Atari XL/XE - Rescue on Fractalus [Lucasfilm Games] 1985
Why Hacker News recommends it
Shown as a historic example of fractal terrain rendering in games, in threads about voxel and terrain rendering.
What it is
Intro and gameplay footage of Rescue on Fractalus, the 1985 Lucasfilm Games title for Atari XL/XE, programmed by Loren Carpenter and David Fox. It shows the game's fractal-generated mountain terrain.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2011 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites danieldk · 2011-04 · on “Ace of spades, Minecraft like FPS ”
I fondly remember NovaLogic's Comanche series. While it isn't of the 'world building' genre, its voxel engine was very impressive for its time: [LINK] Also interesting (historically) is 'Rescue on Fractalus'. Not just for its cheesy name, but also due to its reliance on fractals to draw 3D mountain sceneries: [LINK] ! Edit: videos of both games: [LINK] [this video]
Cites keithnz · 2021-04 · on “Vector Games 32c3”
one of my favourite vector games on my Atari 800XL was Mercenary. It was this open world type game, felt amazing at the time. [LINK] it wasn't that graphics was the best (compared to something like rescuse on fractalus [this video] ), it was just a big vector world with quite a lot of places to explore.
Cites karmakaze · 2025-01 · on “VoxelSpace: Terrain rendering algorithm in less than 20 lines of code (2020)”
I remember Commanche and how it reminded me of being wowed by "Rescue on Fractalus"[0] (aka Behind Jaggi Lines pre-release) procedural generation on the 8-bit Atari. [0] [this video] (landing on planet is at 1:00)