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Mac-Challenger

This space shuttle landing simulation had truly unfortunate timing, being released just before its namesake exploded in the worst disaster in the history of the space program. After the tragedy, some of the game's proceeds were directed to a fund for the astronauts' children, and a sticker to that effect added to the cover.

MacChallenger was a joy to develop. William Volk poured himself into the project, as he did with anything he was attached to. Bill was - and is, one of those people who is, "in it to win it." The obstacles of the time relative to rendering, screen refresh, memory, etc. were all issues that Bill wanted to beat. The packaging and marketing was similarly pursued. John Skeel, who was involved in the content, focused on the fact that our team believed this sim was going to be different than any other that was in the market. And, unlike any other flight sim, this was based on making decisions - and so the wording evolved. I worked with NASA photographs and support to create the packaging. And the best drama related to a shuttle launch is lift-off. The development, timing, and cohesion of the team was an effort I'll not forget. More importantly, I will never forget all of us standing in our office, watching the television, listening to the narrative, as Challenger fell into the sea off Florida. The game had been out for only a month, and initial reviews were very positive. Mr. Skeel, really terrific at taking difficult situations and making them workable, dove into the process of reworking the packaging. Michelle Mehterian had a lot of work to do relative to explaining the game (after the tragedy), but was successful in getting additional strong reviews. It was temporarily successful, but ultimately, perhaps a bit too much for the time. If the game had been developed a year later, we might have been able to rename it for a different shuttle, but by then, we were heavily into other games, computer-based CAD, and animation and paint software development.

  — David Barrett, former CEO of Aegis Development, Inc.

Compatibility
Architecture: 68k

Needs a Macintosh Classic sized screen (512 x 342 pixels).

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