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Comment by davrosthedalek | Hacker News Reader

I just say mars.com (no, not a domain. A program. A video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zSjpIyMt0k)

Edit: Pouet has it: https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=4662

Also found a JavaScript implementation of this demo. Thanks for sharing it! http://web.archive.org/web/20140107070635/http://ppl-pilot.c...

Blast from the past... by the time this made its way to me circa 1998 it was embedded in a Microsoft Word file and controlled by mouse. I thought it was cool but was disappointed that it wasn't a full-fledged game because I was a child that had no awareness of demoscene or programming. In retrospect I've always thought this was just some chintzy DirectX demo that made the rounds via e-mail - I had no idea it was a real thing.

and to be clear mars.com ran /smoothly/ on an 8Mhz 286.

The readme says, "If you have a 386 or better with VGA graphics, run mars and use the mouse to move around the landscape." Are you sure it will run on a 286?

Yes. It was 16bit code. I ran it on my 8mhz 286, it ran smoothly. On a 386 like my AMD 386/DX-40mhz it ran smoother than butter, with a 486/66 is was essentially too fast.

Wow! I appreciate the report. I never saw anything like this on my 286, but I didn't have a VGA on it either.

It was amazing to see back in the day. Unfortunately it kind of ruins you for the rest of time knowing what can be.

Interesting, I wonder how.

https://pastebin.com/RuVsnCyq

Here's the author describing how it was done. Note the 64K data sizes. So they fit into one 16bit segment.

If I'm understanding this correctly, in 01993, Tim Clarke independently reinvented the painter's-algorithm variant of the VoxelSpace algorithm used in Comanche the year before.

This is fantastic, thanks!

Ouch. I remember running it on my 286 and being blasted. And also disappointed because Wing Commander 3 wouldn't run on the same machine.

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