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by ancientstraits 816 days ago
I looked up what "the sentinel" was, and it turns out it was a game in 1986, that works on the BBC Micro and Commodore 64, and has 3D graphics! I didnt even know it was possible to do that on average computers in 1986!
3 comments

There was no texture mapping, and the 'trick' that makes it work is that all you can do is rotate/pan in place. The only movement is instantaneous teleportation.
It's still an amazing achievement.

The world procedural generation from a seed alone is amazingly well implemented in an environment so constrained most programmers nowadays wouldn't even be able to do anything in.

Leaderboard had a polygonal golf course. The course was flat, but drawn in a 3d perspective with billboard trees.

Stunt car racer had a 3d course and vehicle physics.

Elite had 3d space flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0w1e_kzLDo

Oh c'mon we had a full flight simulator in 128x48 monochrome in 1979!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FS1_Flight_Simulator

True, but the CPU the C64 used (MOS 6502) was introduced in 1975. Also the flight simulator was wireframe while Sentinel was solid 3D.
Wireframe, not full screen polygon-fill like Sentinel.