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Why NASA's New Video Game Misses the Point
longacre writes "Erik Sofge trudges through NASA's latest free video game, which he finds tedious, uninspiring and misguided. Quoting: 'Moonbase Alpha is a demo, of sorts, for NASA's more ambitious upcoming game, Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond, which will feature more destinations, and hopefully less welding. The European Space Agency is developing a similar game, set on the Jovian Moon, Europa. But Moonbase Alpha proves that as a recruiting campaign, or even as an educational tool, the astronaut simulation game is a lost cause. Unless NASA plans to veer into science fiction and populate its virtual moons, asteroids and planets with hostile species, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to suffer through another minute of pretending to weld power cables back into place, while thousands of miles away, the most advanced explorers ever built are hurtling toward asteroids and dwarf planets and into the heart of the sun. Even if it was possible to build an astronaut game that's both exciting and realistic, why bother? It will be more than a decade before humans even attempt another trip outside of Earth's orbit. If NASA wants to inspire the next generation of astronauts and engineers, its games should focus on the real winners of the space race — the robots.'"
The game doesn't let you skip through the budget hearings. And, when they're finally over, your mission gets cancelled.
If they build in some 'real world' latency to simulate the approx 200 million mile distance between Earth and Mars we'll be able to run it on a 286 and still not suffer a performance hit.
Have you tried renaming the shuttle to something other than Challenger?
I think that solves the crash problem.
The mundane tasks combined with teamwork with random individuals, and a text-to-speech synthesizer? You end up with brilliant videos like this, exploring what life would be like on the moon if modern gamers were sent into space: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv6RbEOlqRo
"Joy is contagious," he said, peering into the microscope.
...they'll play anything. I look forward to incomprehensible complaints about welding supplies popping up in my Facebook feed.
Naming it Columbia didn't help either. I can't think what might be the problem.
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Unfortunately, NASA would never be allowed to release a game based on the real drama of human space colonization....
Stuff is expensive to boost out of earth's gravity well. Solution: Midgets. Lighter, lower metabolic needs, work well in small spaces, standard human capabilities in all respects except brute strength, which doesn't matter much in low or zero gravity.
Long term survival of human colony populations will require reproduction; but Newton's 3rd poses difficulties in microgravity. Solution: Bondage enthusiasts.
The day NASA releases this game is the day that they discover what real funding cuts look like...
I am at a loss lately with Intel model numbers, so I didn't get it. Is the 286 the one without the turbo core, or the one lacking VT-x? Oh, maybe it is the one with integrated graphics?
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