3 ms·
Give your preferred AI agent internet search powers and look up how Elite managed to cram rather a lot of game into a nominal 64KB on a C64 or 32KB on a BBC mod
by gerdesj 1y ago
Give your preferred AI agent internet search powers and look up how Elite managed to cram rather a lot of game into a nominal 64KB on a C64 or 32KB on a BBC model B.
That's a first person 3D space craft simulation with a very impressive Heads Up Display with vector graphics (unfilled on BBC and C64, filled on PC). It is also a commodity trading game to improve your spaceship etc and with a massive amount of variety in a binary smaller than an empty Word doc. Also: joystick and keyboard drivers and so on.
It's quite a tale.
- antod 1y agoIt sure was. Although my favourite Elite port was the Amiga one. Another one I was amazed by was Tomahawk on the Spectrum. A wireframe helicopter gunship flight sim with live ground campaign happening around you in 48k.
- tdeck 1y agoAlso reminds me of how they fit Pitfall into 4k. A lot simpler game but the platform was also much more limited. This is a great talk for those who love such things: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MBT1OK6VAIU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MBT1OK6VAIU
- aidenn0 1y agoPitfall is one of those technologies that the more you learn about how it works the more you become convinced it's actually impossible. GPS is another one (in particular the signal strength seems far too low).