Month: September 2021

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  $34.99 for Centipede on the Atari 2600 might sound cheap, but that 1983 price is the equivalent of roughly $90 today. [credit: Retro Waste ]

When I was a kid, buying video games was an incredibly stressful process. In the late '80s, I was too young to buy magazines to find out what games deserved my hard-earned pocket-money. So, in an experience all too familiar to many millennial gamers, I used my (poor) intuition to look at the box art to decide what to bring home.

At the time, a console title cost something in the realm of $100 in today's dollars (or over €85-95), which made each game purchase an investment requiring long consideration and thoughtful planning. At that price, every game needed to last weeks, if not months, to justify the investment. Most games achieved this with the good old “Nintendo-hard” philosophy: Brutal challenges make a relative dearth of original content last longer.

In those days, buying a game felt like being given rare access to a magical kingdom, paying a dear price for access behind golden gates instead of trying to catch a glimpse from the outside. Getting a game was an all-too-sacred ritual involving a mystical and intimate relationship with store owners who, on average, were just interested in duping naive children into buying whatever leftover stock the store had lying around.

Enlarge / China may use a modified version of its Long March 5 rocket for lunar missions. (credit: Luo Yunfei/China News Service via Getty Images)

Welcome to Edition 4.14 of the Rocket Report! Lots of drama this week as Astra's launch suffered an engine failure during its most recent spaceflight, Virgin Galactic nearly had to abort its high-profile mission in July, and Firefly got its first Alpha rocket off the launch pad.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Firefly makes first launch attempt. On Thursday, Firefly Aerospace launched its first Alpha rocket just before 7 pm local time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and the initial moments of the flight appeared to be nominal. But then there was a delay in reaching supersonic velocity, and at 2 minutes 31 seconds into flight Alpha exploded. "Alpha experienced an anomaly during first-stage ascent that resulted in the loss of the vehicle. As we gather more information, additional details will be provided," the company said Thursday night.