Classic of the Month - Lunar Lander

Developer:	Atari
Manufacturer:	Atari
Genre:	Simulation
Board:	Dedicated 6502-board
Year:	1979

Released in 1979, not only was Lunar Lander one of the earliest video arcade games, it was Atari's first vector graphics game and ushered in such classics as Asteroids, Battlezone, Tempest, Gravitar and Star Wars. But what are vector graphics? Well, if you imagine a child's dot-to-do drawing, but with perfectly straight lines between the dots, you'll get basic principles of the technology. The lines are the vectors and unlike a sprite, which is just an arrangement of pixels of different colours, the shape of a vector drawing is controlled mathematically. This means if you rotate, expand or shrink the shape, each point is moved relative to the position of all the other points; the angles of all the lines that make up the shape stay the same, so the shape itself is never distorted. Again, this is unlike a sprite, which is distorted when its rotated, because the individual pixels cannot be rotated, just moved, so they no longer fit in exactly the same position relative to their neighbours; everything has to be rejigged. Likewise, sprites don't scale well, because the only way to scale a sprite is to add or remove pixels; removing pixels loses detail and adding pixels disrupts the ratio of each coloured pixel (unless scaled by a factor of 2, but now we're perhaps getting a little too technical), so the shape becomes warped. These simple graphics emulate the stark landscape of the moon and the vastness of space beautifully, which is probably why so many early games were set in space. Vector graphics were the precursor to polygonal graphics, which take exactly the same rules as vectors, but apply shaded faces to the area between the points to make the shape appear solid. Later, we learnt to apply sprites to these faces, to give the polygonal shape the detail of a sprite and the flexibility of a vector.

But let's get back to the game itself. Arcade games are usually fast-paced, hectic affairs, but not so with Lunar Lander. The game was inspired by the Apollo 11's moon landing of ten years earlier and puts players in control of their own "Eagle". Play starts with the lander at the top of the screen and the rocky, nay mountainous landscape below. On surface of this vector moon there are several flat spots, each with a point multiplier written below. The trickier the landing (such as on a narrow ledge or in a deep gully) the higher the multiplier. Players must rotate the lander and use their limited supply of thrust to control the landing of the vessel on one of these spots. As you approach the landing zone, the screen switches to a zoomed in view, which gives players the chance to fine tune their approach. And fine tune you must if you are to stand any chance of landing without destroying or at the very least damaging the lander. A successful landing adds points to your high score, along with whatever multiplier was associated with the zone you landed on, then it all starts again.

It's a very simple game that rewards patience and care over quick reflexes or pattern recognition. This makes it a very rare beast among arcade games and about the only comparable experience I can think of is Rampart, not in terms of gameplay, but in terms of the mindset required to play it. As early arcade games go, this is one of the most rewarding and that is in part down to the rarity of the experience it provides - even by today's standards.

MTW