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Early 3D gaming graphical showcase thread (Atari ST, Amiga, Acorn Arc32)

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
IBM had a RISC design 6-7 years before Acorn released the Archimedes, but yes Acorn had the first RISC home computer :).
It's interesting - IBM technically had a Risc chip before Risc was even a term with the 801, and that was in early-mid 70ies. But that's kind of cheating since it was a processor without a lot of the features that would define modern CPUs for next 40 years. Design you reference would have been early 80ies - what was that?

On another note - Mips actually has a claim to "first commercial RISC processor available to all companies", with the R2000, which did apparently beat Acorn's first Risc chip to the market. Though I don't think Mips chips made it into consumer devices until the N64 (they were in a lot of workstations though).
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Games released after 1983 with more complexity widened the gap for the Atari computer considerably, but I only mentioned Rainbow Walker was a worse version because it was, I wasn't comparing hardware.

I only made the distinction as "proper" 3d and pseudo-3d screen effects favoured different hardware back in the day. Essentially its the beginning of the split between sprite/playfield and bitmap display specialist systems, with the increase in processing capability over the years obviously favouring the latter.
 

Thanati

Member
As an Amiga fan, I hate to say this, but the Archie (as we used to call the Archimedes back in the UK) was a beast of a machine and was able to do 3D way better.

Some amazing early 3D stuff on it looked incredible (for its time).
 
I only made the distinction as "proper" 3d and pseudo-3d screen effects favoured different hardware back in the day. Essentially its the beginning of the split between sprite/playfield and bitmap display specialist systems, with the increase in processing capability over the years obviously favouring the latter.

I was only helping the guy try to date the earliest third person action game, i wasn't comparing Rainbow Walker to actual 3D (which this thread focuses on).

As an Amiga fan, I hate to say this, but the Archie (as we used to call the Archimedes back in the UK) was a beast of a machine and was able to do 3D way better.

Some amazing early 3D stuff on it looked incredible (for its time).

Everything was better than Amiga at 3D, even Tandy. That architecture was for 2D games and sprites. The other chipsets did almost nothing to remedy the problem either.

I thought Amiga would do good with hybrids, game with Sprites and polygons, there's this one Z-axis space shooter that looks good in stills that I though the Amiga would run well with some polygons on the field and it played like someone was flipping through a presentation.

Found it
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Everything was better than Amiga at 3D, even Tandy.

Sadly true, the bitplane system was good for flexibility but totally a relic of early/mid-80's thinking. A byte-per-pixel layout would have made a huge difference.

That being said, the copperlist hack methods employed by later titles were an ingenious fix, and there were a few decent 3d titles on the platform.
 
Sadly true, the bitplane system was good for flexibility but totally a relic of early/mid-80's thinking. A byte-per-pixel layout would have made a huge difference.

That being said, the copperlist hack methods employed by later titles were an ingenious fix, and there were a few decent 3d titles on the platform.

There are some impressive 3D titles that run playable on the Amiga even during it's life span, although they were slower than the competition developers did find ways to get things working.

No Second Prize is one of the smoothest 3D games on the Amiga period.
 

blastprocessor

The Amiga Brotherhood
F/A 18 Interceptor was a significant moment in gaming for me. First 3D Amiga game l played and it just blew me away with it's sound and graphics for the time. Even though it only had a limited set of missions l really enjoyed the game and the designer made it incredibly accessible. Still remember that Top Gun like theme.

 
Knights of the Sky Atari ST 1991, developed by Microprose, known for their technical skills with computer hardware and arcades.

K1wpFW.gif


Lots of open early 3D games, this one had good draw distance too and multiple camera modes, including below and above.
 
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Notice that this game was released years before Super Mario 64.

It's a cross between a 3D platformer and an adventure game with NPCS and animals moving around with their own routines with polygons mixed with sprites for look that visually ages well imo. Pretty impressive for that old hardware. One of the last complex games for it before games focused on the Risc PC.

There's weather too.

WrWanM.gif


Been meaning to do a full playthrough and uploading it on Youtube.
 
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Fafalada

Fafracer forever
F/A 18 Interceptor was a significant moment in gaming for me. First 3D Amiga game l played and it just blew me away with it's sound and graphics for the time. Even though it only had a limited set of missions l really enjoyed the game and the designer made it incredibly accessible. Still remember that Top Gun like theme.


Flying under Golden Gate was like a thing everyone must have done first in this game :messenger_grinning_sweat:
Fun fact this was developed entirely using Rom routines, so it was infamous as an example of 'badly optimized 3d' on Amiga, but still, an iconic game from that era.

