History VideoGame / MoonbaseAlpha

* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Mostly averted. NASA wanted to provide as realistic a simulation as possible while not forsaking the fun.
** The game also includes the option to turn off sound effects such as welding, robots or buggies (at least on the outside). The sound of player's breathing and stepping remains.

->''"uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"''

-->-- '''Every single player ever'''

->''"uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"''
-->-- '''Every single player ever'''

** The game also includes the option to turn off sound effects such as welding, robots or buggies (at least on the outside). The sound of player's breathing and stepping remains.* GameBreakingBug: Typing "EST PST CST MST EST PST CST MST" in the chat will cause the text-to-speech to become severely glitchy until the game is restarted. At first it causes a series of loud beeping but this can actually cause the server to crash and even players' computers running the game to crash, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSfAPCfRYwA as demonstrated]]. Supposedly (according to a comment on that video), this is because the TTS recognizes abbreviations and replaces them with the full version (as demonstrated in the video, "CA" is interpreted as "California"), but "Eastern Standard Time Pacific Standard Time Central Standard Time Mountain Standard Time Eastern Standard Time Pacific Standard Time Central Standard Time Mountain Standard Time" is significantly longer than what the game expects, leading to a buffer overflow.

* GameBreakingBug: Typing "EST PST CST MST EST PST CST MST" in the chat will cause the text-to-speech to become severely glitchy until the game is restarted. At first it causes a series of loud beeping but this can actually cause the server to crash and even players' computers running the game to crash, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSfAPCfRYwA as demonstrated]]. Supposedly (according to a comment on that video), this is because the TTS recognizes abbreviations and replaces them with the full version (as demonstrated in the video, "CA" is interpreted as "California"), but "Eastern Standard Time Pacific Standard Time Central Standard Time Mountain Standard Time Eastern Standard Time Pacific Standard Time Central Standard Time Mountain Standard Time" is significantly longer than what the game expects, leading to a buffer overflow.

* SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay: Mostly averted. NASA wanted to provide as realistic a simulation as possible while not forsaking the fun.
** The game also includes the option to turn off sound effects such as welding, robots or buggies (at least on the outside). The sound of player's breathing and stepping remains.

There was also an update to the game, allowing for nighttime missions. Things can become... [[SanitySlippage very]] [[SurrealHorror interesting]].

* HarshVocals: Courtesy of the speech synthesizer, which can accept specifications for duration and pitch along with things to say. Players cheerfully use this capability to serenade one another with everything from popular music to the Soviet national anthem.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5BnlrTgOT4 From Spooky Scary Skeletons to the Darth Vader theme.]]

* SanitySlippage: This happens in the night missions, dubbed "Madness Dementia".

* GameBreakingBug: Typing "EST PST CST MST EST PST CST MST" in the chat will cause the text-to-speech to become severely glitchy until the game is restarted.
** Which is at first a series of loud beeping but this can actually cause the server to crash and even players' computers running the game to crash, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSfAPCfRYwA as demonstrated]].

* InherentlyFunnyWords: [[{{Griefer}} Aei]][[MemeticMutation ou.]]
* NoSeatBelts: [[TruthInTelevision Your astronaut's backpack instead clamps into the lunar buggy.]] This somehow allows them to control it.
** Judging by the shape of the suit, it seems that the astronauts clamp onto the command center or buggy and probably slide out the back of the suit.
** This is [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1000/fv00981.htm actually a proposed concept]] as a replacement to an airlock, the astronaut in question clamps the suit on and does indeed slide out through the back of the suit.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moonbase_alpha.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moonbase_alpha.jpg]]

The game can be downloaded from UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} for free, notable for being one of the first free games on Steam that wasn't a GameMod.

[[WMG: This game provides examples of:]]

* SyntheticVoiceActor: Available as an option in the chat window. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv6RbEOlqRo Griefing ensues.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B488z1MmaA Or singing]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moonbase_alpha.jpg]]

** Which is at first a series of loud beeping but this can actually cause the server to crash and even players' computers running the game to crash, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSfAPCfRYwA as demonstrated.]]

* HearingVoices: A symptom of Madness Dementia. For example, you might hear a woman saying that [[BlatantLies she's not crazy, no.]]
* InherentlyFunnyWords: [[{{Griefer}} Aei]][[MemeticMutation ou]].

* QuickTimeEvent: Repairing circuitry in good time requires you to perform a small minigame to bypass unnecessary circuits when welding.

''Moonbase Alpha'', a game developed by the makers of ''AmericasArmy'' and published by NASA, intends to be a simulation of what the normal missions of an astronaut would be in a rather dire futuristic situation and to give people a chance to stomp about on the moon in the boots of an astronaut. Reactions were mixed, although the game does seem to provide its dual purpose of amusement and slight education (or wish fulfillment). The game is also infamous for an option to turn on a Stephen Hawking-esque [[SyntheticVoiceActor voice synthesizer program]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv6RbEOlqRo the abuse of which]] [[MemeticMutation became wildly popular]] ([[WatchItForTheMeme and, unintentionally, the game's biggest attraction]]).

* MemeticMutation: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv5m3oOT3aI Jaaaaaaawn Maahdeeeen.]]