Basic concept and Gameplay
Here is a brief description of the main features of the model. Links will soon be added for more detailed explanations of each element which can also be found in the relevant sections as seen from the main page.
The mission is to control the descent of the Martian Landing Module, by using Attitude and Thrust controls, find a safe landing zone as indicated by bright green strips, and touch down safely.
Flight simulation in two dimensions is achieved by two major elements - the Vertical and Horizontal movements.
The Vertical aspect is applied to the Landing Module (Ship) which is driven up and down on a 3ft Tower Assembly.
The Horizontal aspect is applied to a Landscape assembly which takes the form of a 7ft wide "Caterpillar Track" for continuous scrolling capability in either direction.
The Player Console is mounted in front of the Landscape and it includes various features as follows -
Fuel remaining and elapsed time are displayed on two large gauges ahead of the controls. Between them is a small yellow selector lever used to choose one of two levels of difficulty – Mars or Earth. These levels are defined by the “Planets gravity”. Whichever Planet the pointer is set to (as displayed inside the gauges) will indicate the selected level.
Above this switch is a “Crash Warning” light. This is illuminated if the ship is not in a safe landing configuration, i.e. if it is descending too fast and/or if it is tilted too far away from the upright position.
Between the two main controls (Rotate control knob and Thrust lever) there is a push button control labelled “Start Descent”
Until this button is pressed, the ship remains in orbit “flying” toward the right, and the main controls are disabled. This gives the player time to survey the landscape below and choose the best moment to begin their mission.
There is a further control lever to the right of the gauges. This is used to select “Practice mode” or “Mission mode.” Each selected mode is displayed by a pop-up flag above the console.
In practice mode, both gauges are disabled giving the player unlimited time and fuel with which to perfect their skills.
In Mission mode, both gauges are activated. The timer will begin its countdown as soon as the start button is pressed, and the fuel indication will go down whenever the thrust lever is pushed forward.
From the moment the “start descent” button is pressed, players have about three minutes to make a safe landing and fuel burn is limited to about 90 seconds.
Finally, a discrete “reset” lever is positioned to the right side of the console (not for player use). This is used as part of the game resetting process to return both gauges to their starting point (100%) ready for the next mission.
Speaking of the reset process, wouldn’t it be nice to just press a button and watch everything reset itself ready for the next game?
In reality - it would have been far too complicated an attempt to build in an automatic reset function and it would probably take too long to self-reset in practice anyway.
It was far easier to settle for a simple and straightforward manual reset process.
In most cases, (apart from one exceptional situation covered elsewhere) this is just a matter of lifting the ship back up to the top of the tower (made possible by a quick release mechanism** in the vertical drive), restow the banner(s), then reset the gauges – and we are mission ready once again.
**I have also incorporated a quick release in the ship rotation drive – the idea being that as part of the game reset process the ship can be manually placed in a horizontal attitude as it might be positioned in orbit. The truth is, I’ve never bothered to do this at any of the events it’s been to.
No reset function is required for the Horizontal Landscape motion.
In a similar way, an automatic scoring system has also so far eluded me, although I haven’t entirely given up hope.
Currently, scores must be calculated manually by adding the remaining Time and Fuel figures, then multiplying the result by the Base Value (indicated below each green strip) for the final score.