Zarch
1987 · Shooter · Acorn Archimedes
Overview
Zarch (1987) is David Braben's solid-3D shooter for the Acorn Archimedes, in which a mouse-controlled lander stops alien Seeders spreading a virus across the landscape.
Deep Dive
The player flies a lander controlled by the mouse: a downward thruster lifts it, and tilting it moves it across the landscape. Enemy Seeders spread a virus over the ground, and the lander has to shoot them down before it takes over, refuelling at the launchpad and using limited smart missiles and bombs.
Developer Story
David Braben wrote the game as a launch title for the Archimedes, and Superior Software released it in 1987. Firebird published versions for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS and ZX Spectrum as Virus in 1988, and Frontier Developments made Virus 2000 in 1998.
Did You Know?
- It began as Lander, a demo bundled with Archimedes computers.
- ACE gave it 979, its highest score at the time, under the headline "SOLID 3D - the future of games?"
- Amiga Power ranked its port, Virus, fifth on its 1991 list of the best games of all time.
Sources & further reading
- Zarch — Wikipedia
