Zarch (1987) Gameplay for BBC Acorn Archimedes High Quality
Phoenix Risen2 HN recommenders · 2016–2020
40K views · demo · evergreen · Uploaded 2012-11-29
Gameplay footage of Zarch, the 1987 3D Defender-like game by David Braben for the Acorn Archimedes. It shows the 256-colour 3D landscape where you stop landers spreading a virus.
HN commenters recall it as a mind-blowing early 3D game that showed what the Archimedes hardware could do.
1:25:348 Bit & '8 Bitish' Graphics-Outside the Box
GDC Festival of Gaming
22:21Reverse emulating the NES to give it SUPER POWERS!
suckerpinch
3:36elevated by Rgba & TBC | 4k intro (FullHD 1080p demoscene demo)
Demoscene High-Quality Videos (Annikras)
1:01:07The Ultimate Game Boy Talk (33c3)
media.ccc.de
31:37How Crash Bandicoot Hacked The Original Playstation | War Stories | Ars Technica
Ars Technica
2:22A Mind Is Born (256 bytes)
lftkryo
53:51The Engoodening of No Man's Sky
Internet Historian
16:18Computer program that learns to play classic NES games
suckerpinch
5 comments from Hacker News
The Archimedes' performance was astonishing at the time. It was amazing to see Zarch [1] in 1987, when games were mainly sprites [2] (with important exceptions like Elite). [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]
One of the benefits of growing up in the UK around that time (late 80's) is that there was a chance your school had an Acorn Archimedes or two and you could have you mind blown with Zarch: [VIDEO]
Got to add Zarch to the list, we had one in the 'computer lab' surrounded by BBC micro's, I only touched on a little of it's potential, but this game was mind blowing! [VIDEO]
> they weren't particularly fast I remember them being amazingly fast. I was comparing them to Amigas in 1987 though. The Motorola 68000 in the Amiga 500 was less than 1.0 dhrystone MIPS, while the Archemedes A3000 was about 4.0. For reference, the machines cost about £499 and £599 respectively in 1987. As a result the frame rate, poly count and screen size in Zarch on the Archemedes was higher than Starglider II on the Amiga :-). Look [VIDEO] , [LINK]
Check out Zarch on the Acorn Archimedes. [VIDEO] It's an awesome 3D game from 1987 (with truly awful sound). That was made 6 years before Second Reality, on a RISC-based computer. It's incredible.