"Flight Control" was one of the first games I ever played on iOS, and one of the inspirations for Auto Traffic Control. I like how engaging the game was, considering it had only a single input and a very simple set of rules.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Control_(video_game)

The other game that influenced the design of ATC is "Sector 33". In this game, players had to do a little bit of math using the speeds and distances of planes to coordinate their approach to an airport.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/Sector33/iOS/index.html

Ideally, I'd like to combine the colorful art style and casual randomness of Flight Control with the simple arithmetic of Sector 33. I want to make it interesting for players to watch their creation play the game, and give them a sense of accomplishment when multiple aircraft land in perfect intervals one after the other.

Here is a little bit more background about the inspiration for the game in case you want to know more: https://www.jdno.dev/auto-traffic-control/

Or Kennedy Approach on the C64: "United three two six, say heading and altitude" "This is United three two six on one eight zero at four thousand feet"...even though I knew damn well what his heading an altitude was.

Some years ago a guy called Weps made a free remake for Windows of Kennedy Approach (identical to the original, with some optional improvements). It’s still fun.

> Weps made a free remake for Windows of Kennedy Approach

There was quite a bit of SEO spam to work through as it seems they let the domain lapse and it was bought up, but this seems to be the general ballpark of when it was live: https://web.archive.org/web/20081223024015/http://www.kenned...

For some reason Wayback didn't hyperlink the actual download, but updating the URL will return it: https://web.archive.org/web/20081224105001/http://www.kenned...

For Oculus owners, there's a really fun VR take on this concept called Control Tower VR. It's not super polished, but the core gameplay loop is fun enough that I don't care. Having a third dimension to route aircraft is really fun, as well as just walking around and watching them.

I will be surprised if AR/VR is not used in real life Traffic Control operations in a few years as spatial computing matures because the problem space is so clearly 3D to begin with.

That game is probably Flight Control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Control_(video_game)