Carl Sagan’s birthday would have been today. The astronomer is known for many things, but video games? Not really! But he gave the medium some thought, especially when it came to one of his most famous novels, Contact.
The Library of Congress has a bunch of Sagan’s personal documents, including one where he outlines some ideas for a video game version of Contact.
In Sagan’s mind, as shown in a letter from August 1983, the biggest question was “how to design a home video game which would teach a great deal of astronomy in a context as exciting as most violent video games.”
More than 30 years later, I’m not sure we’ve solved that one just yet, Mr. Sagan. Maybe next year’s No Man’s Sky will get us a step closer?
You can read the whole memo below.
You can reach the author of this post at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @patrickklepek.