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Zarch (1987) Gameplay for BBC Acorn Archimedes High Quality

Phoenix Risen · 39.6K views · 2012-11-29 · 8:59

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

HN commenters recall it as a mind-blowing early 3D game that showed what the Archimedes hardware could do.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2016–2020

Topics

Game history & retro gamingDemoscene & retrocomputing
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zarchacorn archimedesdavid brabenretro gamingarm1987

What people said

onion2k · 2020-11 · Recommendation

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.

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tudorw · 2019-12 · Recommendation

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]

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abainbridge · 2020-07 · Reference

> 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]

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Sources

Video by Phoenix Risen, played through YouTube.

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