Controller

Controller is a video game in the strategy genre developed by Microcomputer Games, Inc. and published by Avalon Hill Game Company, The originally released in 1982. It is currently playable on Atari 8-bit.

Against the backdrop of growing public interest in air traffic Controllers, there was a wave of simulations in the early 1980s. Avalon Hill's slogan of the time, 'You name it, we game it', guaranteed its entry into the genre, while the cover of Controller captures the contemporary glamour of the profession. It is ironic that the same technology that brought air control games like this one into homes soon reduced the difficulty of the job and its attendant glamour.

Controller's radar-green game screen is split between a circular radar sweep and a list of eight planes that intend to land at your airport. The ones you choose to guide start to move away, while the computer takes care of the rest, keeping them in the air as obstacles. The aircraft's heading, speed and altitude are always displayed on the screen, but their precise location and fuel limiting factor can only be viewed one aircraft at a time. Another key detail, the type of each aircraft, is left to your memory or a pad of paper provided. Small propeller planes have forgiving turning radii and good fuel consumption, but their small tanks only allow you a couple of turns. The big birds arrive well fueled, but take a long time to get into an approach vector. By the time an airliner appears on the small scope (the radar sweep can be changed between one hundred and ten miles) it is already lined up or flying.

The requirement for 1000 feet separation between aircraft and the three miles between the center of the sweep and the runway adds difficulty and realism. This means that you can't line up aircraft on a runway and simply assign them a heading opposite their courses: that will lead them to you, not to a safe landing. However, plausibility works in your favor on landing. Have them slow down, drop to a thousand feet and enter the pipe; the rest is up to the pilots, unless you had the bad judgment to land two at once!

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.