RIS has been able to take advantage of what's known today to use more historical names. Information about the Soviet lunar program was limited when BARIS was developed, which required some educated guesses at names for some of the Soviet hardware and cosmonauts. Also a few of the names (of rockets, capsules, and spacepeople) have been changed to improve its educational potential, as a historical simulation of the 1960s Space Race. For the most part, the changes should simply make it easier to play, as the game used to have a lot of rough edges. Pressing F2 will show the keyboard commands for that screen also, pressing F1 will activate context-sensitive help for the screen.Īlthough RIS includes a number of improvements over the original BARIS, the look and feel and the gameplay should be mostly the same. The game has many keyboard commands those that activate buttons usually have the corresponding letter displayed in a different color in the relevant button. It is also more costly than going straight from Mercury/Vostok to your final spacecraft.

This can be a helpful strategy, though it's only practical if you are planning to go to the Moon with Apollo/Soyuz or XMS-2/Lapot.

They would then keep Gemini/Voskhod as a backup program, and switch over to it if their primary suffered a catastrophic failure. Early testers recommended the historical path, flying the one-person capsule, then the two, then moving on to the three-person spacecraft for lunar missions. One question to consider is whether to maintain a backup strategy. Conversely, if you happen to receive a newscast just then saying all hardware will be 50% off for a turn, direct ascent and the minishuttles suddenly become very feasible. One rule of thumb is that the latter two are so expensive to prototype and research that they're usually not practical options if your prestige is low when you're ready to choose your approach to the Moon (often, about the time you're flying Orbital missions with Mercury/Vostok), though Lapot isn't too bad in that respect. The simplest way to get to the Moon, but startup costs can be prohibitive. Jupiter/LK-700 (formerly Kvartet) – a four-person direct ascent capsule. Tough to get started, but reusable spacecraft are a boon later in the game. XMS-2/Lapot – a three-person minishuttle. Fairly straightforward, but it can be difficult to afford early on. Voskhod is especially dangerous.Īpollo/Soyuz – the historic approach. Easiest to get started but tricky, and riskier than other approaches.

Gemini/Voskhod – a two-person capsule that requires a one-person lander. There are different paths to victory any of these can be used, and each has its own advantages. This is a strategy game that requires some planning ahead. Those involved in RIS are volunteer enthusiasts, and we hope you enjoy this simulation. RIS is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac, and includes some improvements over the original game-which we feel have justified a rewrite of the manual. Aldrin's name and imagery have been dropped because permission to use them was limited to the old DOS game. BARIS was developed by Fritz Bronner based on his 1989 board game Liftoff!. Race Into Space (RIS) is a port to modern operating systems of Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space (BARIS), a DOS game originally released in 1993 on floppy disk, and a year later in an expanded CD version. The ultimate goal is to be the first to complete a Moon landing and return your people safely to Earth. You will purchase and develop space hardware, recruit and manage astronauts/cosmonauts, and plan and send missions into space. In it, you take charge of your country's space program as Director (US) or Designer (USSR).

This is a simulation of the US-Soviet Space Race. Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space! Rules of Play

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