Well I first came across it as "Lunar Lander" on ICL mainframes in 1974. It wasn't considered new even then.

@Chenmunka In 1974, it would be around 4 years old, I guess?

The only lunar lander game I know of from the right time frame is the one for the GT40, written up in Wikipedia.

An article from 2009 about lunar landers prgram. No, I didn't read taht well. technologizer.com/2009/07/19/lunar-lander

@WalterMitty I'm curious about the provenance of that version which tracked the number of attempts. I vaguely recall that there was another translation of the same English original, likely on a Soviet DEC clone, where "Turn in your spacesuit" was rendered as "Flights are over".

@UncleBod I'm curious about the provenance of the version which tracked the number of attempts. It spawned several translations after being brought to the USSR.

1 - The "Atari Basic" versions are on an Atari site, but that code is from Creative Computing (which I remember) and not specific to Atari; 2 - the crash line I remember (mid-1970s version of LEM Lander on a minicomputer) was "BLOOD, GUTS, TWISTED METAL, YUCK" or something very close to that (it has been a few years...)

@manassehkatz Apparently the mainframe and minicomputer versions had split from the home computer ones (owing to different distribution channels?) and have diverged quite a lot. That makes me even more curious.

There are quite a few variations of the Lunar Lander game. "In Pascal" is an unusual one, as is "tracking attempts" (when do the attempts reset? When the program is restarted?). But with more information one might at least narrow down where this version split off: Can you rotate the craft? Can you adjust parameters, e.g. the moon gravity, or fuel reserve? Did it keep the crater depth calculation for a bad landing? Etc.

I can't help much with the provenance. This may help point in the right direction. There is a Facebook group called Digital Equipment Corporation Alumni. In that group, a lunar lander program was discussed a little while ago. The earliest version mentioned in that discussion was written for PDP-10 Basic, in (allegedly) 1967. For context, PDP-10 Basic was the inspiration for Microsoft's first product, which eventually became Microsoft Basic. Good luck with your archaeology.

One feature may help tracing versions. The version for PDP-10 Basic showed the junk left over from previous failed attempts, unless somebody swept it away.

@dirkt After 6 unsuccessful attempts the program terminates. No rotation ability there, and I've added the dump of all English messages to the question.

This sounds like something I played on an HP-2000 via TTY over a 300-baud (or slower) acoustic coupler in 1977.

@shoover Do you recognize the messages, or the gameplay in general?

It's mostly the snarkiness and the gameplay that sound familiar, but to some extent the messages do too (rate experience, fuel rate, impact velocity).

@shoover Indeed, HP-2000 sounds like a viable candidate! There also was a translated BESM-6 version of Star Trek which looked very much like the original HP-2000 version. Sadly, it hasn't survived.

@shoover HP_2000_Contributed_Library_Rev_1638/Z905/LANDER close, but no cigar. :(

@LeoB. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I recognized several of the games in that library including Mugwump, Hunt the Wumpus, and of course Star Trek. It's missing Oregon Trail, though! We burned through a lot of TTY paper playing that.

@chenmunka Wasn't that on the CTL Modular 1 front end processor for the ICL mainframes? That is the one with the hotdog stand that somehow everyone who played it seemed to crash into. I remember playing that in 1975 and yes, it was old then.

@cup: I don't remember that detail, although the hot dog stand does sound familiar. I just had access to it on a teletype.

The versions in Best of Creative Computing Vol 1 and 2 are more primitive and don't have the same snarky messages (but the Vol 2 ones are remarkably insulting - "Do you want to play again, idiot?).