''Scram: A Nuclear Power Plant Simulation'' is an

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

game written by Chris Crawford and published by

Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...

in 1981. Written in

Atari BASIC Atari BASIC is an interpreter (computing), interpreter for the BASIC programming language that shipped with the Atari 8-bit family of MOS Technology 6502, 6502-based home computers. Unlike most American BASICs of the home computer era, Atari BAS ...

, ''Scram'' uses

differential equation In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...

s to simulate

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

behavior. The player controls the valves and switches of the reactor directly with the

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

. This game's title, "SCRAM", is taken from the term for an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor. It refers to immediately inserting all control rods into the reactor core to stop the reaction process. The game also recreates the

Three Mile Island 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * ''Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

Unit 2 nuclear reactor and allowed players to recreate the events that took place there in 1979.

Gameplay

The game display shows a

schematic A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the key information the sc ...

-like representation of a

light water reactor The light-water reactor (LWR) is a type of thermal-neutron reactor that uses normal water, as opposed to heavy water, as both its coolant and neutron moderator; furthermore a solid form of fissile elements is used as fuel. Thermal-neutron reacto ...

, typical of

s in use in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

at that time. The reactor core is on the left of the screen, with the primary coolant loop to its immediate right. Further right is the secondary cooling loop, and finally the tertiary cooling loop and its associated

cooling tower A cooling tower is a device that rejects waste heat to the atmosphere through the cooling of a coolant stream, usually a water stream to a lower temperature. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and ...

. The user interacts with the game by moving the joystick, which makes a cursor jump from one "hot spot" to another on the screen, each one controlling one part of the reactor systems. There are hot spots for the

control rod Control rods are used in nuclear reactors to control the rate of fission of the nuclear fuel – uranium or plutonium. Their compositions include chemical elements such as boron, cadmium, silver, hafnium, or indium, that are capable of absorbing ...

s, cooling pumps and valves. The user can experiment with the reactor systems by moving the joystick up and down, operating the equipment. It is possible to simulate a

meltdown Meltdown may refer to: Science and technology * Nuclear meltdown, a severe nuclear reactor accident * Meltdown (security vulnerability), affecting computer processors * Mutational meltdown, in population genetics Arts and entertainment Music * Me ...

by shutting off the primary cooling pumps and withdrawing the control rods all the way. The game has several skill levels, which control the frequency of earthquakes and the obviousness of the damage. In the event of an earthquake the screen shakes, and a breaking sound is heard if there is damage. The user then has to watch the on-screen displays to try to isolate where the problem is.

Reception

One big fan of ''Scram'' was

Harold Denton Harold Ray Denton (24 February 1936 – 13 February 2017) was the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) and is best known for his role as Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Cart ...

, the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operat ...

. In an interview with '' Atari Connection'' magazine, he called it "a fascinating game" and "a great tool for learning what goes on in a reactor." ''Enter'' gave it a mixed review, with one reviewer calling it "not fun" while another stated it "was not fast-paced... but it's good." He concluded that "If you buy this game to learn about nuclear reactors, you'll get your money's worth and then some." while the co-reviewer concluded "But if you're buying it to have fun, you're going to be disappointed." '' Softline'' in 1981 seemed to enjoy the game overall, but criticized the documentation, calling it "needlessly wordy and confusing". In contrast, a review in the New Jersey Atari Computer Group (JACG) newsletter praised the extremely detailed documentation, but concluded that the game itself might be too technical for some players.

Legacy

In 2013 Crawford released the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

of several of his games, including ''Scram'', to the public.

References

External links

''Scram''
at Atari Mania
Game review in the light of Fukushima
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scram (Computer Game) 1981 video games Atari 8-bit family games Atari 8-bit family-only games Chris Crawford (game designer) games Commercial video games with freely available source code Educational video games Nuclear power Video games about nuclear technology Video games developed in the United States