Lunar Lander - (1979) - Arcade - gameplay

Atari © 1979
[Coin-Op] Arcade Video Game
Emulator: MAME 0.215

Another classic from 1979 - the realistic physics-based gameplay has you trying to land the lunar module on various places on a very jagged moon. You get points for soft, smooth landings, and that is multiplied by the difficulty rating (based on the size of the landing pad you're targeting). So, your best score is 50pts x 5 or 250pts. After a successful landing you go back and get to do it again until you run out of fuel points. Even a botched landing (and the explosion of your craft) doesn't mean game over - you just get fuel points deducted as penalty.

It's a really well implemented game, the concept which has been around for years - but this became the definitive version. The amount of play time for a quarter seemed fair too - something that wasn't always true in these early days of gaming. A Lunar Lander unit appears in the 1984 movie 'The Philadelphia Experiment'. One thing, all the internet says there is an Easter Egg - but I've never seen any proof. Landing "near" a special place the guy gets out goes into the McDonald's. I think that's bogus info. My guess is that this probably is some other VERSION - NOT the classic 1979 arcade version. Too complex of an Easter egg for that day & age.