Back in the 70s, 3D graphics were far still in the future. We wrote flight sim programs that were essentially night flying. There were instruments in ASCII graphics with attitude, altitude, heading, VOR beacon, etc. Other favorites were Lunar lander and docking in orbit.
Docking in orbit is tricky, because thrusting toward the docking station moves you further away! To explain, suppose you are behind the dock in orbit, thrusting toward the dock increases your orbital velocity, moving you to a higher orbit, which being larger, causes you to fall behind, moving farther away. Similarly, if you are ahead of the dock in orbit, thrusting toward the dock decreases orbital velocity,dropping you to a lower orbit, which being smaller, cause you to surge ahead, moving farther away from the dock.
Back in the 70s, 3D graphics were far still in the future. We wrote flight sim programs that were essentially night flying. There were instruments in ASCII graphics with attitude, altitude, heading, VOR beacon, etc. Other favorites were Lunar lander and docking in orbit.
Docking in orbit is tricky, because thrusting toward the docking station moves you further away! To explain, suppose you are behind the dock in orbit, thrusting toward the dock increases your orbital velocity, moving you to a higher orbit, which being larger, causes you to fall behind, moving farther away. Similarly, if you are ahead of the dock in orbit, thrusting toward the dock decreases orbital velocity,dropping you to a lower orbit, which being smaller, cause you to surge ahead, moving farther away from the dock.