Appendix A - MOON ROCKET LANDER
The game simulates a rocket attempting to land on the moon,
with you as the pilot. As the game begins, you are descending
at a velocity of 50 ft/sec from a height of 500 feet. Velocity
and altitude are shown in a combined display as –50.500, the
altitude appearing to the right of the decimal point and the
velocity to the left. The negative sign on the velocity indicates
downward motion. As the game begins, you have 60 units of
rocket fuel.
The object of the game is to control your descent by keying in
fuel “bums” so that when you reach the surface of the moon
(altitude O), your velocity is also zero and you settle down
gently into the powdery moon dust.
When you press
A
, the game begins. The velocity and altitude
are shown in the calculator display. Then the number of
remaining fuel units are shown, and the display begins
countdown to burn time. The display counts “3”. “2”, “1”,
“0”. When the countdown reaches zero, you have one second
to key in a fuel burn. The best choices for fuel burns are digits
of 1 through 9. A zero burn, which is very common, is
accomplished by doing nothing.