Lunar Lander (1979 video game)

Lunar Lander is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc. in 1979, which uses a vector monitor to display vector graphics. Although not particularly successful, the vector-graphics generator of the arcade game was the impetus for Atari's most successful coin-operated game, Asteroids.^[2] The object of the Lunar Lander game is to pilot a lunar landing module to a safe touchdown on the moon. Released in August 1979, approximately 4,830 units were produced.^[3][4]

Gameplay

The objective of Lunar Lander is to pilot a lunar landing module as it prepares to touch down on the moon. The terrain is very jagged and has only a few flat areas appropriate for landing. These areas are highlighted with a flashing bonus multiplier, which is higher for smaller areas. If the player successfully lands the module, he or she is awarded points based on how good the landing was and the difficulty of the landing site. If he or she crashes, points are awarded based on the severity of the crash and sometimes the player receives a fuel penalty. In either case, the game starts another round with a different set of terrain and the player's remaining fuel. The game is over when the player has run out of fuel and crashes onto the moon's surface.

To pilot the lander, the player must counteract gravity by using the lander's aft thrusters to slow its descent. The player uses a proportional throttle to adjust the strength of the thrusters, a new feature at the time of the game's release. Three buttons provide the ability to rotate the craft clockwise and counterclockwise, and to "abort" an approach by firing the thrusters at full strength for a short time. Each action uses up the craft's limited fuel, and when fuel has run out, the lander stops responding to the player's actions. The player can optionally purchase more fuel at any time during the game by depositing additional coins, also a new feature for its time.

The player can adjust the game's difficulty at any time during play.^[4]

Clones

The home computer version of Lunar Lander was released by Adventure International in 1981.^[5] Shortly afterward, Commodore released the very similar Jupiter Lander for its VIC-20 computer. Later, Jupiter Lander was released to the Commodore 64 and in 2009 it was released to AmigaOS 4 as well.^[6]

In late March 2010, Lunar Lander was offered as an available title for Microsoft Game Room.

Since January 2011 a free Flash version of Lunar Lander, hosted by Atari.com, was featured at the Google Chrome Web Store.^[7]

A remake, playable for free on web browsers supporting HTML5, has been released on Atari.com along with a number of other classic Atari games.^[8]

See also

• Lunar Rescue

References

External links

• Lunar Lander at the Killer List of Videogames
• Lunar Lander at the Arcade History database
• Revised version of Lunar Lander at Atari Arcade