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"How I Found A 55 Year Old Bug In The First Lunar Lander Game" by Martin C. Martin (martincmartin.com)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by paul0207@lemmy.sdf.org to c/science@mander.xyz

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"I recently explored the optimal fuel burn schedule to land as gently as possible and with maximum remaining fuel. Surprisingly, the theoretical best strategy didn’t work. The game falsely thinks the lander doesn’t touch down on the surface when in fact it does. Digging in, I was amazed by the sophisticated physics and numerical computing in the game. Eventually I found a bug: a missing “divide by two” that had seemingly gone unnoticed for nearly 55 years."

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[–] Mbourgon@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Thanks for sharing! Indeed, impressive work on the original game.

[–] lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 months ago

This is sa very cool. Kudos to OP for doing such a deep dive. I still play lunar lander from time to time. Its brutal but fun