Electromechanical Lunar Lander | Hacker News Reader

Electromechanical Lunar Lander

chrisfenton.com

80 pointssoopurman22 comments

Reminds me of a toy I had back in the 70's where you attempted to drop bombs into cut-outs in a rotating horizontal disk by looking through an eyepiece with an attached 90deg mirror. The only controls were a lever that moved the mirror side to side and a trigger to release a bomb. It used a wind up spring motor and was entirely mechanical - I played it for hours.

That's awesome sounding - I love how creative people got with mechanical designs before everything went digital.

wow, within 5 minutes of my pretty much identical recollection! (EDIT: that sounds almost accusatory, it's not meant to be)

Do you remember what the game was called?

EDIT: it was called "Chutes Away!"

Loved that game!

Chutes Away Rescue Target Game reminds me of https://xkcd.com/2128/

Holy dual-use technology, Batman!

Yes that is exactly it!

I like how it's supposed to be about rescuing people, but we both remembered it as dropping bombs!

Iain Sharp has built two physical Lunar Lander games, one of which is on permanent exhibition at the Under The Pier Show in Southwold, UK: https://www.underthepier.com

* 2009: https://lushprojects.com/lunarlander/

* 2022: https://lushprojects.com/lunarlandermk2/

He just built an absolutely beautiful mechanical version of Flappy Bird: https://lushprojects.com/appybird/

Unfortunately I can't find any video of it running, but there's a picture here: https://oldbytes.space/@rc2014/112557511719828847

A "sweded" Lunar Lander with a moon that looks like a prop from an elementary school production of The Little Prince.

I love it.

Now, let me gently suggest they put the lander closer to the poles so I can see the distance between the lander and the "moon" more clearly.

Also, put a Go-Pro on the lander and give me a touchdown display.

Seconding adding a camera to the lander. Then have “expert mode” where you play using only the video feed!

This brings to mind a vague memory of a physical game in the 70s where you had a bomber above a rotating plate with landscape drawn on it. With target holes maybe? I'm not sure. You had to drop little heavy bombs, probably with lead in them, and had to try to hit the targets. The bombs may have been magnetic?

Weird game, but in the same vein of mechanical simulation.

EDIT: It was called "Chutes Away". Work blocks access to any board game site so I can't verify whether there's a good article on it...

Cool!

>>Released in 1977 from Gabriel, Chutes Away challenged players ages six and up to save the day as the pilot of a Coast Guard land and sea rescue plane.

The mission was to drop a set of eight plastic parachutists into various scoring cups on a revolving terrain, accumulating points and rescuing survivors along the way. To successfully drop the parachutes on target, players used the game’s built-in reduction-lens viewfinder in concert with an aircraft control lever. The lens-mounted scope provided a quasi-realistic aerial view and players initiated their drops using a Drop switch in the control panel.

The toy’s spring-wound motor allowed the terrain to move without the need for batteries, while an on/off switch controlled gameplay. The air-rescue target game took up a decent amount of table space at 21 ½ x 16 ¼ x 16-inches high.

Chutes Away’s popularity allowed Gabriel to release a Night Rescue version of the game, which added a small search light to the bottom of the plane, allowing children to attempt their daring rescue missions during the day or night.

https://toytales.ca/chutes-away-from-gabriel-1977/

Such a cool idea, the quasi-realistic "bombsight" was so fun :)

> allowing children to attempt their daring rescue missions during the day or night.

Oh wow I wish I had that version.

Maybe in Lego...?

Recommended by Dick Van Dyke himself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gDScZxaZ1k

This was one of my rare projects that was as fun to use as it was to build!

Your blog and various tinkering are inspiring! Thank you for making and writing :)

Another Lunar Lander challenge: Land a 3oz paper bath cup on a paper plate without it or the cup tipping over, in Earth's gravity and atmosphere, multiple times.

Tools/Materials: Cup, Straws, Scissors, Masking tape, Paper plate

Reminded me of an electromechanical lunar docking arcade game (docking the Apollo Command Module to the lander on the way to the Moon). Can't find anything about it on the web, though.

Apollo 14. Here's some play video I shot of it years ago: https://youtu.be/lp9KVdrgi3Q?si=JvghqkITFLdmySKq&t=45 . All electro-mechanical too.

Arcade game play + some ports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plS_BH2ecS0

Video from a camera fixed on the surface of the "moon" would be cool to see here.

Cute. :)

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