Pluto Lander

PLUTO LANDER 

Softly on the Nitrogen Heart

Pluto Lander is a small retro-style descent simulation dedicated to Jim Storer, author of the 1969 Rocket / Lunar Landing Game. It follows the tradition of classic numeric Moon Rocket Landers, but adapts the idea to Pluto, using a simplified Pluto-gravity model and the setting of Sputnik Planitia, the nitrogen-ice heart of the dwarf planet.

The game was designed with the limitations and atmosphere of an SWTPC 6800-class microcomputer in mind: simple numeric input, short text messages, fixed ASCII display panels, and a restrained Teletype-like terminal aesthetic. The player controls a lander descending toward Pluto’s surface. Each turn shows altitude, velocity and fuel. Enter a burn value from 0 to 99 to slow the descent. Use S for a Science Scan about Pluto and Sputnik Planitia; this does not advance time. Use C for the onboard computer to calculate and perform a safe burn. The goal is to land softly — and not wound the ice. 

In the SWTPC version, excessive burn wastes fuel but does not lift the lander upward; this simplified model is designed for safe descent, not orbital flight. Once the fuel is gone, any further burn command counts as zero burn, and the lander continues to fall under Pluto’s gravity.

The HTML version can be played online as a modern PC demonstration of the concept, with a slightly richer display and clearer handling of upward drift after excessive burn. For the original SWTPC 6800, the package includes an .s19 file for loading under SWTBUG and an .asm source file for study, documentation, and further development.

Created by Gábor Képes. 

 Developed with AI assistance using ChatGPT. 

 Released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.