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Python Developer Builds Moon Lander Game As an Alexa Skill (amazon.com)

Long-time Slashdot reader mni12 writes: Anybody interested to try out this "retro game" Amazon Alexa skill I created? Just say "Alexa, enable moon lander".

DESCRIPTION:
Your mission is to land the Apollo 11 Lunar Module to the surface of the Moon.Alexa will help you by reading out your altitude and velocity. Houston Mission Control is also monitoring your descend using telemetry. The telemetry data is shown on your Alexa companion app or website.

HOW TO PLAY:
You control the descent by throttling the rocket engine burn."Burn 100" will give maximum 100% thrust and "Burn 0" will give you no thrust.You can use any value between 0 and 100 to control the descent velocity.

The game starts at 1000 meters with descent velocity of -50 meters/second.The maximum landing velocity is 5 meters/second and you have 75 seconds to complete the mission.If you make a successful landing, you will be added on the Leader board with your score and ranking.

In a discussion on Reddit, the Python developer behind the game also remembers watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's actual 1969 moon landing on TV. "I added some 1969 sound clips from Apollo 11 mission to make the game experience sound more real...."

The original submission also offers some more hints about winning the game, while Wikipedia has a whole page devoted to the "Lunar Lander videogame genre," noting that the first version was created in 1969 on a PDP-8.

3 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. astronaut played this game by pen-helm · · Score: 3, Funny

    In 1980 the Apollo 13 astronauts visited Louisville. One of them played a similar game at the science museum, but he was unsuccessful and crashed!

    1. Re:astronaut played this game by kackle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Reminds me of this video.

      And should you want to play Atari's 1979 version ("Lunar Lander"), I was lucky enough to find one last year. (I am not connected to this place, but had a nice time.)

    2. Re:astronaut played this game by commodore64_love · · Score: 3

      I have that game on both my Atari 2600 and my Commodore 64 (but with a different name). It's unique in being one of very few games that uses the hi-resolution mode (320x240), since it's only two colors.

      Most games of the period used 160x240 to allow multicolor mode.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall