly the module landed or how badly it crashed, which ranges from "Fantastic. A perfect Landing" to "Well, you certainly blew that one. There were no survivors." Whether the player lands safely or crashes, the game starts another round with the remains of any previously crashed or successfully landed modules until the game is reset.

If the player successfully lands the spaceship, an astronaut climbs out to stand on the surface—the first depiction of a human in a video game and possibly the first cutscene in a video game.[a][8][21] Moonlander was also the first video game to include an Easter egg; if the player flies their ship horizontally to the right spot, they encounter a McDonald's restaurant which the astronaut will visit upon landing, or can destroy by crashing into it.[8][21]

Development

Moonlander was created by Jack Burness, a consultant and former employee at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) who was commissioned by DEC to write a program to showcase the capabilities of their new DEC GT40 graphics terminal when connected to a PDP-10 or PDP-11 minicomputers. A few months prior to making the game, Burness attended the December 6 launch of the Apollo 17 Moon landing mission, which partially inspired its creation.[8] Burness had also played a text-based Lunar Lander game in the past, but can't recall exactly which of the numerous variations it was,[6] and downplays its influence by saying he didn't find it very impressive.[8]

Rather than use the equations first introduced in Jim Storer's Lunar Lander, he spent a day at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which had co-designed the actual lunar lander, to get the actual specifications for fuel consumption for maneuvering the rocket. The rest of the game was developed over ten days, and completed on February 25, 1973. The specific area of the moon being landed on is a fictional lunar plain named "Mare Assabet," a reference to the Mare Tranquillitatis plain where the Apollo 11 crew landed, and to the Assabet River in Maynard, Massachusetts, the town where DEC was located. The hidden McDonald's (accidentally misspelled "MacDonald's") was one of the last items programmed into the game, added because he felt the game needed "that little something extra."[8]

Burness revised the code a few times for bug fixes. In early versions, an exploit existed where players who'd mastered the game could "re-land" several times before a new round, giving the module additional fuel.[23] Although the source code wasn't originally freely available, other modifications were sometimes made to Moonlander, with at least one renaming it to RT-11 Lunar Lander, and another removing the McDonald's, as seen in a 1979 Dutch short film Mens en computer (Human and Computer).[8]

A version of the original source code was made available since the '90s, but few emulators for it exist. A touchscreen port based on this source code was made available on the iPad for free by Paradigm Systems in 2013, but has since become unavailable.[24]

Legacy

Moonlander was one of the first graphical computer games created after Spacewar!, at a time when most computer games were still designed for Teletype. As a result, it innovated a lot of concepts that are now taken for granted. It featured the earliest known graphical representation of a human in a video game, as well as the earliest in-game cutscene and earliest known Easter egg in a video game. It was the first game to implement an overworld, and contextual in-game tips.[8][21] Being one of the earliest graphical computer games, it was a favorite application among users of DEC graphics terminals.[6] In 1976, Byte magazine cited a demonstration of Moonlander as "perhaps the most dramatic example of the need for high resolution graphics."[25]

The game was a direct inspiration on Atari's Lunar Lander, whose developers at one point even considered including a hidden McDonald's, having seen Moonlander years prior at the NASA Ames Research Center.[26][6][8] Atari's version differed by including a score, specific pads to land on for points, and physics that were less accurate in order to be less difficult for players in an arcade setting. The Atari game resulted in a wave of imitators. So many versions of the graphical game existed by 1981 that Electronic Games, in a review of Lunar Lander by Adventure International for Atari 8-bit computers and the TRS-80, claimed it was "yet another entry in a field as crowded as the category of Space Invaders imitators. Sometimes it seems as though every company capable of copying a cassette is trying to sell a game on this theme."[27][6] In a review for the same game, Computer Gaming World described Lunar Lander in 1982 as one of the first fun programs entry level programmers start with and continually improve upon as they improve their skills.[28] At least one metagame exists; Antic in March 1986 published Lunar Lander Construction Set for Atari 8-bit, in which the player constructs a custom graphical Lunar Lander scenario.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ The Sumerian Game (1966) interspersed gameplay with projected slideshow images along with a voiceover tape, which may also be considered the first cutscene.[22]

References

  1. ^ Storer, Jim. "Lunar Landing Game Source Code Listing". Lunar Landing Game Related Documents. Retrieved 2002-01-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ a b c Ahl 1976, pp. 264–265
  3. ^ a b c Reed, Aaron A. (2021-01-14). "1972: ROCKET". 50 Years of Text Games. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  4. ^ Ahl 1978, pp. 106–109
  5. ^ "JAMES EDWARD STORER Obituary (1927 - 2016) Boston Globe". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Edwards, Benj (2009-07-19). "Forty Years of Lunar Lander". Technologizer. Archived from the original on 2016-01-16. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
  7. ^ Chien, Philip (July 1994). "Blast off!". Compute!. ABC Publishing: 90. ISSN 0194-357X.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Willaert, Kate (2021-04-11). "Moonlander: One Giant Leap For Game Design". A Critical Hit!. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
  9. ^ "Jim Storer - Lunar Landing Game Related Documents". www.cs.brandeis.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  10. ^ a b McCracken, Harry (2014-04-29). "Fifty Years of BASIC, the Programming Language That Made Computers Personal". Time. Archived from the original on 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-02-12.
  11. ^ Hewlett-Packard HP-25 Applications Programs. Hewlett-Packard. 1975. OCLC 8640699.
  12. ^ a b Bisson, Gigi (March 1986). "Game of the Month: Lunar Lander Construction Set". Antic. Vol. 4, no. 11. ISSN 0113-1141.
  13. ^ "Apple I Replica Creation -- Chapter 1: Apple I History | Applefritter". www.applefritter.com. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  14. ^ a b Levene, Anderson, p. 20
  15. ^ "LUNAR LANDER SIMULATOR". lunar69.uber.space. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  16. ^ Smith, Alexander (2019). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I: 1971-1982. CRC Press.
  17. ^ a b DECUS Program Library Catalog. Maynard, Massachusetts: DEC Users Society. 1972. pp. F - 26.
  18. ^ DECUS Program Library. Maynard, Massachusetts: DECUS Users Society. 1974. pp. 12–14.
  19. ^ What To Do After You Hit Return. Mentlo Park, California: People's Computer Company. 1975. p. 104.
  20. ^ Tringham, p. 450
  21. ^ a b c d e Willaert, Kate (2021-04-03). "Ready Player One Was Wrong: The First Easter Eggs In Video Games". A Critical Hit!. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  22. ^ Willaert, Kate (2019-09-09). "The Sumerian Game: The Most Important Video Game You've Never Heard Of". A Critical Hit. Archived from the original on 2019-09-09. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  23. ^ "DEC GT40 Graphic Display Terminal". www.brouhaha.com. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  24. ^ "Moonlander Classic". 148apps.com. 2014-06-11. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  25. ^ Rampil, Ira Jay (Nov 1976). "Some Graphics Background Information". Byte (15): 57.
  26. ^ "The Making Of Lunar Lander". Retro Gamer (79). Imagine Publishing: 40–43. July 2010.
  27. ^ "Computer Playland". Electronic Games. No. 1. Reese Publishing Company. Winter 1981. p. 71. ISSN 0730-6687.
  28. ^ McGrath, Richard (May–June 1982). "The Eagle Has Landed". Computer Gaming World. pp. 34–35. ISSN 0744-6667.

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Sources



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