''Shuttle'' is a

space flight simulator game A space flight simulation is a genre of flight simulator video games that lets players experience space flight to varying degrees of realism. Common mechanics include space exploration, space trade and space combat. Overview Some games in the g ...

developed by

Vektor Grafix Vektor Grafix was a British video game developer, computer game development company led by John Lewis and Andy Craven. Vektor Grafix was founded by Craven and Danny Gallagher in 1986 in video gaming, 1986. Their first release were home ports of the ...

and published by

Virgin Games Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwoo ...

. It was released in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

for the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

and

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

Description

In the game, players control a space shuttle that departs from the

Vehicle Assembly Building The Vehicle Assembly Building (originally the Vertical Assembly Building), or VAB, is a large building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), designed to assemble large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V and th ...

and as it returns to Earth at the

Shuttle Landing Facility The Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) also known as Launch and Landing Facility (LLF) is an airport located on Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is a part of the Kennedy Space Center and was used by Space Shuttle for lan ...

. Realistic switches, knobs, and displays of a shuttle were simulated in the game. However, only a limited number of these controls were functional, while the others would cause the shuttle to explode. Operation of the General-Purpose Computers necessitated input according to simplified program commands that were adapted to the current flight situation. Gameplay consisted of flying through simulations of several different space shuttle missions, starting with the Approach and Landing Tests where the original space shuttle, ''

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

'', was flown from the back of a modified Boeing 747 to a gliding landing at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...

, to launching the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

, building a space station, using the

Manned Maneuvering Unit The Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) is an astronaut propulsion unit that was used by NASA on three Space Shuttle missions in 1984. The MMU allowed the astronauts to perform untethered extravehicular spacewalks at a distance from the shuttle. T ...

to capture satellites for repairs, and launching 'secret' military satellites. Thanks to the complexity of the missions, players could receive optional guidance. Instructions were passed to the player through a 'teleprinter', and when those instructions required the player to use the shuttle controls, a flashing box would indicate the appropriate switch or knob. This meant that players could play without needing to memorize the manual, a feature which was highly praised upon its release. To further ease gameplay, the game supported multiple different camera, more than the standard control panel and external view found in most simulators of the time. The player could also look out of any of the cockpit windows, including back into the payload bay when retrieving or releasing satellites, and some of the CCTV cameras on the

Remote Manipulator System Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' ...

. In addition, for those who wanted to know a little more about the shuttle but did not wish to read NASA technical details, the developers also provided an in-game primer giving a few pages of information and some diagrams on each of the major

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

systems. Finally, the publishers supplied a game manual and a large poster showing the control panels. Given its scope and complexity, the game was released with numerous bugs and issues, particularly with the autopilot often getting confused and leading to some peculiar re-entry trajectories. In earlier versions, the final mission was impossible to complete.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' applauded the level of detail accomplished in ''Shuttle'', and Stanley Trevena reviewed the game for ''

'', and stated that "Players with an interest in space and hard-core simulation fans alike will blast off into orbit with this new simulation from Virgin." The magazine ran it in their

"Simulation of the year", which ultimately went to ''

Falcon 3.0 ''Falcon 3.0'' is a combat flight simulator video game developed by Sphere Inc. and published by Spectrum HoloByte in 1991 as third official main entry in the ''Falcon'' series of the F-16 Fighting Falcon simulators. Gameplay ''Falcon 3.0'' was ...

'' by Spectrum Holobyte. In 1996, ''Computer Gaming World'' declared ''Shuttle'' the 50th-worst computer game ever released.

References

External links

*
Amiga version ReviewAtari ST screenshots
{{Space Shuttle 1992 video games Amiga games Atari ST games DOS games Space flight simulator games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Realistic space simulators Single-player video games

Description

Reception

See also

References

External links