The Archive

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LOADSTAR PC CD-ROM boxExhibit A: the PC CD-ROM big box. Photo: @elonmusk on X.

1. The post

On October 2, 2023, Elon Musk posted two photos on X: the box of a 1994 PC CD-ROM game and a page from its manual. He wrote:

"As a summer intern many years ago, I wrote software for video games at a company called Rocket Science. This was long before SpaceX was even conceived. Didn't realize until a friend gave me a copy today that they included me in the credits"

x.com/elonmusk/status/1709019258254958621

2. The box

LOADSTAR: The Legend of Tully Bodine, by Rocket Science Games. The box says "BIG GAME, three CDs included" and "Sci-fi, shoot-to-thrill action adventure!", credits it "By Ron Cobb & Brian Moriarty", and shows a big armored hauler, number J-35661, racing down a lunar rail line with gunships firing at it.

LOADSTAR manual credits pageExhibit B: the credits page. Ground Control is bottom right. Photo: @elonmusk on X.

3. The credits page

The manual's credits page has a section called Ground Control. One of the names in it is Elon Musk.

4. The game

LOADSTAR came out in 1994 for Sega CD, 3DO and PC. It was an FMV-era rail shooter: you play a space trucker hauling cargo along a rail line on the Moon and fending off attackers. Rocket Science Games was a 1990s studio in the San Francisco area. SpaceX was founded in 2002.

5. What we did

We rebuilt LOADSTAR, the game Elon worked on as an intern, into an original version you can play. Every line of code, every pixel, every character and every note is new. It is not the original game, not a port and not a copy. No assets from the original were used. The characters are our own; nobody real appears in the game. We make no claims about what code anyone wrote in that internship.

Sources

Archive photos reproduced as evidence with attribution to the original post. All rights belong to their owners.