Funniest memory from the game I have though, is the mission where you are under attack by an enemy submarine/carrier ship (Yea take that Helicarrier :p ). It's actually possible to land on the enemy sub (as it has a fully fledged carrier landing strip), and not only that works (systemic programming in the 90ies, yay), you also get 'refuelled and rearmed' after the plane stops - apparently enemy crew is quite the friendly bunch.
I did get shot-up almost immediately after by enemy fighters - the AI in the game was not one to miss a static target - but still.
 
Die Hard, game based off the movie license released in 1989 for DOS, the first third person action adventure game, and TPS game, with a human character. A cool 3D action game ahead of its time.

anFNdps.gif

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Tons of weapons and gadgets, 360 movement, TPS mechanics, beat en up elements, polygonal graphics and sprites in a hybrid formula. Ambitious graphics for the time (on IMB compatibles) and fast gameplay.
 
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Another old 80s home computer 3D game is I of mask for the ZX Spectrum in 1985. Very ambitious game pushing polygons on this incredibly cheap machine. The game is third person where you can move in all direction in the space, and the camera dynamically changes based on the position of the character and what's around them as they move including up to walls. The halls are polygonal as well as the 3D crystals or any other objects that are shown in those free flight areas you attack. Colors change in real-time during gameplay based on what color corridor you enter, which are in shown on the mapping system at the bottom of the screen. Very forward thinking title.

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DANpwxM.gif
 
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SirTerry-T

Member
Another old 80s home computer 3D game is I of mask for the ZX Spectrum in 1985. Very ambitious game pushing polygons on this incredibly cheap machine. The game is third person where you can move in all direction in the space, and the camera dynamically changes based on the position of the character and what's around them as they move including up to walls. The halls are polygonal as well as the 3D crystals or any other objects that are shown in those free flight areas you attack. Colors change in real-time during gameplay based on what color corridor you enter, which are in shown on the mapping system at the bottom of the screen. Very forward thinking title.

Kxoq5r2.gif

Kvreihl.gif

42GoMOU.gif[

DANpwxM.gif
Toby Guard is on record as calling that game one of THE major influences for the original Tomb Raider.
 
Toby Guard is on record as calling that game one of THE major influences for the original Tomb Raider.

Kind of, it had some influence

I ask whether Tomb Raider had been influenced by Pyracurse, which also featured explorers solving puzzles and avoiding traps in a large temple.​


screen2.GIF
"Not at all – everything was contemporary, although there was a game on the Spectrum that actually used the same perspective as TR. Imagine that, a third person perspective game in the mid Eighties."

"No way," PlayStation programmer Paul Douglas exclaims.

"Yeah. It was called, Mask of something. (I Of The Mask was developed in 1985 by Sandy White and Angela Sutherland) Amazing idea, haven't seen it for ages though."​

Camera doesn't work the same but the movement idea is similar.

It was a pretty impressive game, and it came out 11 years before Tomb Raider. Some people got some good use of the ZX processor, many people write the computer off as cheap junk not as capable as other computers because of it's video and graphics. But it's insides are quite strong. Better for polygons ironically than the C64. I don't think C64 could handle this game at that speed and stability, there was a port being made and it was canned because of issues.

Of course for many other types of games the ZX is pretty weak.
 
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Oh yeah the speccy was loads better than the c64 when it came to 3d stuff.

Same with A8, seems to have been an issue with Commodores in general, even the Amiga was mainly a powerful locked hardware 2D sprite machine for the time.

I can't see any c64 game, even without polygons replaced with pseudo 3D, having that kind of control running at that speed. Maybe something like Space Harrier could do a reasonable compromised port but not something like this where you can control where you're going.
 

Futaleufu

Member
Well there's a lot of 3D on the ZX Spectrum line, and even the Z81:
"Perspective 3D Graphics" at Spectrum Computing
But from what I've gathered, many of the speccy ones, like Total Eclipse and its sequel are available on other computers, including the C64.
I'd like someone to explain why and how ZXS is better at 3D than the C64 (or CPC); I do know it is, as it has some sort of a doom clone, but not the details.

The Commodore 64 CPU is a variant of the 6502 running at 1 Mhz. The ZX Spectrum has a Z80 that runs at 3.5 Mhz. The C64 can do some stuff with less cycles than the ZX but the latter one is overall much faster.
 
Well there's a lot of 3D on the ZX Spectrum line, and even the Z81:
"Perspective 3D Graphics" at Spectrum Computing
But from what I've gathered, many of the speccy ones, like Total Eclipse and its sequel are available on other computers, including the C64.
I'd like someone to explain why and how ZXS is better at 3D than the C64 (or CPC); I do know it is, as it has some sort of a doom clone, but not the details.

The thing about I of mask is that it's actually using solid polygons in a 3D space with a dynamically tracking camera.

While there are some in your link, several games on the list aren't using polygons at all, and let alone such a camera that take into account all directional movement.
 
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