Contemporary music, a wealth of informative background texts and, in particular, accurate research into contemporary history all contribute to this. The Space Program Manager is not so much a trump card for sophisticated features or complex strategy as for its dense game atmosphere. The most exciting phases are those after the start of the countdown, when the player, unconsciously nibbling his fingernails, has to watch to see if everything goes as planned. In the race against the competition, the aim is to find the right moment to launch a rocket into space during the successive missions. Scientific engineers, flight control staff and astronauts have to be hired, assigned to special fields and trained there. At its core, the Space Program Manager is about personnel management. Technically the title consists of only a few game mechanics. Buzz Aldrin not only lends his name to the game, but also personally advised publisher Slitherine on its development. Jwas the biggest day of his life – and also his bitterest: Apollo mission commander Neil Armstrong did not allow himself to be denied the privilege of being the first tourist to set foot on the moon. The scope of the title is complemented by a third campaign featuring a fictional international space agency that focuses on global cooperation rather than competition, and a multiplayer mode.īuzz Aldrin has been the second man on the moon. Which is not so easy, because if we shoot our astronauts into space too early with poor equipment, we literally burn them out. Our job as players: We coordinate either NASA’s US space program or that of the rival Soviet Union and try to be the first nation to bring a man to the moon. The sequel to the classic Race to Space is an entertaining mix of turn-based business strategy and educational software. though I feel bad for whoever ends up having to throw all the dice behind the scenes.Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager takes us into the 1950s and 60s. Now all we need is for a Lift Off! LP to occur so everyone can see the wonderment of a 4 way Space Race. Happy endings for everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the ride while it lasted, and I'm rather amused that it quite literally came out to being neck and neck, what with that incredibly unlikely Direct Ascent success in one try. If you're already in a bad spot, this particular event is basically a game killer.Īdding this one in just because it's funny. Spring of 1971 would have brought this for the Soviets. The USSR victory would've been a little more complete, I think. If someone else wants to grab them and throw them up here for completeness sake, I'd be totally fine with it. Coincidentally, there are also weak victories for both sides for finishing in the 70s, but I honestly don't have the time to spam Lunar Landings for both sides to get them, as I have to leave for work in about an hour as of this initial writing. I like how this version is just needlessly evil and ominous. Anyways, here's the alternate history for you to read over. Apparently if your launch had exploded somehow, the Soviets would've actually done it. I was ready to have to run this like 20 times, but it only took one. Holy shit, I know nobody will actually believe this, but it worked on the very first attempt. Mirror World Spring 1969 Launch (You should really watch this for the cavalcade of failure.) lucky?Īnd there you have it, victory! With less problems than the original lunar landing mission had to boot, I believe.Įven with the Lunar Landing, it ended up being a very close race, with less than 20 points of prestige difference between both sides.īut what could have been, if things had gone a little differently. No Scrubbing won the day in the voting though and this doesn't look like it has any actual effect, so.
Speaking of that, I do take a moment to hire up a third set of cosmonauts.
It's the Moon or bust! No backup is scheduled as I don't have the teams for it. That's how I like my launches to be, stupidly risky.
Backup plan is in full effect, even though it's most likely that if these fail that mission won't be able to be launched anyway. As has been previously stated, it's go time boys.