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''Zarch'' (also known under its ported name of ''Virus'') is a computer game written by David Braben (better known as the co-author of ''Elite'') in three months in 1987, for the release of the Acorn Archimedes computer. ''Zarch'' started off as a demo called ''Lander'' which was bundled with almost all releases of the Acorn Archimedes.▼
▲'''''Zarch''''' (also known under its ported name of '''''Virus''''') is a computer game written by David Braben (better known as the co-author of ''Elite'') in three months in 1987, for the release of the Acorn Archimedes computer. ''Zarch'' started off as a demo called ''Lander'' which was bundled with almost all releases of the Acorn Archimedes.
''Zarch'' was released as Virus and in 1988 ported to the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga (coded by Jez San and his Argonaut team), and IBM PC (coded by Chris Sawyer). It was later ported to the ZX Spectrum by Steven Dunn - an impressive feat considering the inferior processing power and poor graphics of the Spectrum when compared to the Archimedes, Amiga, Atari ST and PC. A few clones/games based on ''Zarch'' have also been created fairly recently, namely a version for Linux, also called ''Zarch'', a remake for Windows (written in Blitz BASIC) called ''Z-Virus'', and a version crossing ''Zarch'' with ''Pac-Man'' called ''ZarchMan''.▼
▲''Zarch'' was
The game was groundbreaking for the time, featuring a three-dimensional mouse-controlled craft (the "lander") flying over a tile-rendered landscape that dazzled reviewers in a primarily 2D-dominated game industry - ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) magazine led with the headline "SOLID 3D - the future of games?" when it reviewed ''Zarch'' with a score of 979, the highest rating ACE had given at that time, only bettered by the later Amiga port ''Virus'' at 981.
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''Virus'' was one of the first solid 3D games and was also the first to have 3D lighting effects and shadowing, although these are less sophisticated than those of ''Zarch''.
The plot of the game is reminiscent of the arcade game ''Defender'', in that the player, piloting a lone craft with limited firepower, must defend a finite landscape against ever
The seeder vessels scatter red virus particles across the landscape. As they land, they turn the green landscape to brown and red, and cause the trees to mutate. Some flying enemies shoot the mutated trees, to cause themselves to become much more aggressive and dangerous. To clear each attack wave, the player must destroy all enemy vessels.
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Not to be confused with Nintendo's ''Virus'', which was renamed to ''[[Dr. Mario]]'' shortly before release.
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* [[Have a Nice Death]]: ''Zarch'', a notoriously difficult game, can actually award the player negative scores. If you die while your score is still negative, you might end up unfavorably compared to a slug or a dried up piece of lichen.
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[[Category:Needs Wiki Magic Love]]▼
[[Category:Virus]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
[[Category:Pages Needing an Entry Pimp]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
[[Category:Atari ST]]
[[Category:Amiga]]
[[Category:DOS]]
[[Category:ZX Spectrum]]
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