Month: March 2023

Enlarge / Frostpunk, an alternate history survival city building simulation game. (credit: GOG.com)

Several staff members are big fans of the GOG games marketplace, primarily for two reasons: the games are DRM-free, and there are many classic DOS games from the '80s and '90s.

GOG has been running its annual Spring Sale for a few days now. This time around, we worked with GOG to curate a list of Ars Technica picks. These are discounted games chosen by Ars staffers Samuel Axon and Lee Hutchinson that we think Ars readers might enjoy—assuming you haven't played them already.

If you haven't, discounts during this sale range from 20 percent to as much as 75 or 80 percent. Since most of them are classics, they generally weren't too pricy to begin with.

Enlarge / The Terran 1 rocket sure cleans up nice. (credit: Relativity Space/John Kraus)

Welcome to Edition 5.30 of the Rocket Report! A hearty congratulations this week to both Relativity Space and Innospace, both of which got their debut missions off the launch pad this week. Making that final decision to push the button and go is never easy. As a bonus, the engine shots of Relativity's Terran 1 rocket at liftoff are some of the most beautiful rocket photos I have ever seen.

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.

Relativity Space has a successful failure. The shiny white Terran 1 rocket launched on its third attempt Wednesday night, lifting off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The small, methane-fueled rocket then produced some stunning views as a blueish-green flame powered it toward space against the blackness of night. The first stage, with nine engines, appeared to perform nominally as it rose smoothly through the atmosphere, firing for more than two minutes. Then the rocket's second stage successfully separated, Ars reports.

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If you grew up in America, the early history of home computers in the UK might not be familiar to you. But Great Britain produced innovative personal computers that were as equally successful and influential as their counterparts from Atari, Commodore, and Radio Shack in the United States.

To gain insight into the 1980s British PC landscape, we consulted veteran British game developer Kevin Edwards, who helped us identify the top seven most significant platforms.

Having worked on over 40 games released between 1983 and 2022, Edwards developed titles such as Wolverine for the NES, Ken Griffy Jr. Baseball for the Super Nintendo, and many games in the Lego Star Wars series. In fact, his first game, Atomic Protector, debuted for the BBC Micro 40 years ago.