[HN Gopher] Show HN: Moon simulator game, ray-casting
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Show HN: Moon simulator game, ray-casting
Did this a few years ago. Seems apropos. Sources and more here:
https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/Mooncraft2000
Author : JKCalhoun
Score : 92 points
Date : 2026-04-06 17:09 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (mooncraft2000.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (mooncraft2000.com)
| vunderba wrote:
| Very neat. Reminded me a bit of Terminal Velocity from a purely
| visual perspective (even though they used a more standard texture
| mapped 3d engine).
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_Velocity_(video_game)
| rpasquay wrote:
| Nice game! Just having two thrusters fire at the same time sounds
| a bit distorted. Are you generating the engine noise
| procedurally?
| sjdv1982 wrote:
| The README is phenomenal, it really tells the story of how the
| game was built.
| Kim_Bruning wrote:
| Oooh, very neat, it's a voxel map with real elevation data? Yes,
| yes it is. VERY neat.
|
| Simplified physics though. Ever considered a Jebediah Kerman
| edition?
| anotheryou wrote:
| Why can't accelerate to my hearts content?! We're trying to get
| in to orbit here!
| scrumper wrote:
| Hey I really liked this. Reminded me a tiny bit of Lander on the
| Archimedes, Hardwar (underrated!), Wing Commander-y visuals.
|
| The extensions suggest themselves - some progression (financial)
| beyond merely guild hierarchy; some adversarial element (could be
| economical like bidding for routes.)
|
| Only bit I struggled with was the car-like handling when you turn
| left and right; I would expect you to orient using yaw axis and
| then have to use thrust to change your velocity vector. But it
| certainly is simpler the way you have it.
| dTal wrote:
| The "car-like handling" is still physically accurate -
| thrusters automatically align your velocity vector to match
| your view direction. You can think of it as simply an interface
| - view direction is both a command and a display.
| limsight wrote:
| Love this game
| archerx wrote:
| The controls are very awkward on iOS safari. The thrust plus 3
| direction buttons are on the top row and one direction button is
| on the bottom row.
| dTal wrote:
| I love this gorgeous and evocative little time waster and come
| back to it every now and then. Notes:
|
| It starts out buttery smooth but over time its performance slows
| to a crawl. Changing window geometry seems to do some sort of
| garbage collection and it speeds back up. I just hit F11 twice
| real quick.
|
| The optimal strategy is to try and make the trip parabolically
| with a single large burn at liftoff.
|
| Gravity physics is of course symmetrical on ascent and descent,
| so the optimum time to start your deceleration burn is
| approximately when your downward velocity is equal to whatever
| your upward velocity was when you stopped burning.
| Sharlin wrote:
| Very slow on Firefox (both wrt frame rate and actual game speed)
| and gets down to single digits FPS after a while.
|
| But the slow speed and weak acceleration (did you forget that v =
| v + a*dt and not just v = v + a? :)) feels actually nice and
| meditative, if only the FPS were smoother. Tried it on Chrome and
| it's a much more dynamic and fast-paced experience on it.
|
| (Edit: took a look at the README, loved it!)
| aswegs8 wrote:
| Why can I just go 30? Feelsslowman
| yuppiepuppie wrote:
| Awesome to see this on the front page! Ever since you posted it
| on HN Arcade its been one of my top games :) and its also one of
| the most visited!
| ge96 wrote:
| Game is broken with adblock btw (UBO)
| cammasmith wrote:
| Cool game. The sound keeps glitching on and off. Also, maybe I'm
| just dumb, but I couldn't figure out where to go or how to land.
| kqr wrote:
| Took me a while too. Go north for a while and you'll come
| across red lights. Aim for those!
| krferriter wrote:
| When you're at a base it will tell you the directions and
| distances to other nearby bases. You can pick which you want to
| go to, remember what direction it is in, and then fly in that
| direction until it comes up on the minimap. It will show as a
| red/green area on the ground, and you have to land in the
| middle square.
| hiddek wrote:
| love this game. Hardest part is figuring out how to get more fuel
| and where to navigate., Neat little time waster, but enjoyed
| every minute of it.
| ProllyInfamous wrote:
| Copyediting:
|
| Your instructions say that spacebar is "thrust," but the first
| pop-up says "press enter/thrust" to begin _actually should say
| "spacebar"_ ..?
| tantalor wrote:
| Need a VR version of this, please
| MANAS94 wrote:
| Hello
| dooku0721 wrote:
| Love this retro visual, reminds me of early windows days flash
| game
| uniqid wrote:
| This is pretty cool! Almost reminds me of the modern No Man's Sky
| =D
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(page generated 2026-04-09 23:01 UTC)