NASA Launches Moonbase Alpha

Several readers have sent word that today NASA launched Moonbase Alpha, an online game with single- and multi-player capability that "allows participants to step into the role of an exploration team member in a futuristic 3-D lunar settlement." The game is available now through Steam for free. Moonbase Alpha was built as a precursor to an upcoming NASA MMO called Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond, and they hope it will be "a proof of concept to show how NASA content can be combined with a cutting-edge game engine to inspire, engage and educate students about agency technologies, job opportunities and the future of space exploration."

Comments

Re:Steam, but Windows-only

[RichMan]

It depends on the game Engine.

I am currently downloading Mass-Effect 2 onto my Ubuntu system. Used Steam to download the demo. It worked. So I bought the game.

Anything I am going to buy from Steam I am going to want to run the demo of first to check for compatibility. Silly thing is the Steam store only works from windows. I have a really old system that gets the job done. My main system is pure Linux.

Getting way off track here but
Steam+demo is the best way to sell the windows games into the Linux market. Try it first, then buy. It lets you know it will work.
STO should work according to the Wine forums. The demo did not for me. So it's out.

Re:This is government-funded—where's the sou

[filesiteguy]

File a Freedom of Information (http://www.justice.gov/oip/) request.

I work for Los Angeles County and we do not give out our source code without one. We have given out the source but it involves several legal issues and "hold harmless" agreements that are way above me. (I'm not condoning or condemning the process, just stating what has happened in the past.)

Re:Only 11 years late...

[pipingguy]

But UFO (also by Gerry Anderson) was great! Supposedly there's a movie on the way.