| Time: | May 9, 2024, 7:00 p.m. (CEST) |
|---|---|
| Meeting mode: | online |
| Download as iCal: |
|
On July 20, 1969, the first successful moon landing was almost canceled because the Apollo Guidance Computer repeatedly issued the error messages 1201 and 1202. The commander of the mission, Neil Armstrong, decided to carry out the landing maneuver manually. Another problem arose because the intended landing area was too uneven to land on. The crew of the landing module therefore had to look for an alternative landing site. After landing, there was just enough brake fuel left in the tanks for 22 seconds.
The enthusiasm for the Apollo missions and the dramatic circumstances surrounding them inspired many programmers in the early 1970s to program a moon landing. Often in BASIC according to the book "101 BASIC Computer Games" published in 1973 by David H. Ahl, at the time an employee at Diquital Equipment Corp. The games were available in various languages and even on programmable pocket calculators.
This gave the team of the computer museum the idea of presenting all the moon landing games available to the museum. From the most reduced calculator game to the moon landing game written in ACT-V on the Flexowriter, various BASIC versions to the elaborate interactive "rtlem" on the PDP11.
You can follow the "Evening at the Computer Museum" event in the livestream via Twitch. For all those who are unable to be there, the Computer Museum is providing a video of the evening on its YouTube channel.
Livestream via Twitch YouTube Channel of the Computer Museum
