Moondust (video game)

Moondust
Box art
Publisher(s)	Creative Software
Designer(s)	Jaron Lanier
Platform(s)	Commodore 64
Release date(s)	1983
Genre(s)	Music game, art game
Mode(s)	Single player
Media/distribution	Floppy disk

Screenshot of gameplay.

Moondust is a 1983 generative music video game created for the Commodore 64 by virtual reality pioneer, Jaron Lanier. Moondust was programmed in 6502 assembly^[1] in 1982,^[2] and is widely considered the first art video game.^[3][4]

Summary

Moondust is also considered to be the first interactive music publication,^[5] and it sold quite successfully.^[6] With the profits from Moondust^[7] and additional funding from Marvin Minsky,^[8] Lanier formed VPL which would later go on to create the DataGlove and the DataSuit^[9] and to become one of the primary innovators of virtual-reality research and development throughout the 1980s.

Moondust's gameplay is characterized by graphical complexity,^[10] and the game features an abstract ambient score.^[11] The goal of the game is to guide a spaceman around the screen creating strange patterns and getting bullet-shaped spaceships to pass through the trails that the spaceman creates. The in-game scoring system assigns point-values according to an algorithm. The game has been compared to the works of Jeff Minter.^[12]

Additionally, Moondust has frequently been used as an art installation piece in museums,^[13] and by Lanier and others in papers and lectures as an example to demonstrate the unexpected ephemerality of digital data.^[14][15][16]

References

1. ^ "Brief Biography of Jaron Lanier". Homepage of Jaron Lanier. http://www.jaronlanier.com/general.html. Retrieved 2008-09-11. 
2. ^ Manes, Stephen, Time and Technology Threaten Digital Archives . . .. New York Times - Science. 7 April 1998.
3. ^ Pease, Emma. CSLI Calendar Of Public Events. Stanford Center for the Study of Language and Information. 14 May 1997.
4. ^ Jaron Lanier. KurzweilAI.net entry. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
5. ^ Demarinis, Paul. Review of Jaron Lanier’s Moondust. Computer Music Journal Volume 08, No. 2 (Summer 1984), p. 61
6. ^ Chesher, Chris. Colonizing Virtual Reality - Construction of the Discourse of Virtual Reality, 1984-1992. Cultronix. Volume 1, Number 1. Fall 1994.
7. ^ Burr, Snider. Jaron. Wired. May/June 1993.
8. ^ Virtual reality: spreadsheets for industry - tutorial. RELease 1.0. 8 October 1990.
9. ^ Hamilton, Joan O'C. Going Where No Minds Have Gone Before. 5 October 1992.
10. ^ Burkeman, Oliver. The virtual visionary. The Guardian. 29 December 2001.
11. ^ Silfer, Kyle. Applied Ludology - Art games and game art. Alibi. Volume 16, Number 28. 12-18 July 2007.
12. ^ Moondust . MayhemUK Commodore 64 Archive review. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
13. ^ Amirkhanian, Charles. New Music in the Bay Area. KPFA Folio KPFA FM94, Listener-Sponsored Pacifica Radio program guide. October 1983
14. ^ Neumann, Horst. How Long Will Digitised Data Last?. The Journal of the Launceston Computer Group Inc. Volume 1, Issue 3. April 2005.
15. ^ Van der Reijden, Anna Denise. Authenticity in Internet Art. University of Utrecht masters thesis. August 2008.
16. ^ "Clockthoughts". Homepage of Jaron Lanier. http://www.jaronlanier.com/clockthoughts.html. Retrieved 2008-09-11.