is there a similar-to-KSP game in the early days of computers?

[Draconiator]

I was wondering this ever since I found something in the Internet Archive very similar to Minecraft from waaaaay back in 1989:

https://archive.org/details/msdos_VGA_Miner_1989 and you can even play it in your browser.  If there is I haven't found it yet...

[cantab]

There have been many space games with realistic physics, including the grand daddy of them all, Spacewar! But I believe KSP is the first game to combine realistic spaceflight physics with build-your-own-vehicle gameplay.

[katateochi]

OK it's nothing like KSP, but anyone remember Lunar Lander on Windows 3.1?

I've been training for Mun landings for a long time!

[Accelerando]

I don't know of games prior to the 2000s that allowed you to build your own space vehicles from scratch much - but Frontier: Elite 2 (same Elite as E:Dangerous) for the Amiga was relatively realistic in its spaceflight and combat model, to my knowledge. Km/s relative speeds, orbital mechanics, time-warp features, and the like.

[Nuke]

11 hours ago, Accelerando said:

I don't know of games prior to the 2000s that allowed you to build your own space vehicles from scratch much - but Frontier: Elite 2 (same Elite as E:Dangerous) for the Amiga was relatively realistic in its spaceflight and combat model, to my knowledge. Km/s relative speeds, orbital mechanics, time-warp features, and the like.

its good if you want a torchship simulator.

12 hours ago, katateochi said:

OK it's nothing like KSP, but anyone remember Lunar Lander on Windows 3.1?

I've been training for Mun landings for a long time!

that game is a lot older than windows 3.1. i remember playing on an apple2 or something ancient.

[cantab]

Wiki has the 1973 DEC version as the earliest with graphics, and mentions that

"Sophisticated players could achieve a landing on the mountain while cheaters learned the address of the word of memory in which the fuel value was stored.

Later versions offered the ability to launch the game from RT-11 and added an Easter egg: a specific landing site offered a McDonald's restaurant."

Deliberately going for the tricky landing, using infinite fuel, in-game Easter eggs - not much changes does it.

The best known Lunar Lander is probably the Atari arcade version from 1979.