In memory of Margaret Hamilton · 1936–2026

Program alarm 1202.
Your call.

Be the Apollo Guidance Computer. You have 7 core sets, 5 VAC areas and a lunar module full of people. Drop the phantom radar jobs, keep guidance on time, survive the restarts and make the Go/No-Go call that put Eagle on the Moon.

Margaret Hamilton led the MIT team that wrote Apollo's on-board flight software. Her software's priority scheduling and restart design kept the landing going when the computer was overloaded. She died on 30 September 2026, aged 90.

UPLINK ACTY
TEMP
NO ATT
GIMBAL LOCK
STBY
PROG
KEY REL
RESTART
OPR ERR
TRACKER
COMP ACTYPROG
VERBNOUN
Verb 05 Noun 09 shows the alarm codes. This is how a 1202 looks on a DSKY.
Choose a mission

Ten runs through the Executive

Difficulty

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Flight manual

How the Executive works (and how to play)

1 · Requests arrive

Jobs slide along the INCOMING belt. When a job reaches the end, the Executive puts it into a free core set automatically. Some jobs also need a VAC area. Drop the bad ones before they get there: tap ✕ or press 1–6.

2 · Priority wins

The CPU always runs the highest-priority job first. Waitlist tasks and radar cycle-stealing eat part of every second. Jobs that wait still hold their core set, and that is how the sets fill up.

3 · 1202 → restart

No free core set means a 1202; no VAC area means a 1201. The computer restarts, throws away low-priority work and brings guidance back from its phase tables. Press R to restart by hand (it has a cooldown).

4 · Go or No Go

After each alarm, Flight needs an answer. Jack Garman's rule: if it doesn't happen too often, you're fine. Call GO if alarms are spaced out and guidance is healthy. Call NO GO if the computer is drowning.

Job types

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