Carmack's lunar lander blows up (we feel guilty)
by Christopher Grant 
on Oct 31st 2007 11:50AM
We know we can't blame ourselves. We won't lie: it hurt when id Software's John Carmack seemingly left the gaming scene to dabble in rocket science. Sure, there was
DOOM RPG and
Orcs & Elves, but we knew all along he was capable of so much more. Then along comes Carmack's
QuakeCon '07 keynote and in it, news of
Rage (their first id Tech 5-engine game),
Quake Zero,
Quake Arena for XBLA, another
Wolfenstein game, and the id catalog hopping onto Steam. Yeah, that's a lot to heap onto anyone's plate ... especially an amatuer rocket scientist's Cape Canaveral collector's edition plate.
Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace made an attempt on Sunday to cash in on this year's X Prize Cup by having their Lunar Lander hop from launch and landing pads, simulating a real lunar landing. Unfortunately, even after two successful runs, the craft's engine exploded shortly after ignition on what would be their final attempt. Carmack said, simply, "Today is officially a bad day when it comes to our vehicle." True enough, John. We just hope you didn't feel too distracted by all the wonderful treats brewing at your
other job as a game designer 'cause then, we'd feel really guilty.
[Via
Eurogamer]
