Moonlander
Getting a new Vectrex homebrew is always a treat, especially the ones that are just as, if not even BETTER, than the original GCE-released games from back in the heyday.  Hell, I’ve yet to play a bad homebrew m’self, and Moon Lander is no exception, especially since it blows away it’s inspiration of the Atari vector coin-op of Lunar Lander.  No, this isn’t an old memory playing me false - I last played it less than three years ago (at the time of this writing) at a gaming expo - so, trust me, this game has a better variety and challenge, rather than landing on the same three spots over and over again.

The game is a real treat from the beginning of seeing one of the best homebrew box covers yet to the digitized voice countdown during the demo, along with cool Russian-sounding music to the cinematics (and taking advantage of the Vectrex’s excellent fading capabilities) of your ship blasting off from a successful landing and having the landscape fade away.

The premise is  simple: try to land your...uh, lander on the moon without running out of fuel or crashing it. This is more difficult than it probably sounds here, since your lander dips a little below the landscape before actually landing.  So chances are you’re going to blow yourself up quite a few times until you get the hang of it.

Rather than in Lunar Lander, with every successful landing, you’re treated to a new landscape on Moon Lander, some of which has tricky navigation in order to land.  Gravity pulls also vary from planet to planet, requiring new strategies then, along with - reverse gravity - (you’re pulled UP towards the atmosphere, rather than *down*), and then freakin’ satellites are also a problem, since colliding with them means death, and then KILLER satellites make a beeline for you as well; argh!

And of course, just like with the original, you’re constantly running out of fuel...granted, you’ll get a full fuel tank with each new moon, but it kind of makes you wonder why this is constantly happening in the wonderful future where space travel is obviously well underway.  Perhaps car companies that make the gas-guzzling SUVs nowadays make these landers, or Microsoft continued it’s hugely gigantic growth to the point of making spaceships, which you have to constantly land to upgrade your ship, or else it’ll constantly crash (heh; geddit?).

There’s not many sounds in this game, and they’re not bad, but several musical interludes make up for them. The graphics are ok, but the controls are perfect, and the game also has a welcome pause feature as well. About the only thing that I don’t like about it is that, at times, you might feel the need to shoot the hell out of something to change the pace and game objective, but that won’t happen.  There’s also 32 levels in this game (if I remember correctly), which chances are most of us aren’t going to get that far (the highest I’ve ever gotten to is about half that number, if even that far!).  There are cheats to allow you to beat the game though, if you can’t do it on your own.

Well THAT, plus this is the only game Clay Cowgill has made at the time of this writing, which, if his games are going to be this stellar, it’s too bad he doesn’t have more time on his hands to make any more (probably due to his business of Ground Kontrol, a mostly classics arcade, is open until 1 a. m. [!], even on weekdays!).  And that’s a shame. 

Until then, you can snag this from Mark Shaker at www.vectrexcarts.com for the mere steal of only $10 U.S. (plus shipping).  It’s worth the journey, and you won’t have to stock up on Tang and dried meal packets in order to enjoy it. 

Score: 8/10

Review written by Darryl