Written by Shawn 2022 Cohort
The United States moon landing programme was originally part of the Cold War space race, but it greatly motivated the public and inspired the literary world. Science fiction films such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Planet of the Apes,” both created during the 1960s “space fever,” achieved unprecedented success.
The space race and the moon landing programme benefited video games at the same time. Just four months after Armstrong’s “big step,” Americans could play the “Moon Landing Simulator” game and experience its “magnificent desolation.” There is a massive gap in the public perception of the game in the twenty-first century, but it also carries our beautiful fantasy of humanity in space.
The first moon landing simulations were created in 1969 by Jim, a high school student, out of curiosity. Moonlander, the first vector graphics moon landing game, was released in 1973. Players no longer had to imagine the moon landing out of thin air thanks to intuitive monochrome game graphics. Daito, a Japanese company, released the arcade game Moon Rescue in November 1979. Jupiter Landing was created in 1981 by the newly established HAL lab using Commodore’s VIC-20 computer.
Moon landing games have followed two different ideas to push the envelope since “Moon lander.” The first focuses on authenticity, using cutting-edge technology to recreate the actual moon landing experience. The second focuses on gameplay, introducing some extra space-themed content outside the moon landing game itself.
Kambara Space Program is a collection of space simulation games released in 2015. Although the game is set in a fictional galaxy, it adheres to the laws of real-world physics. Players will run the Kambara space programme and design their rocket ship, and space exploration will extend beyond the moon.
No human has ever returned to the moon since the Apollo 17 moon landing, and plans for cosmic exploration are even more elusive. On the contrary, a moon landing simulation game derived from the moon landing mania inherited mankind’s desire for deep space, and it still survives after half a century of evolution.
When humanity returns to the moon, there will be more realistic and exciting moon landing simulation games on the market. At that time, there will be a large number of players who aspire to space.
*Information in this article is referenced from www.yystv.cn