Let’s Go to Mars with Martian Lander

摘要

REMEMBER THAT I SAID "LET'S WRITE ANOTHER GAME" IN MY LAST COLUMN? Well, this is the beginning of a series of articles where I develop a variation on the classic lunar-lander game themed around the planet Mars. To do this in three dimensions can be rather complicated, so in the spirit of the original arcade game (that I became rather obsessed with, I should admit), I'm going to tackle the simplified two-dimensional problem. I also am going to discount terrain issues, although clearly landing on the very edge of one of the mysterious Martian canals would be more tricky than a flat plain in the Schiaparelli crater.