City 17, the location of Half Life 2, represents one of the most immersive digital city architectures currently available – see our Architecture of City 17 Movie for more info. The designer of City 17, Viktor Antonov, is now involved in the forthcoming release ‘The Crossing’. The movie below illustrates the first preview of Antonov’s take on the digital city:
In todays digital world architects are the designers of the latest gaming environments. Some may sit in wonder at real world architects and their latest buildings, yet in the real world architects are limited to single landmarks or skysrapers. In the digital domain architects can build cities…The Crossing will be interesting to explore.
Ant Attack, released on the ZX Spectrum in 1983 by Quicksilva, represents the first digital three dimensional city we can recall exploring. Created by Sandy White, the game centred around the walled city Antescher depicted using a ‘softsolid 3d’ algorithm which allowed the city to be viewed from a switchable isometric perspective.
Ant Attack predates the innovational Knight Lore, created by Ultimate Play the Game, by over a year making the use of such visualisation techniques noteworthy. Indeed ‘Crash’ magazine, in a review of Ant Attack, described it as ‘containing the most breathtaking 3D graphics yet seen on the Spectrum’.
The prefix of the game was simple – to find and save your boy/girlfriend who was lost in a city patrolled by giant ants. The movie below illustrates the game, firstly we find our girlfriend and then before saving her we take a look around the city:
In the days of the ZX spectrum it wasn’t possible to gain an overview of the city but a series of landmark structures often provided a guide to its layout and relative location. Today it is of course possible to view the city in its entirety as the image below demonstrates:
In a future post of the Cities in Games series we will take a look further look into the ZX Spectrum and games such as Knightlore, Fairlight and Gunfright.
Ant Attack, released on the ZX Spectrum in 1983 by Quicksilva, represents the first digital three dimensional city we can recall exploring. Created by Sandy White, the game centred around the walled city Antescher depicted using a ‘softsolid 3d’ algorithm which allowed the city to be viewed from a switchable isometric perspective.
Ant Attack predates the innovational Knight Lore, created by Ultimate Play the Game, by over a year making the use of such visualisation techniques noteworthy. Indeed ‘Crash’ magazine, in a review of Ant Attack, described it as ‘containing the most breathtaking 3D graphics yet seen on the Spectrum’.
The prefix of the game was simple – to find and save your boy/girlfriend who was lost in a city patrolled by giant ants. The movie below illustrates the game, firstly we find our girlfriend and then before saving her we take a look around the city:
In the days of the ZX spectrum it wasn’t possible to gain an overview of the city but a series of landmark structures often provided a guide to its layout and relative location. Today it is of course possible to view the city in its entirety as the image below demonstrates:
In a future post of the Cities in Games series we will take a look further look into the ZX Spectrum and games such as Knightlore, Fairlight and Gunfright.
In terms of Google searches the words city and future often come up on our list. While such searches often bring up interesting insights into the way digital technology and the city are developing, they can also provide a unique insight into urban areas ‘as is’. Take a look at the ‘Birmingham City of the Future Video’:
Partly true, part spoof, it made us smile but also sit back and realise that it represents what Birmingham, and indeed to a lot of our inner cities, are like…(?)
The film was made by Birmingham medical students for the Comedy Revue 2006, uploaded to YouTube by Matthew Doyle.
