Apollo 18: Mission to the Moon (1987, Accolade)

For the first time since America landed on the Moon in 1972, America completed the big event again this year recently. So let’s take a look back at one of the Commodore 64’s great games, Apollo 18 in 1987.

“America has returned to the Moon!” More than half a century after the Apollo 17 space mission, the United States of America has once again landed a lander on the Moon. A lunar probe from the private company Intuitive Machines has successfully landed on the Moon’s south polar region.

The game will recreate a mission of the Apollo program from the initial countdown to landing.

The Apollo missions were one of the largest peace time undertakings of mankind.

Using the technical capabilities of the Commodore 64, the creators have tried to recreate as much as possible the experience that the space centre workers originally had. Accordingly, the screens of the various instruments, the visuals of the spacecraft, and even the digital speech were built into the game.

GAME OBJECTIVE

• To successfully accomplish a complete mission:
  Blast off
  Perform docking and course corrections maneuvers
  Land on the moon,
  Perform Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) on moon’s surface
  Blast off from moon and redock with the Command Module (CM)
  Perform space walk and practice satellite capture
  Re-enter earth’s atmosphere and splash down
• To achieve the highest possible score based on each event on
  overall mission

The main focus of the game is in timing. You will need to do the right thing at the right time. There is very little room for error (especially since the errors add up and a few mistakes might be just a bit too much in the end).

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