The Bird Sanctuary

Space Shuttle - Memories

Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space was written by Activision employee Steve Kitchen for the Atari VCS2600 in 1983. It was the first game to completely re-program every button on the console. The simulator was designed with the cooperation of NASA, and Steve got to experience first-hand the NASA's own Space Shuttle simulator during the game's development.

Space Shuttle was one of the games that Firebird re-released for the Spectrum and Atari 800 as part of the multi-title budget deal with Activision in 1987.

The 8-bit Atari conversion (converted by Bob Henderson) is particularly impressive, with lots of colour and a cockpit display which shakes all the time, greatly enhancing the atmosphere of the game.

Emergency landing

During the development of the simulator, one of Activision's testers landed the Shuttle using just the smaller engines, which are normally only used for minor adjustments.

Steve Kitchen was puzzled that the simulated shuttle would allow that to happen, so he went back to NASA and asked them to try the same thing on their own simulators. They concurred that it was indeed possible, and so landing the shuttle in an emergency using the smaller engines was added to the actual Space Shuttle's emergency procedures manual!