Horizons Elite Dangerous Horizons meets Zarch

[=Phoenix=]

Anybody else notice how planetary landings is akin to Zarch, that other game also made by David Braben, back in the day for the Acorn Archimedes?
.
Flying across a planetary surface in your ship?
.
You see it yet?
.
+Rep my post if you see it
.
Ok the graphics and planetary surface have come a long way, but I find it ironic that Zarch is hidden away in Elite dangerous, how cool.
.
Wonder if we will be seeing any more of that Zarch gameplay transformed for Elite, in the days to come?
.
Be cool if David could confirm this was in his plan for Elite, or better still is it just coincidence?

 

[Deep Blue]

After watching this:

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9x3I9Szpr8

The only thing looking familiair to me is the ship (Sidewinder). But as it is now, we have no trees, no lakes and no dogfighting on low altitudes. And certainly no pooping ships lol. But I can see some Brabenism in it. I'll rep you.

 

[AlexRyder]

All I remember about Zarch or "Virus" on other platforms was the noise the aliens made and how easy it was to get your angle wrong while thrusting due to mouse sensitivity, accidentally become a missile, and then spread yourself over a wide geographic area...

 

[znôrt]

i played zarch (virus on the atari) a lot, and i always thought elite:dangerous had something of it. not necessarily planet orbiting or landing, though, more about the flight model. they're actually very different, and zarch was more basic and a lot harder, but at some point you really got that same feeling in space.

 

[=Phoenix=]

Can't believe nobody thinks Zarch is embedded in Elite. It's definitely there, do my eyes deceive me?
.
+Rep me if you agree.

 

[wstephenson]

I thought the same thing. It would be nice to have the Virus hoverplane as a ship launched fighter/planetary runabout to explore PoIs using a Wave Scanner.

And of course I would not complain if Frontier added a Virus world where players can cooperate to stop the Sierra's of infection - maybe when the Thargoids return!

 

[=Phoenix=]

Well, I just outfitted a chaff launcher to my corvette and fired it off and I swear it looks just like that ship in zarch. Who'd of thought this game would make a reappearance in a very hidden and subtle way in Elite of 2015/2016!

I am now looking for traces of Snapper...

 

[GG7]

I don't know... Since the major DOWNGRADE in the planetary surface textures in 2.1, I see a lot of similarities in graphics resolution and quality between that 30 year old video game and what passes for ULTRA quality texture maps in 2.1.03!

 

[Koen]

The only thing looking familiair to me is the ship (Sidewinder).

The ship in Zarch is not a Sidewinder: it is a Copperhead, which also existed in the Archimedes version of Elite.

 

[Pville_Piper]

no dogfighting on low altitudes.

Nope, you're wrong. I recently got attacked on the surface after recalling my ship. Even had the Federalies show up. Unfortunately I sent my ship away while being attacked as I was stuck leaving the ship. By the time I recalled it the Feds had finished him off... A warning to all who leave their ship on the surface un-attended.

 

[Koen]

no dogfighting on low altitudes.

Nope, you're wrong. I recently got attacked on the surface after recalling my ship. Even had the Federalies show up. Unfortunately I sent my ship away while being attacked as I was stuck leaving the ship. By the time I recalled it the Feds had finished him off... A warning to all who leave their ship on the surface un-attended.

Look at the date of Deep Blue's post: in 2015 there was no low altitude combat with NPC ships, so he was not wrong when he posted that.