Shuttle Simulator

This game is an early simulation of NASA's space shuttle, on a mission to retrieve a failed satellite. Most of the controls are handled using the joystick. The mission is comprised of five different stages:

• Launch: After an automatic lift-off out of Earth's gravity, you guide the shuttle to a rendezvous point.
• Park: With the satellite in sight, approach it until you are right next to it.
• Arm: Use the robot arm to catch the floating satellite and bring it into the cargo space of the shuttle.
• Entry: Just like the launch stage, but without throttle control, you guide the shuttle to a target box indicated in the plotter instrument.
• Final approach: From an outside view of the shuttle, try to decelerate at the same time as dropping to an altitude of zero.

The main view is from the cockpit, with a small stripe in the centre dedicated to the outside view, and the rest comprised of instruments and indicators. All of these instruments, indicating the stages of the mission, the attitude of the craft and its course, as well as altitude and speed, are functional. Certain parts of the mission are moved to an outside view for pædagogical reasons. To make the game more beginner-friendly, the mission is not aborted if a certain stage is not fulfilled, but points are awarded for how well each stage is completed.