In order to achieve a stable orbit and win the game, you need speed as well as height. If you shoot a rocket straight up, it will fall straight back down. Only when the rocket has enough forward speed and the required altitude, will the rocket remain in orbit. The trick is to have the speed, not just get as high as you can.
You can operate the rocket using the following keys:
"Left and Right" Arrow Keys will turn the rocket.
"Space" will fire the current stages engines.
"B" will separate a stage.
"A" will abort the mission. ( self destruct )
"S" will restart the mission from launch.
"Z" will return to the main menu.
This game is done entirely in XHTML and Javascript using the new HTML 5 Canvas and Audio Elements. There is no flash or other pluggins used, which is the advantage of HTML 5.
However you need an up to date browser, such as Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Safari or Opera. Safari in windows requires the quicktime player for the game audio to work properly.
You may have some issues if you have less than 1GB of system memory on your computer.
This game is still in development, so expect the odd crash or freeze or strange behavior.
My focus is more on all the essential elements of the game and less so on the finesse and optimization. Once its all basically working as intended, there will be improved speed, graphics and sound.
Updates
Update: September 19, 2012 Fixed the bug in the ending which sometimes occured when your trajectory is too vertical.
Update: June 17, 2012 The sound will now work in Internet Explorer 9 and above. The game will not play in Internet Explorer 8 or lower, because neither the Canvas Element or Audio Element were supported in those versions. Still the odd glitch which will come out when I clean up all the code, now that the sound works in the most used browsers. I still want some smoke and a better ending, and a parachute would be super.
Update: June 14, 2012 Fixed the possible endings to the game, if you escape Earth's gravity your not coming back. Added some colors to the speed indicators to give you an idea how your doing. Both speeds should hit green right before you stage, if your on the right trajectory.
Update: June 12, 2012 Sound should work in nearly all browsers now. Safari in windows requires the quicktime plugin for sound. Improved the sound manager further. Added back in a few sounds and fixed most of the audio errors. Made the program just keep playing if audio errors are encountered. Still need to code in mp3 fallback for IE 9.
Update: March 12, 2012 Added the crater graphic and fixed the staging physics so its more realistic. Fixed some other minor bugs. Still some audio glitches and a position change when you stage at a high angle. This is the issue when using the new Audio element in HTML 5. Currently, there are 3 supported file formats for the audio element: MP3, Wav, and Ogg, which each browser provides different support for:
| Browser | MP3 | Wav | Ogg |
| Internet Explorer 9 | YES | NO | NO |
| Firefox 4.0 | NO | YES | YES |
| Google Chrome 6 | YES | YES | YES |
| Apple Safari 5 | YES | YES | NO |
| Opera 10.6 | NO | YES | YES |
Update: March 10, 2012 Tested the game on a faster computer and it plays ok now. Sound still absent in IE 9( IE 9 does not support wav which is the current format being used ). Optimized the code a bunch so it should run smoother and more efficiently. Added some better collision detection and explosions for each stage. Working on the staging, a crater when you hit the ground, and changing the launch button to fire each stage, instead of just the space key.
Update: March 5, 2012 Tried the game on a faster computer, and it played too fast to actually win. So I slowed down the framerate a bunch. If you couldn't seem to make orbit, try again, I gave a bit more fuel, and made the steering a little less difficult. The sound doesn't seem to be working properly in IE 9 anymore, will get back to that later. Works best still in Opera.
Update: Feb 29, 2012 Added the basic staging, an abort, some graphics and buttons. "B" key to separate a stage and "Space" key to fire the stage. You can now achieve a stable orbit and win the game, if your altitude is over 220 km and your horizontal speed is over 13,000 km/h.
Update: Feb 26, 2012 Added the base Saturn 5 image and the simulation is set for the first stage only. The steering was fixed to be more realistic. Launching a rocket is a balancing act. I wrote a new sound manager so the audio should behave better now.There is the possibility of smoke and some cool enhancements.
- gravity decreases with each stage, so try to get as much vertical speed with the first stage.
- switching stages at the optimum time is critical, you will loose too much speed to enter orbit if you separate too slowly or too early.
- the second stage has the most powerful thrust to mass, so get most of your speed and altitude with the second stage.
- there is no wind effect on the third stage above 160km in the game, so the last stage can be used to make any last minute corrections.
- try for 1000 km/h vertical speed and 2000 km/h horizontal speed with the first stage.
- try for at least 125km and 10,000 km/h with the second stage, and you should start getting close to orbit with the third stage.
- get your speed up to 13100 km/h with the third stage and then use your remaining fuel for altitude.
Many test pilots were lost to discover this information.
If you would like to get involved in the development of The Right Stuff or make any recommendations or comments, please send me an email. Link is on the contact page.
For those interested you can download a stand alone version of the source code here:
